A Strike Like No Other Strike: Law & Resistance during the Pittston Coal Strike of 1989–1990 by Richard A. Brisbin, Jr. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS within the constrains of a state that dictated both limits and potentialities for labor progress in the Steel City. Specifically,the state gave business free rein to police industry or,acting as a " Fairy Godmother ," offered tax breaks to businesses and only limited enforcement of labor laws. It thereby set the stage for growth of big business in Pittsburgh during the first part of the twentieth century and its unprecedented power. ( 62, 65) In the latter half of the century,ideologies of " consensus"and the American way of life" muted class conflict by portraying America as a " classless society, at the same time that militancy against racial and gender discrimination were sacrificed on the altar of the Cold War. ( 108, 173 & 103) Finally,deindustrialization emerged as both a political and economic outcome of the government' s redirection of funding away from steel and its unwillingness to protect steel in order to increase international trade. It was this that spelled the end of the steel industry as much as business's increasing disinvestment in the mills. ( 235) While Hinshaw offers a new perspective on the role of the state in the steel industry and in the lives of steelworkers, his analysis of race and gender in steel is slightly less compelling. For example, although he gives a central place to women and African Americans throughout his narrative,Hinshaw does not so much focus on gender or race in twentieth century Pittsburgh as he does on racial or gender based discrimination. This is not to dismiss Hinshaw's detailed account of the prejudice both groups faced in the steel industry and afterwards in postindustrial Pittsburgh. Rather jt suggests that the author might as well have emphasized the role of race or gender as social constructions that shaped the overall nature of the steel industry and the identity of steelworkers. As late as 1971, for example, women represented only .05 percent of skilled steelworkers in Pennsylvania, a fact that meant not only did women face discrimination, but also gender powerfully shaped both labor and capital' s idea of who could be a steelworker. ( 214) Nevertheless,the attention Hinshaw devotes to race and gender does constitute a radical departure from many labor studies done in the past. While an overabundance of acronyms may discourage some casual readers, Hinshaw' s work represents a large step forward in forging a discourse in which " workers'interests define the public interest." 255) Steel and Steelworkers therefore should be considered necessary reading for anyone interested in the history of labor,steel or Pittsburgh. Luther Adams University of Washington at Tacoma Richard A. Brisbin, Jr. A Strike Like No Other Strike: Law G Resistance during tbe Pittston Coal Strike of 19891990 . Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press,2002. 350 pp. ISBN: 0801869013 cloth), $ 44.95. n A Strike Like No Other Strike,Richard Brisbin asks what impact did the law have on the Pittston Coal strike,one of the largest and most important strikes of the last part of the twentieth century. Since the late 1930s organized labor has been enmeshed in a legal system that recognizes workers right to organize and bargain collectively but at the same time gives primacy to protecting employers' property rights. Under this system,in the postwar period unions made what might be considered a Faustian bargain. In exchange for higher wages and generous benefits, organized labor stepped back from the quest for industrial democracy and renounced the militancy and confrontational tactics that had helped workers achieve the victories of the thirties. This accord never worked perfectly,especially in the coal industry. Beginning in the sixties, rank and file coal miners, critical of the union leadership' s neglect of miners' health and safety and the lack of OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 90 union democracy,engaged in a range of resistance strategies,including wildcat strikes. Finally in the 1980s, facing higher costs from environmental and safety regulations and increasing global competition , coal operators sought to break the postwar accord. Encouraged by the more probusiness labor policy of the Reagan administration,operators such as the Pittston Coal Company moved to reduce union power. In 1988, Pittston, for instance, demanded from the United Mine Workers of America UMWA...