History Commons^™

On The Margins, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

The Far Left In Australia, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Rebel Roots.Docx, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Historic Huntington Businesses: The Birth Of Huntington, W.Va. 1871-1900, Jack L. Dickinson, Alison K. Summer-Ramirez

Jack L Dickinson

In the post-Civil War period of 1871 to 1900 the newly formed city of Huntington boomed in population and industry. Both immigrants and migrants alike flocked to the growing city which offered not only a fresh start and job opportunities but also educational opportunities such as the local Marshall College. This city’s strategic placement was ideal in that not only was it the halfway point between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, but it was also connected to the rest of the country by the growing railroad and the great Ohio River. These factors allowed for businesses of every want and need to …

Vintage Red.Docx, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

End Of Paragraph, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Is U.S. Public Sector Labor Relations In The Midst Of A Transformation?, Harry C. Katz

Harry C Katz

In this article the author assesses whether a fundamental transformation is underway in public sector (state and local government) labor relations in the United States by revisiting the arguments made by the author and Kochan and McKersie (1986) regarding the transformation of labor relations in the private sector. The author argues that the economic pressures that led to a transformation of private sector labor relations starting in the 1980s have not played a comparable role in recent developments in the public sector because of the political nature of labor relations in that sector. Other insights are drawn from a comparison …

Review: Sylvia Martin, 'Ink In Her Veins: The Troubled Life Of Aileen Palmer', (Crawley: Uwa Publishing, 2016)., Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Review: Sylvia Martin, 'Ink In Her Veins: The Troubled Life Of Aileen Palmer', (Crawley: Uwa Publishing, 2016)., Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

The Barber Who Read History And Was Overwhelmed, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Domesticating The Diaspora: Memory And The Life Of Sister Katie, Caroline Waldron Merithew

Caroline Merithew

Three shrines in Illinois honor heroes of the working class: one for the legendary Mother Jones; one for the Virden martyrs, who died for coal mining unionism, and whose memory is kept alive by labor organizers around the world; and one for Catherine (Katie) Bianco DeRorre. Katie's monument, unlike the others, draws few visitors today. But when it was dedicated in 1961, men and women — on the floor of the U.S. Congress, in the neighborhood where Katie grew up, at American universities, in union halls, on the streets of New York City, and in Milan — took notice and …

Regional Labour Market Integration In England And Wales, 1850-1913, George R. Boyer, Timothy J. Hatton

George R. Boyer

[Excerpt] This chapter examines the integration of labour markets within the rural and urban sectors of England and Wales during the second half of the nineteenth century. Although there is a large literature on internal migration and emigration in Victorian Britain, historians typically have focused on the direction and causes of migration rather than on its consequences for the labour market. Broadly speaking, the literature has found that workers did indeed migrate towards better wage-earning opportunities, that most moves were short-distance moves, and that once certain patterns of migration were established they often persisted. The studies leave the strong impression, …

Contesting The Dinosaur Image: The Labor Movement's Search For A Future, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] As labor contests the dinosaur image it will find no easy answers. Hard work, careful assessment of options, and a willingness to take risks are all required. Without widespread experimentation and a significant reallocation of resources to organizing, extinction awaits.

Automobile Workers Strikes, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

Automobile workers' strikes occurred in essentially four eras: the lost strikes by the industry's craft unions in the early twentieth century, the dramatic sit-down victories of the 1930s, the mixture of wildcat and authorized strikes during the postwar economic boom from the 1940s through the 1970s, and the decline of strikes that accompanied the policy of "jointness' between company and union after J9S0. Autoworkers' strike strategies reflected, in part, the particular structure of the industry, which took shape in the 1920s. Auto production is a complex process of interdependent operations to produce parts and assemble vehicles, each containing tens of …

Business Union Vs. Business Union? Understanding The Split In The Us Labour Movement, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

In summer 2005, the trade union movement formalised its split into two rival confederations. The split was precipitated by the 2001 disaffiliation of the carpenters’ union, the Republican electoral victory of 2004, and the decline in union membership. Seven unions, accounting for forty per cent of the membership of the AFL-CIO formed Change to Win as a response to that federation’s ineffectiveness. This article concludes that the split may lead to new techniques for campaigning, but that it will not affect the fortunes or the social vision of the trade union movement.

Regional Integration And Transnational Politics: Popular Sector Strategies In The Nafta Era, Maria Lorena Cook

Maria Lorena Cook

[Excerpt] This chapter argues that although economic integration between the United States and Mexico had been taking place for some time, it was the formal recognition of this process as represented by the discussions surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement that facilitated transnational political action by non-state actors. Whereas the globalization of the economy and the prevalence of neoliberal economic policies may be considered by some to undermine popular sector organization and actions, formal recognition of regional economic integration in North America has produced a ‘transnational political’ arena that has expanded the resources available to non-governmental groups, increased their …

Revisiting A Struggle: Port Kembla, 1938, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

A review and discussion of the 2015 documentary film 'Pig Iron Bob' (Producer/Director Sandra Pires). The focus of this film is the dramatic 2-month long boycott by Australian waterside workers in Port Kembla (NSW), 1938/39, of a cargo of Australian pig-iron bound for Japan. The workers took their action in protest against Japanese militarism and the Sino-Japanese War. The boycott enraged the conservative Australian government of the day which pulled out all stops to maintain its policy of appeasement towards Japan.

