Emily Labor History Quiz-let

Memphis sanitation strike

Began in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee with over 1,000 black sanitation workers, supported by AFSCME, protesting their job after years of poor treatment, discrimination, and dangerous working conditions. The Memphis sanitation workers' strike ended when the city agreed to issue raises to African American employees and recognize the workers' union. The strike was closely connected to the civil rights movement as the strike came to represent the struggle for racial equality in Memphis, as even Martin Luther King Jr. had an active role in the strike, though he did not support the ensuing riots that led up to the negotiations. Lead to riots and eventually assassination of MLK.

Comparative advantage

Developed by 19th century British economist David Ricardo, comparative advantage is the idea that some country, based on its factor endowments and/or technological capabilities, can produce a set amount of a specific good or service at a lower opportunity cost than some other country. The theory of comparative advantage is often used to advocate for free international trade, directly challenging the now-archaic ideals of Mercantilism; if two countries capable of producing two commodities engage in the free market, then each country will increase its overall consumption by exporting the good for which it has a comparative advantage while importing the other good, provided that there exist differences in labor productivity between both countrie

OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration (1970)

Federal Agency established in 1970 that set workplace safety and health standards and conducted workplace inspections as mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Women War Workers and Government Propaganda

Formed important but temporary part of skilled industrial workforce. Women were eager to work due to patriotism and higher pay, however they never made as much as men made. When the men returned back from war they gave their jobs up so the men could take them. War work was industrial. Government propaganda was used to make them feel patriotic and to work.

Fair Employment Practices Committee of 1941

Implemented US Executive order requiring companies with government contracts could not discriminated on the basis of race or religion. It was intended to help minorities obtain jobs in the home front war industry during WWII.

Double V Campaign

Inspired by James Thompson's opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Courier. It focused on achieving victor abroad over the Axis powers as well as victory at home over racism against blacks. They wanted to spread democracy in the US and abroad. Significance: Laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement but was not an immediate success. Raised awareness of discrimination in the US.

Myth and Reality of Women's Labor Force Participation

M/P: Women should go to work as patriotic effort R: Most women were already in the labor force M/P: War work was just like traditional women's work R: Women were performing industrial jobs (mens work) M/P: Day care was available for all married women with small children R: Some day care was available but it was usually not plentiful or convenient M/P: Women would earn a man's pay R: Women were making more than they used to, but not equal pay. Still gender and racial pay gap. M/P: Women were happy to give up their jobs when men came back R: Women liked working for higher pay and didn't want to return to their lower paying jobs

UAW-GM Sit Down Strike

Occurred in 1936. UAW wanted to reform labor-management policies so they organized a sit-down strike at GM's key factory in Flint, Michigan. They wanted to slow production to a halt while simultaneously preventing management from brining in strikebreakers. This shut down the entire company for a period of time because the Flint plant was the main production plant. Significance: First instance of a major union using a sit-down strike. This even changed the UAW from a collection of isolated locals on the fringes of the industry into a major labor union, leading to the unionization of the domestic U.S. automobile industry.

Old Left v New Left

Old left (Labor unions, collective rights) vs. New Left (anti-authoritarian, individual rights)

Just-in-time production

Operating off of the idea that storage of unused inventory is a waste of resources, just-in-time production is a methodology aimed primarily at reducing flow times within production as well as response times from suppliers and to customers that originated and developed in Japan largely in the 1960s and '70s, particularly at Toyota. As just-in-time production migrated to Western industries in the 1980s, its many pros and cons became evident: whereas it enables many cars to be built to order, eliminating the risk that they wouldn't be sold and synchronizing supply with production demands, very low stock levels open up companies to flow interruptions

Executive Order 8802

Outlawed discrimination in hiring. However, this was only for war time industries, did not completely change discrimination in hiring. Established the Fair Employment Practices Committee.

