IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/reorpe/v32y2000i4p541-576.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic Labor Organizing in the Era of Industrial Transformation: A Comparative Historical Analysis of Unionization in Steel and Coal, 1870-1916

Author

Listed:
  • John Brueggemann

    (Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY 12866; Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham NH 03824 jbruegge@skidmore.edu)

  • Cliff Brown

    (Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY 12866; Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham NH 03824 cliff.brown@unh.edu)

Abstract

Between 1870 and 1916 rapid and widespread mechanization and capitalization dramatically transformed the means and relations of production in the mass industries. At the same time, increasing ethnic diversity challenged the class basis of labor solidarity. The cases of steel and bituminous coal mining illustrate important contrasting responses to these forces on the part of organized labor. In particular, the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers lost members and became increasingly ineffectual, while the United Mine Workers underwent intense and sustained growth. Our comparison of the two unions' notably different trajectories reveals the importance of socio-historical factors as well as union strategies for dealing with technological innovation and ethnic divisions.

Suggested Citation

  • John Brueggemann & Cliff Brown, 2000. "Strategic Labor Organizing in the Era of Industrial Transformation: A Comparative Historical Analysis of Unionization in Steel and Coal, 1870-1916," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 541-576, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:32:y:2000:i:4:p:541-576
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://rrp.sagepub.com/content/32/4/541.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:32:y:2000:i:4:p:541-576. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.urpe.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.