Sign-In
Cart
Union-Free America: Workers and Antiunion Culture
Hardcover
ISBN13: 9780252032714
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: Jun 1 2008
Pages: 264
Weight: 1.17
Height: 0.00 Width: 0.00 Depth: 0.91
Language: English
Union-Free America: Workers and Antiunion Culture confronts one of the most vexing questions with which labor activists and labor academics struggle: why is there so much opposition to organized labor in the United States? Scholars often point to powerful obstacles from employers or governmental policies, but Lawrence Richards offers a more complete picture of the causes for union decline in the postwar period by examining the attitudes of the workers themselves. Large numbers of American workers in the 1970s and 1980s told pollsters that they would vote against a union if an election were held at their place of employment, and Richards provides a provocative explanation for this hostility: a pervasive strain of antiunionism in American culture that has made many workers distrustful of organized labor.
Weighing the arguments of previous historians and sociologists, Richards posits that this underlying antiunion culture in America has been remarkably consistent over the course of half a century. Assessing organizing efforts among blue-collar, white-collar, and pink-collar workers, Richards examines the tactics and countertactics of company and union representatives who sought to either exploit or neutralize workers' popular negative stereotypes of organized labor's insidious control over workers' autonomy. The book considers a number of case studies of organizing drives throughout recent history, from the failed attempt by District 65 to organize clerical workers at New York University in 1970, to a similarly fruitless drive by the Textile Workers Union in 1980 at a textile factory in Charlottesville, Virginia. In both of these particular cases and in many more, antiunion culture has operated to hinder unions' efforts to organize the unorganized. By examining the manifestations and motivations of antiunion culture in the United States, Richards helps explain why so many American workers seem to vote against their own self-interest and declare themselves Union Free and Proud.
Also in
Social Movements
Urban Revolutions: Urbanisation and (Neo-)Colonialism in Transatlantic Context
Kipfer, Stefan
Paperback
In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Iton, Richard
Paperback
By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution
Talbot, Margaret
Talbot, David
Hardcover
Revolution and Its Alternatives: Other Marxisms, Other Empowerments, Other Priorities
Brass, Tom
Paperback
Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
Greenwald, Glenn
Hardcover
Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below
Lynd, Staughton
Paperback
They Stole a City: Wilmington's White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with Its Legacy
Collins, Lauren
Hardcover
How Bright the Path Grows: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the March on Washington
Chatelain, Marcia
Hardcover
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Paperback
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Davis, Angela Y.
Paperback
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
Hayes, Kelly
Kaba, Mariame
Paperback
Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight Over Free Speech in Modern America
Loeffler, James
Hardcover
Socialism: The Real History from Plato to the Present: How the Deep State Capitalizes on Crises to Consolidate Control [With Paperback Book]
Federer, William J.
Paperback
The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth
Fowler, Jermaine
Paperback
Killed to Order: China's Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America's Biggest Adversary
Jekielek, Jan
Hardcover
Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult
Cheng, Jonathan
Hardcover
In Sickness and in Health: Love Stories from the Front Lines of America's Caregiving Crisis
Mauldin, Laura
Hardcover
The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin's Greatest Enemy
Ireland, Josh
Hardcover
Handbook for the Revolution: Building a More Perfect Union for the Twenty-First Century
Palmer, Derrick
Hardcover
Searching for Jane Crow: Black Women and Mass Incarceration in America from the Auction Block to the Cell Block
Leflouria, Talitha L.
Hardcover
I Won't Pretend These Missiles Are Stars: Life in Iran During the 12-Day War
Collective, The Cartoonist
Paperback
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Hardcover
The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America
Rosen, Jeffrey
Hardcover
America in 25 Revolutions: The Story of Our Imperfect Nation's 250-Year Quest to Become a More Perfect Union
Graff, Garrett M.
Hardcover
Strange People on the Hill: How Extremism Tore Apart a Small American Town
Hayden, Michael Edison
Hardcover
A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children
Gilliland, Haley Cohen
Paperback
Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military
Lohmeier, Matthew
Hardcover
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence
Ghodsee, Kristen R.
Paperback
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible
Cobb, Charles E., Jr.
Paperback
College Girl, Missing: The True Story of How a Young Woman Disappeared in Plain Sight
Cohen, Shawn
Paperback
We've Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America
Days, Michael I.
Dodson, Angela P.
Hardcover
Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply
Miller, Matthew
Popovic, Srdja
Paperback
How We Get Free (Updated 2nd Edition): Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective
Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta
Paperback
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America (20th Anniversary Edition)
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
We Are Heirs of the World's Revolutions: Speeches from the Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87
Sankara, Thomas
Paperback
Black Marxism, Revised and Updated Third Edition: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition
Robinson, Cedric J.
Paperback
The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South
Griscom, David
Paperback
Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism - A Popular Outline: Unabridged with original tables and footnotes (Aziloth Books)
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich
Paperback
Moon U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler's Guide to the People, Places, and Events That Made the Movement
Douglas, Deborah D.
Moon Travel Guides
Paperback
The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America
Witt, John Fabian
Hardcover
Against the State: Anarchists and Comrades at War in Spain, Myanmar, and Rojava
Stout, James
Paperback
As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake
Paperback
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects
Wollstonecraft, Mary
Paperback
Trade Up: Why the Future Belongs to Skilled Trades and How Career Education is Transforming the Workforce
Altmire, Jason
Burr, Riley
Paperback
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Incite!, Incite! Women of Color Against
Paperback
Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
Pahlka, Jennifer
Paperback
Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do
Terkel, Studs
Paperback
Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World--And How You Can, Too
Oluo, Ijeoma
Paperback
Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement
Terry, Brandon M.
Hardcover
Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the Fbi, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence
Burrough, Bryan
Paperback
Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else)
Táíwò, Olúfẹ́mi O.
Paperback
White Evangelical Racism, Second Edition: The Politics of Morality in America
Butler, Anthea
Paperback