Cultures of Solidarity: Consciousness, Action, and Contemporary American Workers

by Rick Fantasia

A commonplace assumption about American workers is that they lack class consciousness. This perception has baffled social scientists, demoralized activists, and generated a significant literature on American exceptionalism. In this provocative book, a young sociologist takes the prevailing assumptions to task and sheds new light upon this very important issue. In three vivid case studies Fantasia explores the complicated, multi-faceted dynamics of American working-class consciousness and collective action.

Genres: Labor

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Abby Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book Cultures of Solidarity by Rick Fantasia, written in 1988, aims to re-evaluate processes of class consciousness and solidarity happening in the twentieth century United States. Fantasia feels many sociologists looking at issues of class consciousness failed to employ a truly Marxian view of class arising as a relational process. Survey methodology was often used to analyze constructs of class identification, work satisfaction, class animosities, and political preferences (4). Fantasia feels analyses of class consciousness should include "actions, organizational capabilities, institutional arrangements, and the values that arise within them, rather than on attitudes abstracted from the context of social action" (11). He uses the term "cultures of solidarity" to claim amidst the appearance of a so-called docile labor force in the United States emergent cultures arise which embody oppositional practices (17). He uses three case studies to show how these cultures of solidarity emerge on the micro-level of the work group [Taylor Casting], in workplace mobilization [Springfield Hospital], and in broader social interaction [Clinton Corn] (179). He describes the institutional setting of the United States after the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 resulted in a restricted arena for trade unions and intense employer control. This act allowed certain states to restrict the formation of trade unions, outlawed sympathy strikes and boycotts, and allowed for injunctions against mass-picketing among other things (56). Fantasia closes the book identifying similarities and differences between these case studies. He shows that in each location solidarity arose independent of trade unions, collective action was shaped by institutional labor practices, cultures of solidarity formed from friction/opposition, and both resources and social-psychological circumstances influenced collection action. He feels legislation and institutional structures limit collective action from inciting major change on the national level, and he calls for aggressive reforms to the current structure of trade unionization in the United States.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, approximately 11.3% of people in the United States in 2010 were in a trade union [less than our neighbors of Canada at 28.8% or Mexico at 13.2%]. I've been unionized with the AFSCME part of the AFL-CIO in the past. AFSCME engaged in collective bargaining agreements for employees where I worked. To me and others, these union jobs meant we received a step-based salary system based on tenure, received extended vacation and sick leave, and ensured people couldn't be fired without due cause. These seemed like valuable negotiations with tangible results. However, Fantasia argues unions often embody a hierarchical structure in which the grievance processes fails to result in real change. He states it is important to question "where and how local struggles affect wider social structures at the national level" (238). He believes unions are becoming more politicized and bureaucratized which result in unequal collective bargaining and a culture of compliance. At the time of my union involvement, I didn't know how engaged labor unions were in financing national politics. The AFL-CIO gave over 21 million to democratic campaigns [and even commercials] for 2012 elections, and they endorse political candidates to encourage their members to vote. Fantasia's view is that legislation is somewhat ineffective in securing worker's rights citing the failed reform of Taft-Hartley. Indeed, if you look at the current Bureau of Labor Statistics of annual work stoppages you will see the numbers dropping from around 40-a-year in the 1990s to around 20-a-year now. So it seems that now more money is going to politics and less action for organized change. Just as Fantasia predicted.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent examinatioin of four case studies of worker struggles in the US during the 80's. Draws on social theory in his examinations (Geertz, social-psych vs. resource mobilization, Sarte and good elements of Marxism) Some of his critiques are close to being longer and more academic examinations of the analysis folks in the IWW use (Glaberman "Punching Out" and Lynd on workplace contractualism). Too bad he refuses to put to work his great analysis and conclusions from this work in "Hard at Work" written with Kim Vos (UCB Chair of Soc.), which is an extended arguement for social democracy through the prism of the labor movement.