Industrialization in the North and South

Race is still a huge issue in the South and influenced the development of the industrial South. Didn't affect business investment but did not affect new companies. Racial segregation at work allowed for African American workers to be paid lower. Significance: The segregation of Whites and Blacks kept them divided which hindered them coming together for collective action. North: Skilled workers, big on automotive industry.

President Kennedy, Executive order 10988 (1962)

Recognized the right of federal employees to collective bargaining. This executive order was a breakthrough for public sector workers, who were not protected under the 1935 Wagner Act. Workers gained the right to join unions and other organizations of workers; however they were not permitted to strike—federal strikes had been explicitly prohibited in 1947 by the Taft-Hartley Act[3]—or to join the leadership of these groups. Union membership among federal employees increased several times over the next decade.

Legal and Social Factors in Union Failure in the SOuth

Social factors and existing racial tensions made it hard to unionize the poor blacks and blue collar whites. Because these groups couldn't be united, collective bargaining was ultimately impossible. Laws like the "right to work" laws also came into play and created more knowledge about some of the negative possible effects of unions

Public Sector Unionization

Starting in the 1960s, any increasing union strength was in the public sector, not the private sector. Some of the factors of growth in the public sector include President Kennedy's Executive order 10988 and the growth of AFSCME.

Rights-based liberalism

The responsibility to protect workers rights and protect them from discrimination in the work place. Its significance is that the state is able to empower workers as individuals. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title VII resulted from this idea, which was common among the New Left.

David Ricardoa

a 19th century British economist who developed the theory of comparative advantage, which is the idea that a nation should concentrate its resources solely in industries where it is most internationally competitive and trade with other countries to obtain products no longer produced nationally

Containerization

a system of freight transport via the use of containers with standardized dimensions that developed following WWII, dramatically reducing transport costs and helping to support the post-war boom in international trade as a key element of globalization. Because containerization did away with most of the manual sorting of shipments and the need for warehousing (as the handling system is completely mechanized so that all handling is done with cranes and special forklift trucks), it also rendered those dock workers specialized in handling general cargo expendable. Allowed for comparative advantage.

Guangdong, China

the most populous province in China, Guangdong is also one of the greatest contributors to the PRC's GDP, thanks to an economic boom in the 1990s, one that resulted from the low value-added manufacturing that characterized the province's economy following Deng Xiaoping's reforms, turning Guangdong into China's largest importer and exporter. Lichenstein refers to Guangdong as 'the workshop of the world', due to its mass influxes of migrants who flock to the region to work for incredibly low pay in the countless factories that define the province's industrial landscape.

Justice Owen Roberts

"Switch in time to save 9". 1937. He switched his previous stance on government getting involved in labor and FDRs New Deal Policies allegedly because of pressure from Roosevelt that he was going to add 3 more justices because the justices were not supporting his policies.

Kelsey-Hayes Strike

1936 A wildcat strike that became one of the first documented sit-down strikes, setting the precedent for the most famous UAW-GM strike in Flint, Michigan. UAW operatives, working independently of Walter Reuther who did not encourage a sit-down strike at the Kelsey-Hayes factory, shut the factory down for five days before a compromise settlement was reached and unionism took hold at Kelsey-Hayes. The significance of this strike was that it highlighted the UAW's inability to control its members, indicating that organized labor did not have control over its workers as it used to.

Jones and Laughlin

1937 Supreme Court Case that ruled J&L Steel Corp must rehire and provide back pay to those workers who had been fired for expressing interest in joining the SWOC. This declared the Wagner Act and NLRB constitutional.

FDR's Court Packing Plan (Judicial Reform Bill)

1937. FDR proposed plan that would allow him to add an additional justice (up to 6) for each member of the court over 70 years old, right before West Coast Hotel Decision. Was introduced to congress but never made it out of committee. Roosevelt was annoyed that his New Deal measures were being ruled unconstitutional, and wanted to reverse this by adding Justices that supported him. Justice Owen switched to support him, so this plan never came to fruition.

