Against Labor: How U.S. Employers Organized to Defeat Union Activism
edited by Rosemary Feurer and Chad Pearson contributions by David Roediger, Howard Stanger, Robert Woodrum, Michael Dennis, Elizabeth Esch, Rosemary Feurer, Dolores E Janiewski, Thomas A Klug, Chad Pearson and Peter Rachleff
University of Illinois Press, 2017 Cloth: 978-0-252-04081-8 | Paper: 978-0-252-08232-0 | eISBN: 978-0-252-09931-1 Library of Congress Classification HD8072.A26 2017 Dewey Decimal Classification 331.880973
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Against Labor highlights the tenacious efforts by employers to organize themselves as a class to contest labor. Ranging across a spectrum of understudied issues, essayists explore employer anti-labor strategies and offer incisive portraits of people and organizations that aggressively opposed unions. Other contributors examine the anti-labor movement against a backdrop of larger forces, such as the intersection of race and ethnicity with anti-labor activity, and anti-unionism in the context of neoliberalism. Timely and revealing, Against Labor deepens our understanding of management history and employer activism and their metamorphic effects on workplace and society. Contributors: Michael Dennis, Elizabeth Esch, Rosemary Feurer, Dolores E. Janiewski, Thomas A. Klug, Chad Pearson, Peter Rachleff, David Roediger, Howard Stanger, and Robert Woodrum.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Rosemary Feurer is an associate professor of history at Northern Illinois University. She is the author of Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950. Chad Pearson teaches history at Collin College. He is the author of Reform or Repression: Organizing America's Anti-Union Movement.
REVIEWS
"Boldly challenges the scholarship that considers employers as a malleable force that often compromises when social movements forge political environments that are inimical to their interests. Contributes enormously to our understanding of business tactics and strategy."--Immanuel Ness, author of Guest Workers and Resistance to U.S. Corporate Despotism
"The decline of organized labor in recent decades is often attributed to globalization, financialization, and right-wing politics. But the compelling essays in this important volume show that the limits to workers' collective power stem more basically from the concerted anti-union efforts of their employers dating back to the nineteenth century. Chronicling how capitalists have effectively forged a class-conscious social movement 'against labor,' these critical case studies make a vital contribution to the history of capitalism while illuminating the challenges facing workers today."--Jeffrey Sklansky, author of The Soul's Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820-1920
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Against Labor / Rosemary Feurer and Chad Pearson
1. Scientific Management, Racist Science, and Race Management / Elizabeth Esch and David Roediger
2. “Free Shops for Free Men”? : The Challenges of Strikebreaking and Union-Busting in the Progressive Era / Chad Pearson
3. Employers’ Path to the Open Shop in Detroit, 1903–7 / Thomas A. Klug
4. Race, Unionism, and the Open-Shop Movement along the Waterfront in Mobile, Alabama / Robert H. Woodrum
5. Through a Glass, Darkly: The NLRB, Employer Counteroffensives, Investigative Committees, and the CIO / Dolores E. Janiewski
6. The Strange Career of A. A. Ahner: Reconsidering Blackjacks and Briefcases / Rosemary Feurer
7. A Moderate Employers’ Association in a “House Divided”: The Case of the Employing Printers of Columbus, Ohio, 1887 - 1987 / Howard R. Stanger
8. Litigating for Profit: Business, Law, and Labor in the New Economy South / Michael Dennis
9. Capital and Labor in the 21st Century: The End of History? / Peter Rachleff
Against Labor: How U.S. Employers Organized to Defeat Union Activism
edited by Rosemary Feurer and Chad Pearson contributions by David Roediger, Howard Stanger, Robert Woodrum, Michael Dennis, Elizabeth Esch, Rosemary Feurer, Dolores E Janiewski, Thomas A Klug, Chad Pearson and Peter Rachleff
University of Illinois Press, 2017 Cloth: 978-0-252-04081-8 Paper: 978-0-252-08232-0 eISBN: 978-0-252-09931-1
Against Labor highlights the tenacious efforts by employers to organize themselves as a class to contest labor. Ranging across a spectrum of understudied issues, essayists explore employer anti-labor strategies and offer incisive portraits of people and organizations that aggressively opposed unions. Other contributors examine the anti-labor movement against a backdrop of larger forces, such as the intersection of race and ethnicity with anti-labor activity, and anti-unionism in the context of neoliberalism. Timely and revealing, Against Labor deepens our understanding of management history and employer activism and their metamorphic effects on workplace and society. Contributors: Michael Dennis, Elizabeth Esch, Rosemary Feurer, Dolores E. Janiewski, Thomas A. Klug, Chad Pearson, Peter Rachleff, David Roediger, Howard Stanger, and Robert Woodrum.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Rosemary Feurer is an associate professor of history at Northern Illinois University. She is the author of Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950. Chad Pearson teaches history at Collin College. He is the author of Reform or Repression: Organizing America's Anti-Union Movement.
REVIEWS
"Boldly challenges the scholarship that considers employers as a malleable force that often compromises when social movements forge political environments that are inimical to their interests. Contributes enormously to our understanding of business tactics and strategy."--Immanuel Ness, author of Guest Workers and Resistance to U.S. Corporate Despotism
"The decline of organized labor in recent decades is often attributed to globalization, financialization, and right-wing politics. But the compelling essays in this important volume show that the limits to workers' collective power stem more basically from the concerted anti-union efforts of their employers dating back to the nineteenth century. Chronicling how capitalists have effectively forged a class-conscious social movement 'against labor,' these critical case studies make a vital contribution to the history of capitalism while illuminating the challenges facing workers today."--Jeffrey Sklansky, author of The Soul's Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820-1920
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Against Labor / Rosemary Feurer and Chad Pearson
1. Scientific Management, Racist Science, and Race Management / Elizabeth Esch and David Roediger
2. “Free Shops for Free Men”? : The Challenges of Strikebreaking and Union-Busting in the Progressive Era / Chad Pearson
3. Employers’ Path to the Open Shop in Detroit, 1903–7 / Thomas A. Klug
4. Race, Unionism, and the Open-Shop Movement along the Waterfront in Mobile, Alabama / Robert H. Woodrum
5. Through a Glass, Darkly: The NLRB, Employer Counteroffensives, Investigative Committees, and the CIO / Dolores E. Janiewski
6. The Strange Career of A. A. Ahner: Reconsidering Blackjacks and Briefcases / Rosemary Feurer
7. A Moderate Employers’ Association in a “House Divided”: The Case of the Employing Printers of Columbus, Ohio, 1887 - 1987 / Howard R. Stanger
8. Litigating for Profit: Business, Law, and Labor in the New Economy South / Michael Dennis
9. Capital and Labor in the 21st Century: The End of History? / Peter Rachleff
Glossary
Contributors
Index
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC