This comprehensive encyclopedia, edited by Aaron Brenner, Benjamin Henry Day Jr., and Immanuel Ness, is the first detailed collection of historical research on strikes in America. To provide the analytical tools for understanding strikes, the volume includes two types of essays - those focused on an industry or economic sector, and those focused on a theme.
Strikes have been part of American labor relations from colonial days to the present, reflecting the widespread class conflict that has run throughout the nation's history. Against employers and their goons, against the police, the National Guard, local, state, and national officials, against racist vigilantes, against their union leaders, and against each other, American workers have walked off the job for higher wages, better benefits, bargaining rights, legislation, job control, and just plain dignity. At times, their actions have motivated groundbreaking legislation, defining new rights for all citizens; at other times they have led to loss of workers' lives. This comprehensive encyclopedia is the first detailed collection of historical research on strikes in America. To provide the analytical tools for understanding strikes, the volume includes two types of essays - those focused on an industry or economic sector, and those focused on a theme. Each industry essay introduces a group of workers and their employers and places them in their economic, political, and community contexts. The essay then describes the industry's various strikes, including the main issues involved and outcomes achieved, and assesses the impact of the strikes on the industry over time. Thematic essays address questions that can only be answered by looking at a variety of strikes across industries, groups of workers, and time, such as, why the number of strikes has declined since the 1970s, or why there was a strike wave in 1946. The contributors include historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers, as well as current and past activists from unions and other social movement organizations. Photos, a Topic Finder, a bibliography, and name and subject indexes add to the works appeal.
Contents
Editors and contributors
List of abbreviations
Topic finder
Introduction to the Encyclopedia of strikes in American history / Aaron Brenner
Types of strikes / Aaron Brenner
Strikes: theory and practice
Introduction / by Aaron Brenner
Strikes in American history / Aaron Brenner
Theories of strikes / Gerald Friedman
Socialist theories of strikes / Christopher Phelps
The news media and strikes / Christopher R. Martin
The business community's mercenaries: strikebreakers and union busters / Robert Smith
Corporate strike strategy / Kim Phillips-Fein
The decline of strikes / Jeremy Brecher
Strike lessons from the last twenty-five years: what it takes to walk out and win / Steve Early
Strikes and working class culture
Introduction / by Benjamin Day
Dressed for defiance: the clothing of female strikers, 1910-1935 / Deirdre Clemente
Better than a hundred speeches: the strike song / Timothy P. Lynch
Civil rights strikes / Todd Michney
World War II hate strikes / James Wolfinger
Polish workers and strikes, 1900-1937 / James S. Pula
North Carolina women on strike / Roxanne Newton
The Catholic Church and strikes / Dan La Botz
Strikes led by the Trade Union Unity League, 1929-1934 / Victor G. Devinatz.
Strike waves
Introduction / by Aaron Brenner
The strike wave of 1877 / John P. Lloyd
World War I era strikes / Cecelia Bucki
The rise and fall of the sit-down strike / Rachel Meyer
The 1945-1946 strike wave / Jack Metzgar
Strikes in the United States since World War II / Nicola Pizzolato
Public sector strikes
Introduction / by Immanuel Ness
Labor and the Boston police strike of 1919 / Joseph Slater
Teachers' strikes / John P. Lloyd
Postal workers' strikes / Aaron Brenner
Three strikes against the New York City transit system / Michael Hirsch
Social workers and strikes / Howard Karger
Strikes in the private sector
Introduction / by Immanuel Ness
Section 1. Manufacturing, mining, and agricultural strikes
Introduction / by Immanuel Ness
Strikes and apprenticeship in the United States / Daniel Jacoby
Strikes in the nineteenth-century cotton textile industry in the Northeast United States / Mary H. Blewett
Twentieth-century textile strikes / David J. Goldberg
Garment worker strikes / Paul Le Blanc
Steel strikes before 1935 / John Hinshaw
Steel on strike: from 1936 to the present / Robert Bruno
Unionizing the "jungle": a century of meatpacking strikes / Jackie S. Gabriel
Automobile workers' strikes / Ian Collin Greer
Rubber workers' strikes / John L. Woods
Plumbing strikes / Kim Phillips-Fein
Agricultural strikes / Dan La Botz
Labor and the transformation of the Hawaiian sugar industry / Edward D. Beechert
The Redwoods Lumber and Sawmill Workers' strike / Calvin Winslow
The Watsonville Cannery strike, 1985-1987 / Myrna Cherkoss Donahoe
Coal miners on strike and the formation of a national union / Jon Amsden and Stephen Brier
Mesabi Iron Miners' strikes / Gerald Ronning
The rise and fall of rank-and-file miner militancy, 1964-2007 / Paul J. Nyden.
Section 2. Infrastructure industry strikes
Introduction / by Benjamin Day
Labor upheaval on the nation's railroads, 1877-1922 / Theresa Ann Case
Strikes by telegraph workers / Anthony J. Silva
Telegraph messenger strikes and their impact on telegraph unionization / Greg Downey
Trolley wars / Scott Molloy
Seafarers' strikes in American history / Nathan Lillie
Longshoremen's strikes, 1900-1920 / Calvin Winslow
Strikes on the port of New York 1945-1960 / William Mello
Strikes in the U.S. airline industry, 1919-2004 / David J. Walsh
Aerospace engineer strikes / Stan Sorscher
Teamster strikes and organizing, 1934-1964
Section 3. Service industry strikes
Introduction / by Benjamin Day
Newsboy strikes / Jon Bekken
Retail workers' strikes / Daniel J. Opler
Waitress strikes / Dorothy Sue Cobble
Office workers' strikes / Vernon Mogensen
Strikes in the motion picture industry / Andrew Dawson
Attorney strikes at the Legal Aid Society of New York City / Michael Z. Letwin
Musician strikes / Damone Richardson
Striking the ivory tower: student employee strikes at private universities / Mandi Isaacs Jackson
The Boston University strike of 1979 / Gary Zabel
Strikes by professional athletes / Michael Schiavone
Nurses on strike / Lisa Hayes
Organizing home health care workers in New York City / Immanuel Ness
Bibliography
Name index
General subject index.
Comments
This looks fantastic! What
This looks fantastic!
What would be really great was if someone could help us out by going through this and adding very brief details of each strike mentioned to our Working Class History project database (which we are going to turn into a website). So if anyone can assist with this please drop us a line! [email protected]