Laboring for Justice: The Fight Against Wage Theft in an American City

Laboring for Justice is a book that examines the issue of wage theft and its disproportionate impact on low-wage immigrant workers in Denver, Colorado. It highlights the experiences of day laborers and advocates in the struggle against wage theft and offers a methodologically rigorous, community-engaged, and pedagogically innovative approach to the study of immigration, labor, inequality, and social justice.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 14 March 2023
Publisher: Stanford University Press

Laboring for Justice delves into the compelling stories of day laborers and advocates who have been tirelessly fighting against wage theft in Denver, Colorado. Conducting extensive research spanning over seven years, this book sheds light on the pervasive issue of wage theft and its particularly detrimental effects on low-wage immigrant workers. Rebecca Galemba, the author, centers her attention on the struggles of day laborers in Denver, a state known for its shifting policies regarding immigrant and labor rights. Through collaborative efforts with collaborators and community partners, Galemba uncovers the persistence of labor abuses, such as wage theft, and the courageous efforts of advocates, attorneys, and workers to combat and prevent these injustices through proactive policy, legal challenges, and direct action tactics.

In the backdrop of a growing trend towards casualized labor practices, Laboring for Justice highlights wage theft as a symptom of broader systemic issues within the U.S. economy. It serves as a poignant illustration of how workers can navigate the challenges of precarity and improve their position through everyday forms of convivencia and resistance.

By adopting a public anthropology approach that incorporates the perspectives of community partners, students, policy makers, and activists, this book offers a rigorous, community-engaged, and pedagogically innovative approach to the study of immigration, labor, inequality, and social justice. Through the lens of wage theft, Laboring for Justice provides valuable insights and strategies for workers to endure and thrive in an increasingly uncertain world.

Weight: 502g
Dimension: 151 x 227 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781503635203