Union nativism and the immigrant response

Asher, Robert

doi:10.1080/00236568208584661

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…In the Pozzetta collection, Howard Dewitt examines the 1930s formation of a Filipino farm workers union and an important strike of lettuce pickers in 1934. Robert Asher's (1982) summary of the findings of several labor historians also cautions against simple generalization. Immigrants in some circumstances were more than ready to join unions and in others highly resistant.…”

Section: Race and Ethnicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Labor Union Response to Diversity in Canada and the United States

Hunt

Rayside

2000

Industrial Relations

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Canadian and American research finds that organized labor's engagement with race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation until recently has been largely exclusionist. The Canadian labor movement emerges as having been somewhat more responsive to equity issues, particularly gender and sexual orientation, and at an earlier stage than its U.S. counterpart. The American movement, however, did create limited room for African-American issues and unionization from early this century and now shows signs of broader engagement with diversity issues in general. The literature is strong in case studies pointing to exceptional situations involving minority militancy and union acceptance and in highlighting the role of activists inside and external to the labor movement. It suffers from a lack of large-scale analysis and comparison.Has organized labor been an ally or a foe for women and minority groups seeking equal opportunities and equitable treatment in the labor force and workplace? There is now a substantial body of literature focused on this question, and recent changes in union response to issues of diversity call out for a summary and assessment of this literature. This article considers scholarship on race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation in Canada and the United States.

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Section: Race and Ethnicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Labor Union Response to Diversity in Canada and the United States

Hunt

Rayside

2000

Industrial Relations

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“…Coal mining communities were typically small, cohesive company towns. Miners, unlike most American workers, had a tradition of class consciousness and, according to Asher (1982), were the first group to welcome immigrants into their union. Unionists were viewed as somewhat radical, and employers reacted against union activity and possibly discriminated against union workers.…”

Section: (In Fact International Agreements With Foreign Labor Organimentioning

confidence: 99%

Earnings Effects of Labor Organizations in 1890

Dillon¹,

Gang²

1987

ILR Review

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Analyzing data from extensive surveys of U.S. nonfarm families in 1889-90-predominantly families from eastern states-the authors of this paper show that workers affiliated with labor organizations had earnings that were 22 percent higher than the earnings of other workers, an effect comparable in magnitude to estimates for modern unions. Wage differentials varied considerably across the eight industries studied and across skill levels within each industry. LABOR economists generally agree that modern trade unions have raised unionized workers' earnings relative to the earnings of nonunionized workers; the estimates vary widely, but average about 15 percent (see Lewis 1963Lewis , 1986; Hirsch and Addison 1986, Chap. 5). Empirical findings of a union earnings premium are consistent with the theory of factor markets (the Hicks-Marshall laws of derived demand), which predicts such an effect given the conditions that have obtained since World War I-a strong union presence in high-wage industries that rely on relatively scarce skilled workers.'The same theory has caused economists to doubt the possibility that such an earnings premium could have occurred in earfor criticism and suggestions.1 The Hicks-Marshall laws of derived demand state that demand for a factor is a function of the elasticity of substitution between factors, the elasticity of supply of competitive factors, the elasticity of demand for the final product, and the input share of the factor in the cost of the final product. See Addison and Siebert (1979:240-41) or Ulman (1955:305-7). lier times. Over the years, several important labor historians (in particular, Douglas 1930:562; Slichter 1941, Chap. 12; Ulman 1955, Chap. 17) have stated that union earnings differentials were likely in some industries at particular times in the late nineteenth century; but the profession has tended to look at the proportion of the labor force organized as a measure of market power (as in Wolman 1936:3-14) and, relying on the Hicks-Marshall conditions, to decide that early unions could not have significantly affected earnings.This paper re-examines that conclusion through an analysis of data on 6,375 nonfarm U.S. families in 1889-90. The data source is a survey conducted by the U.S. Commissioner of Labor to gain information on the composition of industrial costs of production (in connection with congressional debate over the McKinley tariff).2 That survey, which gener-2 This tariff, adopted in 1890, was introduced by Representative William McKinley and was much emphasized in his successful 1896 presidential campaign on the Republican ticket. It imposed prohibitively high duties and was meant to protect "infant industries." The tariff provoked bitter opposition abroad, including threats of reprisals, and was a major cause of the Democratic victory in the congressional elections of 1890.

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“…In each case, labor had to contend with a "foreign" labor force clustered in unskilled occupations, living in tightly knit, relatively stable long lasting community enclaves providing considerable interclass interaction and separating them from mainstream American life. (Greene, 1968;Fenton, 1975, Asher, 1982.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Comparative Union Responses to Mass Immigration: Evidence From an Immigrant City

Grenier¹,

Nissen²

2000

Critical Sociology

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This article places union relationships with immigrant workers into a globalized and historical context, and utilizes primary data to examine the relationships of four unions in the heavily immigrant Miami, Florida area with immigrant workers in the past four decades. Two are building trades unions with a long exclusionary history and two are industrially organized unions, one in the service sector and one in manufacturing. Varying patterns of relationships with immigrants are discovered. Explanations for diVering responses can be found in the union's structure, its traditional membership and employer characteristics, its leadership's vision and ideology, and its internal cultural practices. The paper ends with nine predictors of a union's likelihood of successfully integrating immigrants into its membership.

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Union nativism and the immigrant response

Cited by 15 publications

References 7 publications

Labor Union Response to Diversity in Canada and the United States

Labor Union Response to Diversity in Canada and the United States

Earnings Effects of Labor Organizations in 1890

Comparative Union Responses to Mass Immigration: Evidence From an Immigrant City

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