>Well, the bosses experienced the classical authoritarian paradigm shift.
>They figured out once again that is make more sense to co-opt the
>opposition (via the AFL-CIO and Teamsters) than it was to kill them.
>Capitalism requires workers to function, so the boss strategy of
>legitimizing the moderate unions was a smart move.
>
>Then they did the next important thing, after WW2, and that was to give
>workers lots of consumer goods to keep them distracted and isolated.
They accepted unions right after WW2 because they thought they didn't have much choice. Thirty years later they started busting them in earnest (not that they were ever so mighty in the south). Why, if the co-optation/distraction strategy was so effective?
Bosses *hate* unions. There's got to be a good reason for this.
Doug