Fair Labor Standards Act

1938. Reaffirmed the rights of the federal government to regulate interstate commerce by establishing a 40 hour work week, outlawing child labor, setting a national minimum wage, and requiring employers to pay time and a half for overtime work. Excluded were agricultural, part time, domestic, and independent contractors workers.

Taft-Hartley Act

1947. Ended possibility for labor radicalism by banning secondary/sympathy strikes, banning closed shops, allowing for regulation of union shops, and requiring an anti-Communist affidavit signed by union leaders which was highly controversial and later deemed unconstitutional. Significance: Changed unionism. Reagan envoked the Taft-Hartley Act in 1981 during the PATCO strikes, using it as reasoning for firing those strikers who refused to return to work.

Treaty of Detroit

1950. Five year contract negotiated by UAW and GM. UAM reached similar deals with Ford and Chrysler. This protected the automakers from annual strikes, and gave up the right to bargain over some issues in exchange for benefits, and cost of living adjustments to wages. Significance: This contract shaped labor management relations in the auto industry for decades, treaty was used as a model for Labor-Corporation agreements in other industries. And set a patter for postwar collective bargaining and helps to vault unionized auto industry workers into the middle class

Federal Highway Act

1956 gave 25 billion dollars for states to develop highways. Allowed for businesses to come from the Rust Belt to Sun Belt and increase automation. This was a National Act and allowed for Southern Industrialization.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

1963 political rally for civil and economic rights for African Americans. Thousands of Americans headed to Washington as the march was organized by a group of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations, under the theme of jobs and freedom. MLK Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in which he called for an end to racism. The march had a long lasting impact that helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. ***Highlighted the tensions between the old left and the new left. The old left (the CIO and other labor unions) decided not to support the rally after much debate while the new left (focusing on individual rights) actively embraced the event, further driving a wedge between Meany and Reuther.

Hard hat riot

1970 Riot led by construction workers who were mobilized by the New York State AFL-CIO and attacked high school and college students who were protesting the Kent State Shooting, the American invasion of Cambodia and the Vietnam War in Lower Manhattan. Showed the separation between those who supported the war and those who didn't → university students (broadly meaning those who had 'money') were exempt from the Vietnam draft, whereas the sons of many blue-collar workers were drafted, highlighting class tensions

Landrum-Griffin Act

Also part of the state's attempts to curb union corruption following WWII. The purpose of the Landrum-Griffin Act was to protect union members from corrupt leadership by regulating labor unions' internal affairs and their officials' relationships with employers. It protects unions' interests by promoting democratic procedures within labor organizations. The effect this had was that it increased state supervision of union practices including mandating secret elections and oversight of union finances. Power shifts from union leaders to rank and file individuals in the union.

United Auto Workers

An industrial union formed in 1935 that was later led by Walter Reuther post-WWII. The UAW was expelled from the AFL along with other pro-industry based unions and became an inaugural member of the CIO. Significance: UAW participated in many crucial strikes (two at GM and one at Kelsey-Hayes). They helped to unionize the automobile industry and achieved many positive outcomes for auto-industry workers as a result of the Treaty of Detroit in 1950.

Women's War Work

Article about a woman's experience in a war industry factory. Women were taking over mens jobs because of propaganda, but it was temporary work as they were expected to give men back their positions when they returned from war.

Operation Dixie

CIO's post WWII campaign to unionize industry in the South, wanted to not only unionize Southern workers, but also fight against racism and segregation. Ultimately failed because of racial division of labor and accusations of the CIO being a Communist organization. Also had problems because of the internal problems such as the UAW breaking away from the CIO. Ecample of failure of Northern interference in Southern affairs, and its attempt to combat racial segregation in Southern industries were not appreciated in light of Jim Crow division in the labor force. Finally, accusations of Communist sympathies among CIO organizations and leaders turned opinion against the CIO.

