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A review by 11corvus11
On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women's Epic Fight to Build a Union by Daisy Pitkin
4.0
I got this from goodreads giveaways a while ago and finally got around to reading it.
This was an interesting and important case study about workers hidden from view in the medical world. I have often thought of them as well as other forms of dangerous medical labor such as facilities cleaners in all my time in hospitals. I did not know however just how dangerous these jobs were. Stories in this book included everything from serious burns to the reusing of already inefficient gloves that do not protect workers from needle sticks, constantly exposing them to disease. These people are handling the most dangerous of bodily fluids en masse with no real protection, abysmal pay, and regular mistreatment by bosses. Even worse, there is another much safer way than "soil sort" work , but it requires more machine maintenance and money, so companies instead choose to harm their workers to save a little. Of course, the company fought and intimidated the workers for trying to start a union. This is evil at its core, but the lengths they went to to fight were even moreso. It starts as verbal intimidation and escalated to stalking and violence.
Pitkin worked for a nonprofit helping people to organize. She discussed a lot of internal issues and the navigation of coming in as an outsider with many privileges. She also discussed the horrors of red tape and "leadership" of men in these organizations. I found these parts to be helpful.
Unfortunately, the memoiresque snippets of her relationship stuff felt out of place. It's not that I think she shouldn't discuss how her personal life affected organizing. It is important to show just how horrific fighting for unions can be. The stress of such a thing is a life destroyer. The author could not care properly for herself and also seemed to already be in an unstable place before it all started. My issue with the writing was more that it felt clunky and much of it sounded like she was talking directly to an ex. I didn't like the way she discussed her new trans partner, though I'm willing to forgive that due to language barriers and the reality that not everyone is mired in Queer community and lingo. In my 40s as Queer transmasc person myself even I tend to be behind the times on language.
I also wasn't a big fan of the moth stuff. I know what she was trying to do, but it was very shallow including even googling dream meanings and reporting from all of those sites often written by white woowoo people who also tell you what your "spirit animal" is. I think this book would have been better as a more journalistic effort, still including the authors experience, but focused more on the general union story.
My favorite parts of the book aside from the general story about the union fight were the really cool women/girl's labor histories that I did not know about. The first strike in the USA was actually
teen and child girl mill workers! Women have been dominating unions for some time and were refused leadership by men- a problem still present today unfortunately.
Overall an important story that I'm glad I read and learned about. I'm grateful to everyone involved in this fight and will definitely have them on my mind even more when getting medical care.
This was an interesting and important case study about workers hidden from view in the medical world. I have often thought of them as well as other forms of dangerous medical labor such as facilities cleaners in all my time in hospitals. I did not know however just how dangerous these jobs were. Stories in this book included everything from serious burns to the reusing of already inefficient gloves that do not protect workers from needle sticks, constantly exposing them to disease. These people are handling the most dangerous of bodily fluids en masse with no real protection, abysmal pay, and regular mistreatment by bosses. Even worse, there is another much safer way than "soil sort" work , but it requires more machine maintenance and money, so companies instead choose to harm their workers to save a little. Of course, the company fought and intimidated the workers for trying to start a union. This is evil at its core, but the lengths they went to to fight were even moreso. It starts as verbal intimidation and escalated to stalking and violence.
Pitkin worked for a nonprofit helping people to organize. She discussed a lot of internal issues and the navigation of coming in as an outsider with many privileges. She also discussed the horrors of red tape and "leadership" of men in these organizations. I found these parts to be helpful.
Unfortunately, the memoiresque snippets of her relationship stuff felt out of place. It's not that I think she shouldn't discuss how her personal life affected organizing. It is important to show just how horrific fighting for unions can be. The stress of such a thing is a life destroyer. The author could not care properly for herself and also seemed to already be in an unstable place before it all started. My issue with the writing was more that it felt clunky and much of it sounded like she was talking directly to an ex. I didn't like the way she discussed her new trans partner, though I'm willing to forgive that due to language barriers and the reality that not everyone is mired in Queer community and lingo. In my 40s as Queer transmasc person myself even I tend to be behind the times on language.
I also wasn't a big fan of the moth stuff. I know what she was trying to do, but it was very shallow including even googling dream meanings and reporting from all of those sites often written by white woowoo people who also tell you what your "spirit animal" is. I think this book would have been better as a more journalistic effort, still including the authors experience, but focused more on the general union story.
My favorite parts of the book aside from the general story about the union fight were the really cool women/girl's labor histories that I did not know about. The first strike in the USA was actually
teen and child girl mill workers! Women have been dominating unions for some time and were refused leadership by men- a problem still present today unfortunately.
Overall an important story that I'm glad I read and learned about. I'm grateful to everyone involved in this fight and will definitely have them on my mind even more when getting medical care.