ENGLISH

Modern manors: welfare capitalism since the New Deal

By Sanford M. Jacoby

Book information

Publisher
Princeton University Press
Year
1997
ISBN
9780691015705, 0691015708
LCC
HC106.5 .J33 1997
Open Library ID
OL662350M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (1592379 bytes)
Pages
357\357
Topic
Economy
Time added
2010-05-17 00:23:50

Description

It is not a very long book, but it contains a lot of information and insight. I guess that is why an academic jury awarded it the Taft Prize for Labor History. The book is all about how american businesses--three in particular: Sears, Thompson, and Kodak--used sophisticated welfare capitalist techniques (and the occasional resort to brass-knuckle tactics) to defeat union organizing drives. There are fascinating glimpses at business history, collective bargaining, the evolution of employee benefits, and a dollop of labor economics thrown in for good measure in this work. The writing is accessible, well-documented, and brimful of well-chosen anecdotes without being unduly folksy or slangy. The depictions of how Sears company officials and staff labor relations professionals worked hand-in-glove with fake company unions and the Teamsters (!?) to blunt the CIO's organizing efforts during and after World War II are particularly good. I have rated this at 5 stars because it was a rewarding read and I thought the (somewhat inadequate) 1 star review ought to be offset.

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