Knocking on labor's door: union organizing in the 1970s and the roots of a new economic divide

Abstract

Weaker enforcement of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rulings, union-busting tactics, successful employer efforts to weaken labor laws, the shift from manufacturing to service-based economies, globalization, technological change, and weaker organizing efforts by the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) have contributed to the decline. The 9to5, National Association for Working Women helped launch Local 925 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to prioritize childcare, maternity leave, and equal pay issues.

55-1780 HD8072 CIP Windham, Lane. Knocking on labor's door: union organizing in the 1970s and the roots of a new economic divide. North Carolina, 2017. 295p bibl index ISBN 9781469632070 cloth, $32.95; ISBN 9781469632087 ebook, $24.99

Windham (Georgetown) connects civil rights, women's rights, the labor movement, and management resistance to unions to explain union decline in the 1970s. Weaker enforcement of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rulings, union-busting tactics, successful employer efforts to weaken labor laws, the shift from manufacturing to service-based economies, globalization, technological change, and weaker organizing efforts by the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) have contributed to the decline. A Cannon Mills textile union recognition case study exemplified how the anti-union environment kept the union out. Union recognition successes at the Newport News and Woodward and Lothrop showed how women and African Americans could win recognition efforts in shipbuilding and retail industries. The 9to5, National Association for Working Women helped launch Local 925 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to prioritize childcare, maternity leave, and equal pay issues. Labor historians, archivists, union staffers, and colleagues from various universities contributed to the pro-union book. Recent related books include Rosemary Feuer and Chad Pearson's edited book Against Labor: How U.S. Employers Organized to Defeat Union Activism (CH, Dec'17, 55-1417). Summing Up: ★★ Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.-G. E. Kaupins, Boise State University