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: Hardback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 03 April 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 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 community partners and collaborators, Galemba uncovers the persistence of labor abuses, such as wage theft, and the ongoing challenges faced by advocates, attorneys, and workers in addressing and preventing these injustices.

In the context of a growing trend towards casualized labor practices and the decline of secure, permanent employment, Laboring for Justice highlights wage theft as a symptom of broader systemic issues within the U.S. economy. It illustrates how workers can navigate the complexities 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, it provides valuable insights and strategies for understanding and addressing these complex issues, fostering a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of marginalized communities.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781503613454