Manufacturing Strikes in the 21st Century: Learning to Live With Globalization
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2009
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
After the labor movement saw its apex in the 1950s with one third of the non-agricultural workforce unionized, it began to slowly decline, and union density decreased. This trend was heightened with the onset of globalization which allowed companies to easily move away from highly unionized areas to areas with lower production costs. At first this meant moving from the city to the suburbs, then from the suburbs to states with lower labor costs and less history of unionization, and lastly to countries with sometimes vastly different labor laws and drastically lower labor costs. It was and still is hard for unions to survive the conditions created by globalization, and even harder for unions to gain higher wages and more benefits for their workers. This is especially true for unions that support workers in the manufacturing industry, because those workers are the most directly affected by globalization, because their jobs can literally be sent overseas. Although it has a strong history of unions, the manufacturing sector is a difficult place for them today. Considering the impossible situation many workers are placed in, I chose to research cases in which unions within the manufacturing sector try to win better contracts for their workers. I chose to research four case studies all involving large unions in the manufacturing sector. These case studies come from the auto industry, aerospace industry, steel industry, and motorcycle industry. The first case I chose to research involves a strike that took place at American Axle and Manufacturing plants in western New York state and Michigan. This is an example of a very large strike, involving multiple locals within a union and it is especially relevant because it involves the auto industry, which is struggling to stay afloat amid the pressures of globalization. The workers who chose to strike were also very directly affected by globalization because the company was closing down plants in the United States and opening them in Mexico and other countries, which made their situation even more difficult. The second case I studied was the strike that took place at Latrobe Specialty Steel Company in Latrobe Pennsylvania. This is an example of a much smaller strike (only 350 people), and as a result is interesting because the local union was much more involved in decision making than the local in the American Axle strike. I then chose to study a strike that took place at a Harley Davidson plant in York, Pennsylvania, and finally a very large strike that involved the giant airplane manufacturing company Boeing. The Boeing strike involved 27,000 people and a union big enough to take on one of the largest airplane manufacturers in the world. I will use these case studies to evaluate the factors that contribute to the successes and failures of labor movement activities in the manufacturing sector at this time.