The importance of the first factor can be illustrated by a conversation I had with an Amtrak conductor on a sleepy Philadelphia - Harrisburg line (it is virtually impossible to chat with conductors on the NE Corridor trains.)
He was very strongly pro union and then started to talk about his son, a truck driver, who was anti-union. Obviously, Surowiecki's explanation based on social connections does not apply here. However, different organization and institutional history of railroading and trucking may explain some of those different attitudes of two family members toward unionism.
Both railroading and trucking are blue collar "career" occupations (unlike, say, menial service jobs which tend to be seen as transitory) - so people have obvious stakes in protecting their working conditions, as opposed to just quitting and finding another job. However, railroading is what organization sociologists call "tightly coupled" industry, meaning a high level of interdependence, cooperation and control among individual units.
Such tight coupling not only facilitates union organization by creating social proximity and ties that are crucial in mobilizing for collective action, but also exacerbates the threat of an industrial action, which can quite literally derail the train from its tracks. Trucking, by contrast is a "loosely coupled" industry, which means fewer and weaker connections between individuals and also diminished threat of industrial action.
The second factor is the rise of consumerism. First and foremost, consumerism changed the identity of the working class from producers to consumers. As consumers, they saw their interest opposite to those of other producers, which make them more amenable to the bosses' calls for lower wages and stricter labor control in the name of "customer service." A good illustration of it is the DC Metro-speak in which passengers are referred to as "customers." Wanting "quality consumer product" puts individual workers in the same boat, so to speak, with their bosses and against other workers.
Secondly, consumerism significantly increased of what economists call "opportunity cost" of union dues. Having a choice of spending some of their pay on union dues or consumer goods they became the defining factor of "being cool" (fashionable schmatas, electronic schlock, etc.) - it was much easier to see union dues as a "waste of money" that could be used to buy more crap.
Wojtek
On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 12:16 AM, sandia <sandia1980 at gmail.com> wrote:
> It's also important to recognize how much of the anti-union sentiment
> is stoked by conservative/business elites and activists. Since the
> 1950s, and especially since the 1970s, they've propgated the
> anti-union line and sought to proliferate it down from rightwing think
> tanks, lobbyists and business groups. See Kim Phillips-Fein's book,
> "Invisible Hands," as well as Joseph McCartin's work on the attacks on
> public sector unionism in the 1970s.
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 10:55 PM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> > I hear a lot of anti-union sentiment, but it's hard to say what it means
> because the last generation has seen a near universal condemnation of
> organized labor and expressed complete contempt for labor in general. To be
> a worker in this country is synonymous with being a loser. The only thing
> worse than being a worker is being in jail.
> >
> > The reality shows, which focus entirely on the ritual humiliation of the
> working class and on showing that the poor are capable of anything in order
> to get ahead, have only added fuel to the fire.
> >
> > Joanna
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Julio Huato" <juliohuato at gmail.com>
> > To: "Marxist Debate" <marxist-debate at googlegroups.com>,
> pen-l at lists.csuchico.edu, "Lbo Talk Lbo Talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 6:52:59 PM
> > Subject: [lbo-talk] Surowecki on unions
> >
> > Opinions on this piece?
> >
> >
> http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/01/17/110117ta_talk_surowiecki
> > ___________________________________
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> >
>
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