Project Update for Fall, 2010

The Working Group on Union Democracy Reexamined completed work on a multi-year effort stemming from a  $300,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to undertake a longitudinal survey of changes in ILWU member preferences and beliefs over time. The project was completed in part by an additional $50,000 from the NSF for the project as a whole and $10,000 from the NSF to support undergraduate research on ILWU work stoppages over the history of the union.

Levi, Ahlquist and Clayton are using the collected survey data to write an article on ILWU attitudes towards US trade policy. The paper is entitled “Unionization and Workers' Attitudes toward International Trade: the ILWU puzzle”. Ahlquist and Clayton will present this paper at the International Political Economy Society Conference in Madison, Wisconsin in November of this year.
 
In September, Levi, Ahlquist and Clayton participated in a panel entitled “Labor Rights and Labor History in the Pacific Northwest” at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Seattle. In the panel, chaired by David Olson, Levi and Ahlquist presented a chapter on their upcoming book, Constructing Communities of Fate, and Clayton presented a version of her Master’s thesis, “ ‘A World Apart’ – Union Member Residence Patterns and Political Preferences”.  

The working group is composed of Professors Margaret Levi and David Olson, HBCLS Visiting Committee members Joe Wenzl, Gene Vrana, and Ron Magden, former team member Jon Agnone (now with Northwest Social Research Group) and graduate student Amanda Clayton. We have enjoyed the support of the officers, education committees and pensioners of Locals 13, 23 and 19. We have received unprecedented access to union archives at the local and international level and to rarely analyzed data on union electoral participation. We have given papers at conferences, run our own conference featuring a important international scholars, and worked with the ILWU education department and local committees to provide aimed younger members with information about their union's history and democratic practices.

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Unions Reexamined Project Faculty Members

  • Margaret Levi - Professor (PI), Political Science
  • David Olson - Professor Emeritus, Political Science
  • John Ahlquist- Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Wisconsin

Unions Reexamined Project Graduate Student Members

  • Amanda Clayton - Political Science
  • Jon Agnone - Sociology
  • Rebecca Szper - Political Science
  • Devin Kelly - Sociology

Unions Reexamined Project Undergraduate Team Members

  • Byron Haworth - Undergraduate Research Assistant, Political Science
  • Christopher Croke - University of Sydney
  • Cheryl Ream - Political Science
  • Alex Aldea - Political Science
  • Max Frieda - Political Science
  • Tyler Jones- Political Science
  • Carrie Sachse - Political Science
  • Lila Zucker - Sociology
  • George Robertson - History
  • Igor Voloshin - Political Science
  • Morgen Myrdal - Political Science
  • Nowell Bamberger - Political Science
  • Randy Eng - Political Science
  • Adam Goodwin - Political Science
  • Natalie Quist - Political Science
  • Elizabeth Zamorra - Political Science
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