Conglomerates

Corporations that own a controlling stake in a number of seemingly unrelated businesses, conglomerates established a new type of corporate diversification that was common in the U.S. from the 1960s through the 1980s. As conglomerates usually consist of a parent company overseeing a number of subsidiary businesses that are not necessarily involved in similar industries, traditional strike tactics are not as effective against conglomerates, in that a strike among workers in one subsidiary is unlikely to halt production in the others.

Corporate Liberalism

Defined WWII and post-war period Government put money into private sector with high availability of government contracts through research. Production began being privatized. Promoted high rates of unionization in companies because high wages were being paid. This alliance continued after WWII Significance: Can be seen as the beginning of the end for labor because American labor cannot survive in this environment. This means no more strikes, now they just want higher wage to buy more consumer goods. America becomes more consumer driven society. As we become more consumer oriented unions lose their radical edge.

Defense and Aerospace in the South

Definition: This becomes the big industry in the South and was funded by the federal government. Lockheed was the largest industrial corporation in Southeast. Cost-plus military contracts allowed for heavy automation. Significance: This industry including Lochkeeds center created demand for technical graduates and needed metal parts. However it was more difficult to unionize in the South. UNC, NC State, Duke became the research triangle because Southern US now needed engineering programs. Indicated a move from agricultural education and industry to engineering.

Title VII

Enacted in 1964 as part of the Civil Rights Act that acts as a Federal regulation that prohibits employment discrimination by covered employers on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, or national origin. It addressed employment discrimination for the first time in both the public and private sectors of the labor force. More recently, the ADA was passed to protect disabled individuals from discrimination, and states have the power to pass legislation to further protect individuals on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression

EEOC

Established alongside Title VII as an enforcement agency in 1964, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is responsible for investigating cases of employment discrimination against employers who are covered by Title 7. Without an efficient enforcement mechanism, Title VII would have little impact on the labor force.

Executive Order 11246

Executive Order signed by Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 that established requirements for non-discriminatory practices in hiring and employment on the part of U.S. government contractors, adding 'affirmative action' to the national lexicon. This was a historic step towards equal employment opportunity, strengthening FDR's EO 8802, which was only applicable to equal employment opportunities in defense industries through the end of WWII. EO 11375 issued in 1967 added sex/gender as a protected class

Second Fireside Chat

FDR outlines his view that government needs to get involved with labor and union movements. He wants an end to the Lochner Era (where government stayed out of labor disputes and did not publicly support unions). He talks about the New Deal as well as creating legislation what would create a relationship between Government and Labor, eventually resulting in the Wagner Act.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Formed by A. Philip Randolph for blacks in a plumbing company. They hired blacks as maids and paid them very little to do a variety of tasks. Additionally the blake had to pay for uniforms and lodging. This union brought them together to fight for better wages and working conditions Significance: They were the first African-American run union. Randolph demanded change in employment practices, leading to the Executive Order 8802.

John Lewis

Founded CIO in 1935, but then resigned and joined the AFL. He was a proponent of Pro-Industry based unionism. He also established the United Mine Workers of America. After resining as the head of the CIO in 1941 due to the fact that the majority of the CIO members supported FDR in the 1940 election in spite of his outspoken support for the Republican nominee, he took the UMW out of the CIO in 1942 and took them to the AFL.

AFSCME → the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees

Founded in 1932, the AFSCME was the largest trade union of public workers in the country, and continued to grow in the wake of JFK signing Executive Order 10988 in 1962 that afforded government employees the right to collectively bargain, a right that was not recognized/protected under the Wagner Act of 1935. The reason for the group's creation was to promote, defend and enhance the civil service system. They also were determined to help spread the civil service system across the country. Supported sanitation strike.

CIO

Founded in 1935 by John Lewis as the "Committee of Industrial Organizations". CIO was originally linked with AFL but when the CIO failed to change AFL Policy within they were suspended 1936. The suspended parties then formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938. Unlike Gompers and the AFL, the CIO was focused on political involvement and Pro-Industry Unionism when AFL no longer wanted its membership to include these types of unions. 1n 1955 the CIO rejoined the AFL forming the AFL-CIO. The CIO was open to African Americans and supported by Roosevelt. It helped to catalyze Pro-Industry unionism.