War, Labor, And Dissent: Motivations Of American Labor Unions During The First World War, J. Alexander Killion

J. Alexander Killion

On April 6, 1917, the United States formally entered the First World War, despite calls for a general strike among socialists and labor leaders to prevent this. There have been many attempts to understand why a coordinated effort by the working class failed to materialize, and this paper explores that topic by examining the relationship between American unions and the government, as well as their reaction to the outbreak of the war. By studying contemporary writings from labor leaders and government officials, as well as legislation such as the Espionage Act of 1917, I can show that several factors went …

Book Review: David Grant, 'Jagged Seas: The New Zealand Seamen's Union, 1879-2003' (2012), Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Review of David Grant, 'Jagged Seas: The New Zealand Seamen's Union, 1879-2003' (Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 2012). The reviewer co-authored a history of the Australian Seamen's Union (1872-1972) in 1981, and this review is sympathetic towards Grant's history, and makes a case for the ongoing production of worker/union histories.

Movimientos Obreros Y Por Los Derechos Humanos En América Latina: Convergencia, Divergencia Y Consecuencias Para La Promoción De Los Derechos Económicos, Sociales Y Culturales [Labor Movements And Human Rights In Latin America: Convergence, Divergence, And The Implications For The Promotion Of Economic, Social And Cultural Rights], Maria Lorena Cook

Maria Lorena Cook

[Excerpt] Los derechos propios del trabajo forman parte de los derechos humanos hace mucho tiempo y gozan del reconocimiento de pactos internacionales. La Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos, adoptada por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas, en 1948, enumera los derechos a condiciones de trabajo justas y favorables; a igual remuneración por trabajo de igual valor; a una remuneración equitativa y favorable, y a formar sindicatos y afiliarse a ellos. El Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos (PIDCP) incluye los derechos a la libertad de asociación y a formar sindicatos y afiliarse a ellos. El Pacto Internacional de Derechos …

Home Front Ww2: Myths And Realities, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Beginning with recent attempts by conservative interests to depict some Australian trade unions as having acted in 'traitorous' ways during World War 2 by engaging in activities that variously sabotaged the home front war effort, this lecture examines the claims, and the myth of the social solidarity of Australian society 1939-45.

James P. Loughlin Papers, 1965-1979: A Finding Aid, Kristine M. Reinhard

Kristine M. Sjostedt

The James P. Loughlin Papers chronicles Loughlin’s career as a labor union leader in Massachusetts and the role he had in locating the University of Massachusetts Medical School and its affiliated hospital in Worcester.

Families And The Collar Line, Ileen A. Devault

Ileen A DeVault

[Excerpt] Social mobility studies begin with the assumption that movement from any blue-collar job to any white-collar job represents unmitigated betterment of an individual's or generation's social status. These studies represent this movement across the collar line in a linear fashion, following the movement from fathers' occupations to sons'. This is the basic method that Jiirgen Kocka suggested historians could use to illuminate "the relevant lines of distinction, tension and conflict segmenting and dividing the emerging working class internally" and the "outer boundary" of that working class, the visibility and rigidity of "the distinction between workers and those who own …

Empire, Labor, And Environment: Coal Mining And Anticapitalist Environmentalism In The Americas, Avi Chomsky

Avi Chomsky

Review Of The Book The Davis-Bacon Act, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Armand J. Thieblot's monograph is not the first study of the administration and impact of the Davis-Bacon Act; however, it certainly is the most comprehensive. Successive chapters of the book consider the history of the act, definitions and interpretations of key words in the legislation, its current administrative organization and enforcement, experience under it (including improper wage determinations), and its costs and inflationary impact. A set of case studies are then presented to document the existence of improper and excessive wage determinations. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of the original rationale of the Davis-Bacon Act and its …

Remaking The World Of Chinese Labour: A 30-Year Retrospective, Eli D. Friedman, Ching Kwan Lee

Eli D Friedman

Over the past 30 years, labour relations, and, indeed, the entirety of working class politics in China, have been dramatically altered by economic reforms. In this review, we focus on the two key processes of commodification and casualization and their implications for workers. On the one hand, these processes have resulted in the destruction of the old social contract and the emergence of marketized employment relations. This has implied a loss of the job security and generous benefits enjoyed by workers in the planned economy. On the other hand, commodification and casualization have produced significant but localized resistance from the …

Steelworkers' Victory At Ravenswood: Picket Line Around The World, Tom Juravich, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

The second in a two-part series details the sophisticated international campaign and grass-roots activism that gave labor one of its biggest wins in the '90s.

Locked Out But Holding Together In Ravenswood, Tom Juravich, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

The first in a two-part series that details the Steelworkers' victory at Ravenswood Aluminum - one of labor's biggest wins in the '90s.

Organizing In The Nafta Environment: How Companies Use “Free Trade” To Stop Unions, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] These findings point to both an enormous challenge and a great opportunity for American unions. Clearly, under NAFTA and other free trade agreements more and more employers will feel emboldened to threaten to close the plant during organizing campaigns, and workers and unions will find organizing increasingly difficult. At the same time, unions have an opportunity to overcome these barriers to organizing if they commit enough resources to run large-scale, aggressive campaigns which mobilize the rank-and-file workers to build a union in their workplace, regardless of the intensity of the employer’s campaign.

Introduction To The Pullman Strike And The Crisis Of The 1890’S, Richard Schneirov, Shelton Stromquist, Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

The strike of Pullman carshop employees and the subsequent boycott that disrupted rail traffic throughout the territory west of Chicago in June-July 1894 marked the culmination of nearly two decades of the most severe and sustained labor conflict in American history. Yet until very recently little new scholarship has focused on the meaning of the Pullman strike and its historical context. By offering a close reading of contemporary perceptions of the strike and by examining the organizational and political continuities and discontinuities the Pullman conflict reveals, these essays resituate the strike in its historical context. They demonstrate that Pullman played …