The Big Rig (eBook)

Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream

Steve Viscelli (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016
288 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-96271-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Long-haul trucks have been described as sweatshops on wheels. The typical long-haul trucker works the equivalent of two full-time jobs, often for little more than minimum wage. But it wasn’t always this way. Trucking used to be one of the best working-class jobs in the United States.  

The Big Rig explains how this massive degradation in the quality of work has occurred, and how companies achieve a compliant and dedicated workforce despite it. Drawing on more than 100 in-depth interviews and years of extensive observation, including six months training and working as a long-haul trucker, Viscelli explains in detail how labor is recruited, trained, and used in the industry. He then shows how inexperienced workers are convinced to lease a truck and to work as independent contractors. He explains how deregulation and collective action by employers transformed trucking’s labor markets--once dominated by the largest and most powerful union in US history--into an important example of the costs of contemporary labor markets for workers and the general public.

Inhalt

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction. Where Did All These Bad Jobs Come From? 

1. The CDL Mill: Training the Professional Steering-Wheel Holder
2. Cheap Freight, Cheap Drivers: Work as a Long-Haul Trucker
3. The Big Rig: Running the Contractor Confidence Game
4. Working for the Truck: The Harsh Reality of Contracting
5. Someone to Turn To: Managing Contractors from an Arm’s Length Away
6. “No More Jimmy Hoff as”: Desperate Drivers and Divided Labor

Appendix A. Data and Methods
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.4.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Mikrosoziologie
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Makroökonomie
• Schlagworte: CDL • cdl truckers • contemporary labor markets and long haul trucking • deregulation of trucking industry • driving a big rig • exploitive labor of the working class • freight drivers • history of trucking industry • Labor • long haul trucking • organized trucking • over the road trucking • owner operator trucking • semi drivers • Trucking • trucking industry • trucking labor markets • union truck drivers • working class discourse • working class history
• ISBN-10: 0-520-96271-0 / 0520962710
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-96271-2 / 9780520962712