Kennedy vs. Jimmy Hoffa

From 1957 to 1964 there was a feud between Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, and President of the Teamsters Union, Jimmy Hoffa. Kennedy led what was known as the Senate Rackets Committee hearings to expose the corruption and misuse of funds by Hoffa and the Teamsters. Kennedy hated Hoffa and thought he was dishonorable. Robert Kennedy pursued the strongest attack on organized crime the country had ever seen with the government getting involved in the handling of union funds → the state was trying to regulate union corruption, and public recognition of union corruption.

Rust Belt/Sun Belt

In 19th/20th centuries, local economies in North were industrial and consumer products. In the mid-20th century with the decline of the US steel and iron industries and the movement of businesses from the Rust Belt (previously manufacturing belt) to the Sun belt (stretching across the South) to utilize the lower labor costs. Also labor in South were less likely to unionize. Rust Belt bc the region gets hit with unemployment, urban decay, and population loss. Significance: Business migrated from rust belt to the sun belt because they could take advantage of lower cost in labor in the South that was unlikely to unionize. In manufacturing this was especially prominent. Class examples were of the RCA, but it's more commonly used to talk about auto industry.

West Coast Hotel vs Parrish

Parrish was a maid at the hotel and was being paid below the min wage set into play by Washington. This reversed the SC case Adkins, and decided that employers must pay workers at least the minimum wage outlined by the state. Significance: This signaled the end of the Lochner Era, because the Court decided women and other classes have unequal bargaining power. This poked holes at freedom to contract laws. Changed the Courts view on gov interference with labor

US Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management (McClellan Committee)

Part of the State's attempts to curb union corruption following WWII. The purpose of the McClellan Committee was to permit Senate investigation of labor union practices. The effect it had was that it publicized links between the Teamsters Union and organized crime, ultimately leading to the Teamsters being expelled from the AFL-CIO, and leading to Attorney General Robert Kennedy critically investigating the activities of union leader Jimmy Hoffa.

Wagner Act (NLRA)

Passed in 1935 (New Deal Era). Definition: Guaranteed basic rights of private employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and strike if necessary. Revitalized Section 7a from the failed NRA, so that the state backs the power of the union to collectively bargain and for the people in the union to be able to vote on which union represents them. Restores the previously overturned Industrial Labor Relations Act. National Labor Board now becomes the National Labor Relations Board. Only deals with violations of rights to organize rather than mediation of general disputes. Significance: For many decades there was no state support for labor and shows a shift in Government's position on labor. This gives more power to labor union movements by outlawing company unions and allowing for collective bargaining.

Section 7a

Passed originally in 1922 as part of the NRA but was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935 along with all of Title I of the NIRA. 7a gave private workers rights to join independent trade unions and allowed for collective bargaining with employers. Created the National Labor Board. Significance: Was the key enforced for the Wagner Act, legislated and established courts for labor hearings.

Industrial Unionism

Pro-Industry Based Unionism (1930s). Labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade. This aligns all workers in one industry which gives them more leverage in bargaining and strike situations. This contrasts with craft unionism, which organized workers along lines of their specific trades.

Steel Workers Organizing Committee

Pro-Industry based union that was founded by the initial CIO in the early 1930s. They were later expelled from the AFL in 1936 and absorbed into John Lewis' new CIO formed in 1938, before being completely absorbed in the United Steelworkers of America Union in 1932. Significance: Union was directly involved in the Supreme Court Case (Jones and Laughlin) that solidified the Wagner Act in 1937. It was one of the first unions to demonstrate that unions are better organized by industry rather than by craft, and demonstrated how the labor system was changing. Proved by being able to organized steel workers in the industry they would be successful. This foreshadowed the success of the AFL-CIO

RCA move to Memphis, TN.

