Contemporary Affairs. What Are Scholars Telling the U.S. Labor Movement to Do?¹

Abstract

The long slow decline of the labor movement in the U.S. in the years between World War II and the 1970s, and the steep decline since 1980, are well known. In response to this decline, scholars and intellectuals have developed prescriptions for its renewal. Two major ''schools of thought'' are the ''value-added unionism'' school (sometimes also known as a ''mutual gains unionism'' approach) embraced by most industrialrelations scholars, and the ''social movement unionism'' school more popular among labor educators and progressive intellectuals. This article aims to describe and analyze these two schools of thought. It also notes the contribution labor historians could have made to the debate.