Managers and Nonunion Workers in the Rubber Industry: Union Avoidance Strategies in the 1930s

Abstract

This study of the rubber industry in the 1930s confirms the recently developed thesis that employers in that decade were more diverse in their responses to the rise of organized labor, and more successful in thwarting or containing unions, than most early labor histories have given them credit for. The author finds that small and medium-sized firms in the industry were highly sensitive to short-term economic considerations, whereas the largest firms implemented policies that reflected previous industrial relations experiences. Goodyear, Firestone, and U.S. Rubber adopted policies that the author (borrowing a typology from Howell Harris) characterizes as persistent anti-unionism, realism, and progressivism, respectively. All three achieved most of their objectives, including the elimination or restriction of union influence.