Scales and Skills of Monopoly Power: Labor Geographies of the 1890-1891 Chicago Carpenters’ Strike

Abstract

: This paper builds upon labor geography's contributions to our understanding of the role of workers in the production of scale. In addition to examining exactly how a particular group of workers controlled the scale of their labor market, this paper theorizes the connections between that process and struggles over monopoly power. The 1890–1891 Chicago carpenters’ strike, a work stoppage of significance to both the direction of labor politics within Chicago and to the broader 8 h movement in North America at the end of the nineteenth century, serves as a case study.