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A review by socraticgadfly
There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America by Philip Dray
5.0
Unions: The good, the bad and the ugly
The good? Minimum wage laws, maximum work hours laws, occupational safety, pensions, and more.
The bad? Various degrees of racism among many unions, resting on their laurels after the 1950s, failure of industrial unions to cooperate with environmentalists (and believing corporate lies while resisting such cooperation). The AFL, post WWII, then the reunited AFL-CIO being so anti-Communist that it willingly let its outreach efforts in the developing world be co-opted by the CIA. Most unions' knee-jerk support of the Vietnam War.
The ugly? The degree of government oppression, from militia to regular Army to bad laws to even worse court rulings. For example: The "supervisors can't unionize" provision of Taft-Hartley has been, along with complacency, one of the biggest factors in the decline of organized labor.) The government and general public's willingness to stereotype all unions as anarchic, Communist or both.
That's all detailed in this book. Even if you know a fair amount of the story, you may not know all of it, let alone all the details. (I know nothing about the AFL-CIO entanglements with the CIA, for example -- entanglements so bad that union groups were connected with both the Arbenz overthrow in Guatemala and the Allende overthrow in Chile.)
On the rise and fall, Dray is equally good. Beyond unions' complacency at getting various benefits, and shifting social definitions in America, he notes that unions' alienation of environmentalists, slow engagement with the civil rights movement, and alienation of much American youth in the late 1960s and early 70s over Vietnam were classic self-inflicted wounds.
The one thing missing? I wish Dray had done a bit of crystal-ball gazing. Nonetheless, this is a great overview.
The good? Minimum wage laws, maximum work hours laws, occupational safety, pensions, and more.
The bad? Various degrees of racism among many unions, resting on their laurels after the 1950s, failure of industrial unions to cooperate with environmentalists (and believing corporate lies while resisting such cooperation). The AFL, post WWII, then the reunited AFL-CIO being so anti-Communist that it willingly let its outreach efforts in the developing world be co-opted by the CIA. Most unions' knee-jerk support of the Vietnam War.
The ugly? The degree of government oppression, from militia to regular Army to bad laws to even worse court rulings. For example: The "supervisors can't unionize" provision of Taft-Hartley has been, along with complacency, one of the biggest factors in the decline of organized labor.) The government and general public's willingness to stereotype all unions as anarchic, Communist or both.
That's all detailed in this book. Even if you know a fair amount of the story, you may not know all of it, let alone all the details. (I know nothing about the AFL-CIO entanglements with the CIA, for example -- entanglements so bad that union groups were connected with both the Arbenz overthrow in Guatemala and the Allende overthrow in Chile.)
On the rise and fall, Dray is equally good. Beyond unions' complacency at getting various benefits, and shifting social definitions in America, he notes that unions' alienation of environmentalists, slow engagement with the civil rights movement, and alienation of much American youth in the late 1960s and early 70s over Vietnam were classic self-inflicted wounds.
The one thing missing? I wish Dray had done a bit of crystal-ball gazing. Nonetheless, this is a great overview.