Subject of Study from Zinn.

With the onset of the industrial revolution in the 19th century, society was transformed from a primary agrarian society to one that manufactured goods on massive scales. During this time as waves of rural and immigrant workers flocked to the cities for work, conditions and safety in the industrial mills were not as important as production. People became a disposable commodity who could be easily replaced. By the end of the century, unions and trade groups began to form demanding better conditions and benefits for the working class; the men and women whose labor helped usher in an unprecedented economic expansion in the United States.

However, the struggles for unionization and for organized labor will not go unopposed. Big Business see’s the unions and the labor movement as obstacles to obtaining more profits, as well as an infringement upon their right, as the owners, to decide how things will be done and how people will be treated

It is from the chapters about the rise of the labor movement and unions from writer Howard Zinn and his book The Voices of a People’s History of the United States that I plan to research the relevancy of the labor movement and unions in the 21 century. As globalization and free-trade continue to erode many working class and middle class jobs in the United States, will labor and the unions be able to once again play a vital role in protecting workers and their jobs, or have unions and the labor movement become irrelevant to the workers of today?

Works Cited
Cutler, Jonathan. Labor's Time: Shorter Hours, the UAW, and the Struggle for American Unionism. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2004. Print.

Cutler examines the role of organized labor in the fight for a shorter work week particularly during the 1950’s and early 1960’s. Cutler writes of why a shorter work week is opposed by not only management, but even some factions within the union.
What makes Cutler’s work relevant is that as the American industrial and sector continues to be eroded by globalization, workers are expected to work longer and be more productive even as the workforce is being slashed in order to be more competitive financially. Unions have supported shorter working hours since the 1930’s.

Francia, Peter L. The Future of Organized Labor in American Politics. New York: Columbia UP, 2006. Print.

Francia chronicles the history of unions in America from their peak during the 1950’s and their decline during the 80’s and 90’s. Francia examines the role of unions today and how they lost their influence among workers and political parties.

Unions have been instrumental in forcing businesses to provide basic benefits and rights to its workers. But as workers organized and challenged their employers, ways were being sought to minimize the role and influence that labor had not only among workers, but among politicians as well. The 1980’s and 1990’s will see a dramatic decline in union membership. However, globalization and the economic recession could provide for a union resurgence. Francia provides an assessment of the strength of unions in the 21st century.

Freeman, Richard B., and James L. Medoff. What Do Unions Do? New York: Basic, 1984. Print.

Freeman and Medoff research the effects the unions have in the work place. They examine the social and financial costs that unions have upon non-union businesses and workers. Freeman and Medoff also look at the overall view and place of unions within society as a whole.
Trade unions tend to be misrepresented to the public, quite often at the behest of big businesses that view unions as threat to their bottom line of profits. Freeman and Medoff help explain the role, function, and operational proceedures of unions in the capitalist system. The book itself provides a balanced overview of unions, noting both the positive and negative aspects of unions have upon society and businesses.

Gutman, Herbert George. Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America: Essays in American Working-class and Social History. New York: Vintage, 1977. Print.

Gutman examines the industrial revolution of 19th century America and its effects upon the working classes of that time. He details the early frustrations and tribulations that industrialization brought upon laborers, and how labor learned to organize for better working conditions. Gutman’s book helps provide an early historical background of the labor movement.

Gutman through a series of essays helps provide the background of the modern labor movement of the 20th century. Many of the issues that the unions of the 20th century fought for stem from the conditions that were prevalent during the industrialization of the 19th century. It is through these essays that we can see the beginnings of the early labor movement and how it crossed racial and gender lines in its effort to promote equality for the working classes.

Hall, Covington, and David R. Roediger. Labor Struggles in the Deep South & Other Writings. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 2000. Print.

Hall and Roediger provide a historical overview of the labor movement in the Deep South of the early 20th century. Hall is was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and provides first-hand accounts of the labor from a socialist perspective.

Hall as a socialist leader in the I.W.W. helps give an inside look into the formation of unions in the agrarian south at the turn of the 20th century, particularly the unionization of lumber workers in Louisiana. Also, Hall informs of the importance of unions and their efforts to bring in and bridge the racial divide between the descendants of slaves and the white working classes. This helps establish the role as the union as racially progressive organization that sought to include all working men into a collective force.

Kochan, Thomas A., Harry Charles Katz, and Nancy R. Mower. Worker Participation and American Unions: Threat or Opportunity? Kalamazoo, Mich.: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 1984. Print.
Kochrand, Katz, and Mower provide an academic study of the role of unions. They have researched and presented a balanced analysis of the positive and negative influence that unions have upon work place. They have focused their research on union activity from the late 1960’s and 70’s.
Kochan, et el have provided a research driven book that uses examples from the period of various issues that arose and how labor/management resolved their conflicts through negotiations and collective bargaining. Because it is an academic analysis of the union it should provide an unbias view of organized labor and the cost/benefit of union participation in the workforce.

Mayo, Elton. The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization. New York: Arno, 1977. Print.

Rayman, Paula M. Beyond the Bottom Line: the Search for Dignity at Work. New York: St. Martin's, 2001. Print.

Paula Rayman examines the increasingly long hours of the American worker and the negative societal impact that it has upon individuals and the community, and how workers are re-evaluating their commitment to working longer hours at the expense of their family and social obligations.

The increase of work hours for the sake of productivity has risen over the last 30 years as Rayman writes. This has in turn undermined the personal lives of employees and affects the quality of life for workers. Furthermore, rules that had been in place to offer fair compensation for a person’s labor have been circumvented during the 2000’s under new labor rules, that have in particular affected white collar workers, by making salaried employees unentitled to overtime pay.


Zieger, Robert H. American Workers, American Unions, 1920-1985. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1986. Print.
Robert Ziegler focuses on the political history of the labor movement, especially during the 1930’s up through the 1960’s as the role of unions are scrutinized not only within from the workers themselves, but outside by the public and their fear of communism subversion.
Zieger book help provides a historical perspective of the role of unions, especially during the 1930’s as the nation is going through the Great Depression, and how labor will thrive and grow during this economically turbulent time. He further examines the role that labor played during World War II and the economic and political gains that are made afterwards. It’s during the post-war that unions and labor will see their greatest expansion, only to decline significantly during the 1980’s.