The Maya of Morganton

by Leon Fink

"The arrival of several hundred Guatemalan-born workers in a Morganton, North Carolina, poultry plant sets the stage for this dramatic story of human struggle in an age of globalization. Virtually overnight, a once quiet industrial center nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains finds itself the new home to one of the hemisphere's oldest cultures - and to a protracted struggle for social justice.". "When workers' concerns about safety and fairness spark a strike during the early 1990s and, ultimately, a unionizing campaign at Case Farms, the resulting decade-long stand-off pits a classically recalcitrant New South employer - in a state with a burgeoning immigrant population and the nation's lowest rate of unionization - against an unlikely coalition of antagonists. Mayan refugees from war-torn Guatemala, Mexican workers, and a diverse group of local allies join forces with the Laborers union, an organization determined to shake off an unsavory reputation. The ensuing clash