The Political Attitudes and Preferences of Union Members: The Case of the Detroit Auto Workers

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold L. Sheppard ◽  
Nicholas A. Masters
Keyword(s):  
Labor Unions ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Auto Workers ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Legal Controls ◽  
Complex Question ◽  
American Labor

The emergence of American labor unions to positions of actual or potential power as organized forces in election campaigns has stirred a great deal of controversy over the limits and propriety of union political activity. A decade and more after the Taft-Hartley Act provisions on that subject, argument continues as vigorously as ever about the need for, and if a need, then the nature and extent of, legal controls over the power of union leaders to enlist and commit their membership to electioneering goals. Underlying many of these debates is the complex question of union membership solidarity in political affairs. For if, to some, solidarity suggests dangers, it also indicates difficulties in the way of making controls effective. Yet we have only begun to explore the solidarity of rank-and-file attitudes toward union political activity.

scholarly journals Maritime unions and the U.S. merchant marine

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-24
Author(s):  
Richard L Clarke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Union Wage ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
The U.S

U.S. maritime unions have played a vital historical role in both the defense and the economic development of the United States. The economic and the political forces that helped shape and promote the growth of U.S. seafaring labor unions changed dramatically in the 1990s. Maritime union membership in the United States has fallen by more than 80 per cent since 1950. Inflexible union work rules and high union wage scales have contributed to this decline. Recent regulatory and industry changes require a new union approach if U. S. maritime unions are to survive the next decade.

Does the Political Power of Nonfinancial Stakeholders Affect Firm Values? Evidence from Labor Unions

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 1101-1133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared Stanfield ◽  
Robert Tumarkin
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Opposite Effect ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Political Connections ◽  
The Political ◽  
Labor Contracts ◽  
Equity Values ◽  
Australian State

Whereas corporate political connections are known to enhance equity values, we demonstrate that union political activity can have the opposite effect. We examine the consequences of a recent Australian state law that restricts union political activity but does not change collective bargaining rights. In the wake of this law, the equity values of affected unionized firms significantly increase, and consistent with this market reaction, these firms are able to bargain for more favorable labor contracts than their unionized peers in other states. The evidence strongly suggests that unions use political activism to extract rents from shareholders and benefit their members.

Religion and Trade Union Politics in the United States, 1880–1920

1988 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 39-55
Author(s):  
Ken Fones-Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Era ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
The Church ◽  
American Labor Movement ◽  
American Labor

More than three decades have passed since Marc Karson analyzed the Catholic church's critical role in impeding the growth of socialism in the American labor movement. He was not the first to make the argument; Progressive Era socialists were acutely aware of Catholics' outspoken opposition, and David Saposs outlined Karson's arguments as early as 1933. However, the evidence marshaled by Karson, first in a 1951 article and later inAmerican Labor Unions and Politics, 1900–1918, so clearly detailed facets of Catholic antisocialism that his thesis has become the conventional wisdom. With few exceptions, historians depict the church as a potent enemy of socialism, heartily welcomed by trade union leaders.

Nation, Locality and Radical Identity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Petrie
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Control ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Political Left ◽  
National Model ◽  
Selection Of

Concentrating upon the years between the 1924 and 1929 general elections, which separated the first and second minority Labour governments, this chapter traces the rise of a modernised, national vision of Labour politics in Scotland. It considers first the reworking of understandings of sovereignty within the Labour movement, as the autonomy enjoyed by provincial trades councils was circumscribed, and notions of Labour as a confederation of working-class bodies, which could in places include the Communist Party, were replaced by a more hierarchical, national model. The electoral consequences of this shift are then considered, as greater central control was exercised over the selection of parliamentary candidates and the conduct of election campaigns. This chapter presents a study of the changing horizons of the political left in inter-war Scotland, analysing the declining importance of locality in the construction of radical political identities.

Don’t hatch the messenger? On the desirability of restricting the political activity of bureaucrats

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-139
Author(s):  
Jean Guillaume Forand ◽  
Gergely Ujhelyi
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Analysis ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Voter Perceptions ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Workers

Many countries place restrictions on the political rights of government workers. This includes limitations on political activities such as taking an active part in political campaigns. Are such restrictions desirable? We present a formal welfare analysis of this question. Bureaucrats’ political activities affect voter perceptions of the government and this can have informational benefits. However, they can also induce policy mistakes and are susceptible to ‘noise’ from some bureaucrats’ innate desire for political expression. When politicians have limited control over bureaucrats and successfully coordinate with voters, bureaucrats’ political activities can be desirable. In most cases, however, banning political activities is optimal.

VALUE ORIENTATIONS AND CIVIL-POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF YOUNG RUSSIAN PATRIOTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-70
Author(s):  
ANTONINA SELEZNEVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Values ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Patriotic Education ◽  
High Level

Purpose of the study. The article is devoted to the analysis of value orientations, forms of civic engagement and political participation of young Russian citizens who consider themselves patriots. In accordance with the conceptual and methodological provisions developed within the framework of the political and psychological approach, the author examines how the cognitive and behavioral components of the personality structure, which determine the patriotic orientation of youth, relate to each other. Research results. Based on an analysis of the data of an all-Russian survey of young people aged 15 to 30, the author comes to the conclusion that young Russian patriots are interested in politics and identify with Russia. They demonstrate a fairly high level of social activity and have a wide repertoire of forms of civic participation and political behavior. They have attitudes towards conventional forms of political participation (primarily electoral). In the system of values of young patriots, the most significant are human rights, peace, order, legality, security, freedom and justice. Young Russian citizens who consider themselves patriots differ in their political values and behavioral orientations from «non-patriots». The author comes to the conclusion that young patriots have a connection between values and behavioral practices of their implementation, which determines their focus on interaction with the state and society. But this is not typical for young people in general. It is noted that in the future, patriotism can become a factor in the serious intragenerational demarcation of young people. Therefore, significant efforts are required from various institutions of socialization in the field of political education and patriotic education of youth.

Reframing Solidarity: Company Magazine as Family Album

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-67
Author(s):  
Courtney Maloney
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Standards Of Living ◽  
Concomitant Reduction ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The U.S

We are witnessing a time of shrinking labor unions across the globe. Among member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, rates of union membership have declined from 30% in 1985 to 20% today (McCarthy 2017). In the U.S., the current rate is just 10.7% (Yadoo 2018). We have seen along with this the concomitant reduction in working-class and middle-class standards of living. Technological, political, and economic factors have impacted this change, but there is a cultural dimension to it as well. From the moment industrial unions in the U.S. gained power, corporations began to counter workingclass solidarity with alternative narratives that emphasized individualism, domesticity, and leisure. This article illuminates such efforts with a reading of one particularly sophisticated example from the mid-twentieth century, in which a steel corporation’s company magazine used workers’ own participation and self-representations in an effort to reorient notions of solidarity toward an identification with the corporation as family.

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