Strikebreaking or Solidarity in the Great Steel Strike of 1919: A Split Labor Market, Game-Theoretic, and QCA Analysis

Split labor market theory provides insight into the development of ethnic and racial antagonism but has failed to address interracial solidarity and has tended to ignore the role of the state. The authors modify Heckathorn's formal model of collective action to derive predictions concerning the possibility of interracial solidarity or strikebreaking given split labor market conditions. Predictions are then examined using qualitative comparative analysis for 16 northern cities that participated in the 1919 steel strike. Results show that interracial solidarity developed in cities that had strong local union organizations and nonrepressive governments, while black strikebreaking emerged in cities with higher proportions of recent black migrants and either repressive local governments or weak unions.

[1]  David Brody.  Labor in crisis : the steel strike of 1919 : with a new bibliographical afterword , 1982 .

[2]  Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration. , 1989 .

[3]  W. Korpi,et al.  Strikes, Industrial Relations and Class Conflict in Capitalist Societies , 1979 .

[4]  Larry W. Isaac,et al.  Theoretical Generality, Case Particularity: Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Trade Union Growth and Decline , 1991, Issues and Alternatives in Comparative Social Research.

[5]  Stanley Lieberson,et al.  Small N's and Big Conclusions: An Examination of the Reasoning in Comparative Studies Based on a Small Number of Cases , 1991 .

[6]  T. Boswell.  A Split Labor Market Analysis of Discrimination Against Chinese Immigrants, 1850-1882 , 1986 .

[7]  Arnold M. Rose,et al.  An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. , 1944 .

[8]  Douglas D. Heckathorn,et al.  Collective Action and Group Heterogeneity: Voluntary Provision Versus Selective Incentives , 1993 .

[9]  William Julius Wilson,et al.  The declining significance of race , 1978 .

[10]  M. Reich.  Racial Inequality: A Political-Economic Analysis , 1981 .

[11]  P. Gottlieb.  Making Their Own Way: Southern Blacks' Migration to Pittsburgh, 1916-30 , 1996 .

[12]  S. Yellen.  American Labor Struggles , 1936 .

[13]  R. Axelrod.  An Evolutionary Approach to Norms , 1986, American Political Science Review.

[14]  P. Oliver.  Rewards and Punishments as Selective Incentives for Collective Action: Theoretical Investigations , 1980, American Journal of Sociology.

[15]  J. Nash,et al.  NON-COOPERATIVE GAMES , 1951, Classics in Game Theory.

[16]  Douglas D. Heckathorn,et al.  Collective Sanctions and the Creation of Prisoner's Dilemma Norms , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[17]  David M. Kreps,et al.  Game Theory and Economic Modelling , 1992 .

[18]  Carole C. Marks.  LINES OF COMMUNICATION, RECRUITMENT MECHANISMS, AND THE GREAT MIGRATION OF 1916-1918* , 1983 .

[19]  Carole C. Marks.  Split Labor Markets and Black-White Relations, 1865-1920. , 1981 .

[20]  T. L. Schwartz.  The Logic of Collective Action , 1986 .

[21]  A. L. Harris,et al.  The Black Worker: The Negro and the Labor Movement. , 1931 .

[22]  Elliot J. Berg,et al.  Backward-Sloping Labor Supply Functions in Dual Economies — the Africa Case , 1961 .

[23]  A. Stinchcombe.  Information and Organizations , 2019 .

[24]  Doug McAdam.  Recruitment to High-Risk Activism: The Case of Freedom Summer , 1986, American Journal of Sociology.

[25]  Lorin Lee Cary,et al.  No Strength without Union. An Illustrated History of Ohio Workers 1803-1980 , 1984 .

[26]  Charles C. Ragin,et al.  Assessing Discrimination: A Boolean Approach. , 1984 .

[27]  Abraham Epstein.  The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh , 1969 .

[28]  N. Fligstein.  Going North: Migration of Blacks and Whites from the South, 1900-1950 , 1981 .

[29]  N. Lemann.  The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America , 1991 .

[30]  Michael Banton,et al.  An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy , 1964 .

[31]  A. Przeworski,et al.  The logic of comparative social inquiry , 1970 .

[32]  Edna Bonacich,et al.  A theory of ethnic antagonism: the split labor market. , 1972, American sociological review.

[33]  J. McKeown,et al.  Chicago and the labor movement : metropolitan unionism in the 1930's , 1962 .

[34]  M. Conk,et al.  Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat, 1915-45 , 1986 .

[35]  E. Bonacich.  Abolition, the Extension of Slavery, and the Position of Free Blacks: A Study of Split Labor Markets in the United States, 1830-1863 , 1975, American Journal of Sociology.

[36]  M. Abrahamson,et al.  Principles of Group Solidarity. , 1988 .

[37]  W. A. Carter,et al.  Black Migration: Movement North 1900-1920. , 1976 .

[38]  Christopher Botsko,et al.  Theoretical Generality, Case Particularity: Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Trade Union Growth and Decline , 1991, Issues and Alternatives in Comparative Social Research.

[39]  W. Hamilton,et al.  The Evolution of Cooperation , 1984 .

[40]  E. Bonacich.  Advanced Capitalism and Black/White Race Relations in the United States: A Split Labor Market Interpretation , 1976 .

[41]  M. