Outflanking Power, Reframing Unionism: The Basic Strike of 1999-2001

Abstract

How is it possible for workers and their unions to effectively challenge the overwhelming power of employers? The 1999-2001 Basic Vegetable strike by 750 mostly Mexican immigrant members of Teamsters Local 890 in King City, California, achieved surprising success against the archconservative owners of Basic Vegetable Products and the giant ConAgra Corporation. This account elaborates Offe and Weisenthal's model of labor movement revival, relying on concepts from social movement theory, organizational analysis, and the sociology of power, to explain the Basic strikers' success in highly unfavorable economic and legal circumstances. This study observes the convergence in this workforce of movements for race and gender justice, workplace and immigrant rights, and union reform. It emphasizes the significance of organizational change driven by these social movements in equipping the union for success. It focuses on four methods employed by the Basic strikers for "out-flanking power" that are labeled (1) reframing meanings, (2) changing the rules, (3) constitutional practices, and (4) changes in basic structures of control.