In 1990, Hartford, Connecticut, ranked as the eighth poorest city in the country by the census; public services were strained; the real estate market was severely depressed, downtown insurance companies were laying off; and retail department stores were closing. Hartford's problems are typical of those experienced in numerous U.S. cities affected by a lingering recession.
The harsh economic times felt throughout the city's workplaces and neighborhoods precipitated the formation of grassroots alliances between labor and community organizations. Their work has national implications for the development of alternative strategies for stimulating economic recovery.
Louise B. Simmons offers an insider's view of these coalitions, focusing on three activist unions--the New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees, and the United Auto Workers--community groups such as HART, ONE-CHANE, and AHOP--and People for Change, the progressive third party that elected activists to the City Council. Her in-depth analysis illustrates these groups' successes and difficulties in working together toward a new vision of urban politics.
Louise B. Simmons is Director of the University of Connecticut Urban Semester Program and a former Hartford City Councilperson elected on the People For Change ticket.
Organizing in Hard Times
is available in local bookstores
Temple University Press
ISBN 1-56639-155-5 cloth
ISBN 1-56639-156-5 paper