RCA selected Memphis as a production site in the late 1960s due to its low cost labor, supportive political figures and favorable labor relations; RCA's promise of relatively high wages and projection of 8,000 new jobs was very attractive to the economically weak labor force and industrially limited culture; problems emerged on the shop floor due to rapid assembly line speeds that workers had no control over, a general lack of training and the elimination of breaks and casual conversation for workers; problems also emerged due to escalating racial tensions that were increasingly highlighted following the assassination of MLK; RCA terminated production in Memphis in 1970

Toyota and production

The Toyota production system is based off of the notion of lean manufacturing, which is a systematic method for eliminating waste within a manufacturing process (involves developing a strong enough relationship w/ supplier that the supplier only ships the exact parts in the exact quantity that are needed at a given point in time), with the end goals of the system being to reduce production costs while simultaneously improving the quality of its products and reducing the amount of time it takes the products to reach consumers. This production process has been credited with turning Toyota into the world's largest automaker, and is the focus of much study as it has begun to be implemented domestically.

Why did unionization fail to take hold in the South?

Under right to work policies, Souther states had the power to allow or disallow the implementation of union shops in industries, which mandated that all non-union member employees become members after a certain period of time.

Cost of living adjustments

Wage that reflects inflation. The real wage.

GM Strike 1945

Walter Reuther lead a 113 day strike. Only partially succeeded, as Reuther never received the power he wanted to inspect company books or have a say in management. He did get increasingly lucrative wage and benefits contracts for UAW workers. In exchange, UAW was required to end its attempts to become more involved in public affairs, such as stopping in advocation for consumer ideals such as the idea that GM could not raise the wages paid to its workers while simultaneously keeping the prices of its cars low, by noting the producers of goods are all consumers themselves and have a vested interest in purchasing the goods they help to produce, such as GM cars.

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

a Mexican city that lies just south of El Paso, Texas, along the U.S.-Mexican border. The city has a growing industrial center that is largely comprised of over 300 maquiladoras (assembly plants) located within and around the city that mostly employ young women who make the trip from the country's interior to the borderlands to be employed. Cowie's Capital Moves describes how RCA relocated production from the United States to Ciudad Juárez to take advantage of cheaper labor that would be unlikely to unionize. Cowie's book also details how the city became overrun by gambling, the drug trade, and femicide.

Walter Reuther

an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers (UAW) a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the mid 20th century. He was a socialist in the early 1930s and worked closely with the Communist Party in the auto industry in the middle and late 1930s. He was a leader in removing communists from the offices in UAW and CIO in the 1940s. By 1949 he had became a leading liberal and supporter of the New Deal coalition, working to strengthen the labor unions movement, raise wages, and give union leaders a greater voice in state and national Democratic party politics. In the 1960s he was a major supporter of the civil rights movement → because the AFL-CIO council officially declined to support MLK's March on Washington, Reuther split the UAW from the AFL-CIO in 1968

Fordism

he core of Fordism is the concept of mass production catering the development of a mass market. Production is highly structured with a pyramidal command structure, usually servicing a national market with a focus on supply (production) and the expectation that the market will absorb the output. This is linked with production cycle times that spend weeks if not months to adapt to the fluctuation of the demand, as well as information flows (e.g. sales data) that are slow and lagging. A Fordist corporation usually expands through vertical (moving upstream or downstream the supply chain) or horizontal (acquiring competitors) integration. The core resources of Fordism are physical assets such as plants and machine tools representing a large share of the total capital investments. The value (supply) chains tend to be discontinuous, implying that a large amount of parts and finished goods are held in inventory to deal with longer production cycle times (lead times) and difficulties to distribute goods. The product life cycle of goods is designed to last years (if not decades) with limited adjustments in the characteristics of the product. Although efforts are made to insure a reasonable quality level, it is expected that defects will take place and that defective products will be returned

