Customer Reviews

Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am being forced to read this for a class on American Legal History. It is insightful and the arguments are compelling. The labor movement in the US was influenced to a great degree by the judiciary during the end of the 19th century. Court action changed the character of the labor movement from one of broad social reform to fragmented trade unionism and "Voluntarism." Voluntarism became predominant in labor's legal pretext, in part, due to:
1. "...the courts... principally determined how labor legislation, once passed, would fare."
2. Those legal victores for labor (Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890, etc;) benefitted the institutions that labor was trying to protect itself from.
3. The courts repeatedly upheld "freedom of contract" arguments in In re Jacobs, Ritchie v. People, etc;
4. Judiciary attacked the economic weapons of labor: city-wide boycotts, symapthy strikes, etc;

Labor (AFL, Gompers, etc;) eventually asked for independent labor relations i.e., freedom to negotiate contracts without government intervention...

I believe that sums it up fairly well, but as a fair warning, this book is academic and painfully boring. If given a choice between hammering my balls flat or rereading this book, I would be forced to make a difficult decision indeed.