TY - JOUR T1 - Unions Facing and Suffering Neo-liberalism in the United States JF - The International Handbook Of Labour Unions: Responses to Neo-Liberalism Y1 - 2012 A1 - Bruno, Bob ED - Gregor Gall ED - Adrian Wilkinson ED - Richard Hurd KW - air traffic controllers KW - anti-unionism KW - labor movement KW - neo-liberalism KW - Ronald Reagan KW - workers’ rights AB -

[Excerpt] In the 1980s, neo-liberalism washed over the American political landscape and nearly drowned the labour movement. The first sign of high water is debatable. Maybe, it was the firing of striking unionised air traffic controllers by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 that signalled the advance of an unfettered ‘free market’ in America. Symbolically, the strong-armed action of the nation’s chief executive to punish federal employees waging an illegal strike was a watershed moment for the deteriorating relationship between capital and labour. Corporate leaders and right-wing conservative political forces interpreted Reagan’s executive order as an unconditional withdrawal of state protections for worker rights. McCarten (2006: 215, 216) called the strike of Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) ‘one of the most significant events in 20th century US labor history’ (2006, 215) symbolising ‘the declining power of the labor movement’. But as dramatic as it was in turning labour’s fortunes the air traffic control firings were more a confirmation of a neo-liberal turn than the first rip in the postwar social-contract fabric. In the late 1970s, administrative deregulation had already been imposed on the trucking industry reducing incomes and eliminating union drivers. Foreign cars had driven unimpeded into American show rooms while American auto manufactures and government officials ignored the realities of the emerging global markets for durable goods. Trade policy shaped principally by cold war foreign policy concerns had invited steel imports into industrial centers of the Midwest and Northeast.

PB - Edward Elgar Publishing CY - Northampton, MA L2 - eng ER - TY - BOOK T1 - American Workers, American Unions: The 20th Century (3rd Edition) Y1 - 2002 A1 - Zieger, R. A1 - Gregor Gall KW - American workers KW - anti-unionism KW - labor movement KW - labor politics KW - labor unions KW - organizing KW - unionism AB -

Provides a concise and compelling history of American workers and their unions in twentieth-century America. This new edition features new chapters on the pre–1920 period, as well as an entirely new final chapter that covers developments of the 1980s and 1990s in detail. There the authors explore how economic change, union stagnation, and antilabor policies have combined to erode workers' standards and labor's influence in the political arena over the last two decades. They review current "alternatives to unionism" as means of achieving fair workplace representations but insist that strong unions remain essential in a democratic society. They argue that labor's new responsiveness to the concerns of women, minority groups, and low-wage workers, as well as its resurgent political activism, offer new hope for trade unionism. Also included in this third edition is new bibliographical material and a regularly updated on-line link to an extended bibliographical essay. (publisher's statement)

PB - Johns Hopkins University Press CY - Baltimore, MD L2 - eng ER -