Union renegades : miners, capitalism, and organizing in the Gilded Age / Dana M. Caldemeyer.

By:

Caldemeyer, Dana M, 1986- [author.]

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working class in American historyPublisher: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2021]Description: 1 online resource (viii, 231 pages)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780252052385
0252052382

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

History

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Union renegades.DDC classification:

331.88/122334097709034 23

LOC classification:

HD6515.M615 C45 2021

Online resources:

EBSCOhost

Contents:

Deceived : producers in a dishonest world -- Undermined : winter diggers, union strikebreakers -- "Judases" : union "betrayal" and the aborted 1891 strike -- Outsiders : race and the exclusive politics of an inclusive union, 1892-1894 -- Unsettled : nonunion mobilization and the 1894 strike -- Wolves : fractured unions in the Gilded Age, 1894-1896.

Summary: In the late nineteenth century, Midwestern miners often had to decide if joining a union was in their interest. Arguing that these workers were neither pro-union nor anti-union, the author shows that they acted according to what they believed would benefit them and their families. As corporations moved to control coal markets and unions sought to centralize their organizations to check corporate control, workers were often caught between these institutions and sided with whichever one offered the best advantage in the moment. Workers chased profits while paying union dues, rejected national unions while forming local orders, and broke strikes while claiming to be union members. This pragmatic form of unionism differed from what union leaders expected of rank-and-file members, but for many workers, the choice to follow or reject union orders was a path to better pay, stability, and independence in an otherwise unstable age. Nuanced and eye-opening, this book challenges popular notions of workers' attitudes during the Gilded Age. -- Provided by publisher.

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 5 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
eBook	e-Library	EBSCO Social Science		Available

Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references (pages [171]-226) and index.

In the late nineteenth century, Midwestern miners often had to decide if joining a union was in their interest. Arguing that these workers were neither pro-union nor anti-union, the author shows that they acted according to what they believed would benefit them and their families. As corporations moved to control coal markets and unions sought to centralize their organizations to check corporate control, workers were often caught between these institutions and sided with whichever one offered the best advantage in the moment. Workers chased profits while paying union dues, rejected national unions while forming local orders, and broke strikes while claiming to be union members. This pragmatic form of unionism differed from what union leaders expected of rank-and-file members, but for many workers, the choice to follow or reject union orders was a path to better pay, stability, and independence in an otherwise unstable age. Nuanced and eye-opening, this book challenges popular notions of workers' attitudes during the Gilded Age. -- Provided by publisher.

Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on January 14, 2021).

Added to collection customer.56279.3