| The main thesis of the dissertation is that the local labor union provides black women an instrument to challenge tripartite--racial, class, and gender--systems of domination responsible for their oppression. The analysis is a case study of Memphis, Tennessee, Local 282, Furniture Division-International Union of Electrical Workers from 1943 to 1988. Local 282, which organizes workers in the furniture industry, was chosen because its membership is predominantly black and female.;Utilizing insights from the Resource Mobilization perspective, a local labor union recruitment model is proposed. Unionization--operational as average annual membership, the outcome of union representation elections, and the percent of the vote the union receives in an individual election--is conceptualized as the interaction among the local labor union, employers and constituent groups. The outcomes of this interaction are a function of the resources and strategies deployed by the local union and employers and the attitudes and social structural position of black women.;The results indicate that although resources are necessary, they are insufficient predictors of the unionization process. Unions are captive organizations dependent on plants likely to move or close. Local 282 resources and the strategic innovations of general unionism and militancy could not offset the decline in membership caused by the combination of employer counteroffenses and adverse economic conditions in the years immediately after World War II and after 1980.;The analysis also demonstrates the emergence of low-wage unionism, unions of workers in low status jobs, after 1968. Low-wage unionism grew out of coalitions between the labor movement and the Civil Rights Movement when the labor movement co-opted the resources, strategies and communication networks of the latter. The implications of the findings for theories of unionization, the interaction of class, gender and ethnicity, and union organizing are noted. |