Unionization at RCA Memphis

he workers at the RCA plant immediately conceded to organization under the International Union of Electrical Workers in the late 1960s; tensions between blacks and whites made it difficult to wholly unionize - blacks were focused on gaining equal rights; there was an 11 week strike in 1970 after the assassination of MLK; racial strife and a variety of economic problems (decreased domestic consumption and increased international competition) led to a closure of the plant in December of 1970

Creative destruction

refers to the incessant product and process innovation mechanism by which new production units replace outdated ones (think about the invention of personal computers, and how they basically eliminated the need for desktops). Over time, societies that allow creative destruction to operate grow more productive and richer; their citizens see the benefits of new and better products, shorter work weeks, better jobs, and higher living standards, though at the expense of lost jobs, ruined companies, and vanishing industries; a society cannot reap the rewards of creative destruction without accepting that some individuals might be worse off, not just in the short term, but perhaps forever

Post-Fordism

the core of Post-Fordism is mass customization; being able to provide large quantities of goods but with the option of customizing them for specific markets and/or customer preferences. Economic globalization has permitted the exploitation of global comparative advantages in terms of labor and resources (outsourcing and offshoring), leading to networked organization forms to manage such a system. Demand is a key driver with the capability to quickly adapt production based upon its fluctuations (e.g. seasonality). A better access to information, particularly through information technologies, enables a real-time update about market conditions (demand and price). Globalization and the growing level of flexibility required in production has incited a higher level of outsourcing and offshoring. The growing influence of technology and market factors has shifted the importance of core resources towards innovation and knowledge, which have become key competitive factors. Value chains are integrated where processes such as research and development, design, manufacturing, distribution and retailing are part of a continuous chain. This is also linked with lower inventory levels and short production cycle times. Rapid technological change is also inciting much shorter product life cycles with new generations of products being regularly introduced (sometimes bi-annually). Quality and zero-defect become prevalent with customers having little tolerance for defective products in a highly competitive environment allowing easy substitution for another product.

PATCO strike

the goals of the 1981 strike carried out by members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers' Organization were to demand better working conditions, better pay, and a 32-hour work week. However, President Reagan evoked the Taft-Hartley Act, which decreed that it was illegal for government employees to strike, in light of their necessity to the public good, and declared that any strikers who did not immediately return to work would be terminated. Ultimately, nearly 12,000 strikers were fired and PATCO was decertified from representing workers later that year. Reagan's decision was the first time the state had sided with capital since before the New Deal era.

George Meany

the labor leader responsible for overseeing the merger between the AFL and the CIO in 1955, Meany became the AFL-CIO's first president. Hostile towards the liberalism of the New Left (which from the start had criticized the labor movement for conservatism, racism, and anti-communism), he supported Pres. Johnson's stated policies on the Vietnam War, and criticized those labor leaders, including Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers, who called for the U.S. to withdraw its military forces from Vietnam, a policy that Meany predicted would lead to a communist victory in South Vietnam and the destruction of its free trade unions. Though he and Reuther collaborated to combine the AFL & CIO, there were other tensions between them stemming from Meany's opposition towards the March on Washington, and Reuther being a huge supporter of the Civil Rights Movement.

NUMMI → New United Motor Manufacturing, INC.

was an automobile manufacturing plant established in Fremont, CA, in 1984 that was jointly owned by General Motors and the Japanese-based Toyota, before it was bought out by Tesla Motors in 2010. GM saw the joint venture as an opportunity to learn about lean manufacturing from the Japanese company, while Toyota gained its first manufacturing base in North America and a chance to implement its production system in an American labor environment.

COMO → El Centro de Orientación de la Mujer Obrera, or the Woman Worker's Orientation Center,

was founded for maquila women in Juarez and implemented a series of working-class education and consciousness-raising programs designed to increase class and gender awareness among the maquila workers and bring focus to their discontent. COMO, though not a trade union, pushed for changes in areas such as child care, transportation, and protection against hazardous materials in the electronics plants, promoting labor organizing through the support and linkage of independent worker coalitions and informal networks.