Bored with their jobs and tired of being underpaid, the women workers of the American Empire Insurance Company decided to try something different. They decide to do union organizing. The workers face the built in conflicts of cultural and economic differences in the working class to stand shoulder to shoulder as the company challenges them for control of their lives at work. The main characters represent the diversity of the American workforce: Ellen Anderson comes from a predominantely white, rural Ohio small town where she has helped her uncle organize factory workers, Karen Davis is a college educated African-American working mother. Pia Li, a student, is from the garment district of New York's Chinatown. While these women office workers fight for their rights on the job, Jane Rutledge, the legal secretary, is privy to the schemes of management. Caught between the workers and management, she tries to decide whose side she is on. This is a historical novel that takes place in the 1980's during the election of Ronald Reagan and the attack on the air traffic controllers union. When the AFL-CIO calls for a big demonstration to defend workers' rights, the women of the American Empire Insurance Company join the demonstration and begin to dream of a different world--a world where workers win. This book is a good discussion tool for organizers and activists in the labor movement.
