American Workers, American Unions: The Twentieth Century (review)

Robert Zieger's and Gilbert Gall's American Workers, American Unions is an excellent survey of twentieth-century labor history. Although the core of the text remains relatively unrevised from earlier editions, this new expanded version covers the entire century, with anew first chapter on the Progressive Era and World War I and a new final chapter (contributed by Gilbert Gall, also an addition) completing the history into the twenty-first century. The book also includes a short bibliography at the end supplemented by a longer version available online at the John Hopkins University Press Web site.

Organized chronologically and reviewing the progress of American workers' push for improved wages and work conditions, the book critically examines the formation of and the economic and political power of unions. The chapters contain subsections (though not listed in the table of contents) that help pace a well-written and flowing narrative. American Workers interweaves quite masterfully hard data with salient quotations from historical actors and commentators, all set against the historical background that often includes useful discussion of important labor leaders. But this book is not a simple account of grand labor leaders and the parts they played. Even within the confines of this concise survey, Zieger and Gall manage to discuss minority workers, key economic shifts during the century, and how workers affected and reacted to these shifts. To the extent that such a survey has a thesis, it is that American workers have labored toward justice; but—as the authors imply when they quote Martin Luther King, Jr., in the last chapter—that process has been aslow one.

As with all overviews, tough decisions must be made about what to exclude, choices that inevitably will irk some readers. Perhaps most troublesome is the lack of attention given workers outside the labor movement. But when it comes to organized labor, I remain fundamentally satisfied about the authors' decisions. American Workers not only covers major moments in twentieth-century labor history, but also it discusses larger trends, such as the rise of the new industrial regime early in the century, and the increasing importance of service jobs in the latter half of the century. Zeiger and Gall deftly handle complex issues such as race, the relationship between the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and the role of radicalism in the labor movement. They note how white workers have benefited from the exclusionary practices of unions, but they also highlight the moments of successful interracial unionism and the fairly positive record unions achieved during the Civil Rights era (at least compared to other leading institutions in the nation). The authors give important laws such as the Wagner Act and Taft-Hartley their due. Indeed, the book is strongest when discussing the larger structural obstacles that have impeded the union movement. These include inter- and-intraunion friction, national and state government resistance to union strength (although coverage of this topic is limited), business resistance (both legal and extralegal) to union organizing, the effects on workers' collective power resulting from business cycles, and general malaise of workers in organizing effectively or for long periods of time.

The authors miss an opportunity to critically examine the political meaning of joining a union. How does union membership politicize the workplace? That is, how does the entrance of union representation change the dynamic power relationships at work? In addition, to what extent can one evaluate general political consciousness (dare one say class consciousness?) in the rank and file? I remained dissatisfied with the authors' seemingly artificial separation of political activity in the U.S. two-party political system and union activism. The divide needs to be bridged if we are to better assess worker political consciousness. Analysis of polls and even the political lobbying of unions does...