Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Book on landmark labor conflict earns national awards

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A book co-written by a University of Illinois professor that provides an insider’s look at a touchstone U.S. labor conflict has earned two national awards.

“Staley: The Fight for a New American Labor Movement,” written by labor professor Steven K. Ashby and C.J. Hawking, was named book of the year in March by the United Association for Labor Education, a scholarly organization that promotes the labor movement and worker rights.

The 2009 book also took top honors from the Working Class Studies Association, which supports education and activism as tools to advance working-class life and culture. The award will be presented in June during the association’s annual meeting at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The book, which recounts a bitter union-management stalemate at A.E. Staley’s corn-processing plant in Decatur, Ill., also earned book of the year honors from the Illinois State Historical Society.

Published by University of Illinois Press, the book is an on-the-ground history of an impasse that is regarded as one of the most pivotal labor conflicts of the last quarter-century.

Ashby and Hawking, who are married, coordinated solidarity efforts for Staley workers during the early 1990s conflict, and augment their first-hand experience with workers’ reflections, media accounts and details from videotapes of union strategy debates.

Although Staley workers ultimately lost their standoff with management, the conflict left a legacy of tools that are still used to protect worker rights in the evolving U.S. labor movement, the book says.

Innovative tactics included a “work-to-rule” campaign, during which workers slowed production by strictly following company rules and doing only what they were ordered to do, and a national “Road Warriors” campaign that raised $3.5 million as rank-and-file workers traveled the country to build support during a nearly three-year company lockout.

Ashby is a clinical professor and coordinator of online programs for the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the U. of I. Hawking is a Methodist minister and the executive director of Arise Chicago, a faith-based workers’ rights group.

[ Email | Share ]

Read Next

Life sciences Portrait of the research team posing together.

Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have translated nanoscale experimental and computational data into precise 3D representations of bacteria, yeast and human epithelial, breast and breast cancer cells in Minecraft, a video game that allows players to explore, build and manipulate structures in three dimensions. The innovation will allow researchers and students of all ages to navigate […]

Arts Photo of seven dancers onstage wearing blue tops and orange or yellow flowing skirts. The backdrop is a Persian design.

February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present February Dance 2025: Fast Forward this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. February Dance will be one of the first performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre since its reopening. The performances are Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Dance professor […]

Honors portraits of four Illinois researchers

Four Illinois researchers receive Presidential Early Career Award

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The winners this year are health and kinesiology professor Marni Boppart, physics professor Barry Bradlyn, chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Ying […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010