Vegas at Odds

Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960-1985
Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9357-5
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 544 g

Reihe: Studies in Industry and Society

The stories of the shadowy networks and wealthy people who bankrolled and sustained Las Vegas's continuous reinvention are well documented in works of scholarship, journalism, and popular culture. Yet no one has studied closely and over a long period of time the dynamics of the workforce—the casino and hotel workers and their relations with the companies they work for and occasionally strike against. James P. Kraft here explores the rise and changing fortunes of organized and unorganized labor as Las Vegas evolved from a small, somewhat seedy desert oasis into the glitzy tourist destination that it is today.

Drawing on scores of interviews, personal and published accounts, and public records, Kraft brings to life the largely behind-the-scenes battles over control of Sin City workplaces between 1960 and 1985. He examines successful and failed organizing drives, struggles over pay and equal rights, and worker grievances and arbitration to show how the resort industry’s evolution affected hotel and casino workers. From changes in the political and economic climate to large-scale strikes, backroom negotiations, and individual worker-supervisor confrontations, Kraft explains how Vegas's overwhelmingly service-oriented economy works—and doesn't work—for the people and companies who cater to the city's pleasure-seeking visitors.

American historians and anyone interested in the history of labor or Las Vegas will find this account highly original, insightful, and even-handed.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kraft, James P

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Tarifverhandlungen, Schlichtung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Rise of Corporate Resorts
2. Working in Las Vegas
3. The First Work Stoppages
4. The Struggle for the Casinos
5. Workplace Incidents
6. Fighting for Equal Rights
7. The Spirit of '76
8. Management Digs In, 1982–1984
9. The Strike of 1984–1985
Afterword
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Kraft, James P
James P. Kraft is a professor of US business, labor, and the American West at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He is the author of Stage to Studio: Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890–1950 and Vegas at Odds: Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960–1985, and Havoc and Reform: Workplace Disasters in Modern America.

James P. Kraft is professor of history at the University of Hawai'i at Mânoa. He is also the author of Stage to Studio: Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890–1950 and Havoc and Reform: Workplace Disasters in Modern America, both published by Johns Hopkins.