In the last forty years, we've watched unions lose leverage in the workplace as jobs are downsized and eliminated. Between numerous big defeats, Ravenswood recounts the largest union victory in an aluminum plant of the last 20 years or more. In a battle waged in West Virginia, it was shown labor can still win--even against a company controlled by one of the world's richest and most powerful international criminals!

Seventeen hundred employees were locked out and replaced permanently. Despite deteriorating conditions resulting 5 deaths the previous year, the company had refused to discuss safety and health issues. The workers faced an industry in turmoil, a plant manager with a grudge against the union, and a business controlled by a billionaire fugitive from justice.

The commitment of the workers and their families really won the battle between community meal feedings and grocery store donations, direct action tactics, organized Christmas parties for the children, radical puppeteering, and traditional picketing coupled with one of the most innovative contract campaigns ever waged by an American union. It's a truly heroic and epic story that reads almost like a Lord of the Rings novel in its twists and turns. One of my favorite books that I've read this year. (Joe Biel)