Building the Union: Skilled Workers and Anglo-Gaelic Immigrants in the Rise of the UAW.

Abstract

Building the Union provides a unique perspective on the history of automaking and autoworkers in Detroit, Michigan. Focused on the sitdown strikes and union organizing of the 1930s, it tells the story of a small group of immigrants--British and Irish workers driven from their homes by depression and civil war--who came to Detroit in the 1920s and played a pivotal role in the rise of mass production and the success of union unionism. Steve Babson challenges many preconceptions about the industrial and social history of America's Motor City. He examines a critical paradox in this history: as scientific management deskilled production work, it helped destroy the apprenticeship system that produced toll and die makers. Employers thought they could solve this dilemma by recruiting toolmakers from Britain and Germany. However, Anglo-Gaelic immigrants brought to Detroit more than just their toolboxes: their cultural baggage included a repretoire of collective action and organizational know-how. Building the Union makes provocative suggestions about the dynamics of class, craft, and culture in the rise of America's leading industrial union. Babson's focus on strategic groups and their role in galvanizing collective action also has implications that apply to the general study of popular protest and mass movements.