Freedom in the Workplace? - by Gertrude Ezorsky (Hardcover)

About the Book

Are workers in the United States free? Gertrude Ezorsky traces the severe limits placed on their freedom by illegal coercion against organizing unions and by low wage offers--barely enough to feed their families--that workers are pressured to accept...

Book Synopsis

Are workers in the United States free? Gertrude Ezorsky traces the severe limits placed on their freedom by illegal coercion against organizing unions and by low wage offers--barely enough to feed their families--that workers are pressured to accept. Older, sick workers are forced to stay in exhausting jobs to be eligible for pensions. Ezorsky shows that the notions of freedom held by most contemporary social scientists and philosophers are far too limited to account for the reality of the workplace, where a lack of freedom abounds. Students preparing to enter the workplace will be informed of that reality by reading this valuable book. In addition to her philosophical investigations Ezorsky provides valuable information on the specifics of labor relations, including employment at will; the NLRA and NLRB; OSHA; outsourcing; and the distinctions among closed, union, and agency shops. Readers interested in moral philosophy, applied ethics, and labor relations will find Ezorsky's arguments clear, forceful, and compelling.

Review Quotes

What will fascinate the non-academic reader are the many illustrations, drawn from real-life situations, of how the illusion of freedom on the job can mask the grim reality of coercion.

About the Author

Gertrude Ezorsky is Professor Emerita, City University of New York, Brooklyn College and the Graduate School. She is the author of Racism and Justice: The Case for Affirmative Action, also from Cornell, and the editor of Philosophical Perspectives on Punishment and Moral Rights in the Workplace.