A Brief Ascendency: American Labor After 1945
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Nick Salvatore
In 1945, American labor unions optimistically expected considerable growth in the coming decades. The New Deal policies continued their influence, and organized labor achieved its highest density rating (35 percent) ever recorded in the United States. By the mid-1950s, however, that figure began to decline, slowly at first and then, after 1970, swiftly. At the close of 2011, it had fallen to 11.8 percent. The cause of this reduction was not simply employer opposition, although that did occur. Rather, the American working class itself underwent a political and sociological sea change, propelled by southern migration of whites and blacks into the industrial North, sharp changes in political attitudes during and after the 1960s, and the economic transformation of the American and global economy that began in the 1970s. Some of these changes were beyond the scope of organized labor’s ability to alter; regarding others, labor proved to be slow, even hesitant, in its response. One consequence was the resurgence of a sharply conservative political vision among American working people that had a powerful impact on national elections and the policy choices followed.
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Special Issue: Labor in American Politics
- Article
- A Brief Ascendency: American Labor After 1945
- The Most Powerful Political Force in the Country
- Do Unions Still Matter in U.S. Elections? Assessing Labor's Political Power and Significance
- Teachers Unions and American Education Reform: The Politics of Blocking
- The Education Iron Triangle
- Solidarities and Restrictions: Labor and Immigration Policy in the United States
- Public Sector Unions Need the Private Sector or Why the Wisconsin Protests Were Not Labor's Lazarus Moment
- The Return of Judicial Repression: What Has Happened to the Strike?
- "Broken Windows," Vulnerable Workers, and the Future of Worker Representation
- American Unions in Comparative Perspective
- Commentary
- Political Science as a Vocation: An Appreciation of the Life and the Work of James Q. Wilson
- Review
- Weakness and Wisdom: A Review of In My Time and Known and Unknown
- The Trouble With Teachers Unions: Review of Special Interest
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Special Issue: Labor in American Politics
- Article
- A Brief Ascendency: American Labor After 1945
- The Most Powerful Political Force in the Country
- Do Unions Still Matter in U.S. Elections? Assessing Labor's Political Power and Significance
- Teachers Unions and American Education Reform: The Politics of Blocking
- The Education Iron Triangle
- Solidarities and Restrictions: Labor and Immigration Policy in the United States
- Public Sector Unions Need the Private Sector or Why the Wisconsin Protests Were Not Labor's Lazarus Moment
- The Return of Judicial Repression: What Has Happened to the Strike?
- "Broken Windows," Vulnerable Workers, and the Future of Worker Representation
- American Unions in Comparative Perspective
- Commentary
- Political Science as a Vocation: An Appreciation of the Life and the Work of James Q. Wilson
- Review
- Weakness and Wisdom: A Review of In My Time and Known and Unknown
- The Trouble With Teachers Unions: Review of Special Interest
