The two faces of unionism: A dual closure approach to contradictory behavior in United States labor unions

This study examines how union organizational characteristics influence union behavior. This study starts with a criticism of Freeman and Medoff's theory of “the two faces of unionism.” I show that union membership exclusion is related to union usurpation, i.e., union organizing drives. Organized labor's contradictory behavior (exclusionary behaviors undermining usurpationary activities) is argued to be a primary cause of union decline in the U.S. Union bureaucracy and unresponsive union leadership have been critical barriers to strengthening worker power and to enhancing class solidarity among the working class. The growth of union bureaucracy controlled by union leadership and the decline of union democracy by the rank-and-file weakened class solidarity among the working class and precipitated the withering of the labor movement. This model of union dual closure as a new paradigm for unionism provides an infrastructure for sociological theorizing in the analysis of organized labor's contradictory behavior.; The conceptualization of union dual closure was mainly derived from a historical analysis from the mid-nineteenth century to the modern period. I found that there have existed two different types of union dual closure: positive union dual closure and negative union dual closure. This study applied these historical insights to develop a new model of the labor movement. Based on this theory building, I examined the reciprocal relationships between contemporary measures of exclusion and usurpation for the population of 111 U.S. national unions in 1990.; Findings show that union democracy and rank-and-file participation greatly increase usurpationary activities. These results indicate that union democracy, rank-and-file internal voice, and the inclusion of all the levels of the working class are a catalyst for creating a robust labor movement. My analyses generally support the theory of negative union dual closure. In order to build a strong labor movement, it is ideal for all unions to pursue a collective voice-usurpation model, which is based on the theory of negative union dual closure. This implies that responsive union leadership and active rank-and-file involvement in union activities are essential and must develop further in order to revitalize the U.S. labor movement.