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BOOKS
 |  |  |  |  | What Workers Want
What would the typical American workplace look like if employees had the chance to design it? In a word, different. According to Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers, it would be run jointly by employees and their supervisors, and disputes between labor and management would be resolved through independent arbitration. In this groundbreaking book, based on the most extensive workplace survey in a generation, Freeman and Rogers shine a light on workers’ thoughts about participation, representation and regulation on the job. An eye-opener. Paperback, $19.95. Available from www.powells.com. | |  | |  |
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 | | | | | Work: The World in Photographs
Just in time for Labor Day, National Geographic has published a stunning new photography book with nearly 190 photographs that document the incredible variety of human work—from fields to factories to four-star restaurants. Cowboys and clowns, dancers and dog groomers, miners and models—all are included. Some 80 top photographers are represented, from the 1800s to today. Author Ferdinand Protzman divides the book geographically, exploring the world's major regions, with portfolios on agriculture, extraction and manufacturing. Hardcover, $35. Available from www.powells.com. | | | | |
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 | | | | | Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead
Here's a very different look during the Labor Day season at the world of work—specifically, the challenges young adults face as they try to build careers, buy homes and start families. Tamara Draut explains why getting ahead is getting harder: College degrees have become what high school diplomas used to be, but it costs a fortune to get one. Worse, good jobs are scarcer, and the cost of everything—starter homes, health coverage, child care—keeps rising. Draut suggests a creative agenda for reform that includes "tearing down the many barriers workers currently face in trying to form unions." Hardcover, $22.95. Available from The Union Shop Online.™ | | | | |
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RESOURCE  | | | | | Worker Skills and Job Requirements: Is There a Mismatch?
Pick up any newspaper these days and you're likely to find some article saying that today’s workers don’t have the education and skills for today’s jobs. Many Americans believe the "skills mismatch"—the difference between workers' skills and the skills certain jobs require—will get worse as workplaces become more high-tech and service-oriented. But is it true? In a new study from the Economic Policy Institute, Michael J. Handel of the University of Wisconsin takes a hard look at the evidence and finds it's an open question whether the mismatch even exists. Paperback, $12.50. Available from the Economic Policy Institute.
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MUSIC  | | | | | If I Had a Song: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Volume 2
For three generations, Pete Seeger has personified folk music. The songs he's written, along with those he discovered and made his own, have helped preserve our cultural heritage—and generations of Americans have tapped their toes along the way. This second volume of Seeger's original (or adapted) compositions recorded by fellow musicians includes traditional "folkies" and protest singers such as Arlo Guthrie, such singer-songwriters as Dar Williams and John Wesley Harding, country stars like Steve Earle, pop-rockers like Moxy Früvous and bluesmen like Corey Harris—all honoring Seeger with imaginative arrangements and song choices. Available from The Union Shop Online.™ | | | | |
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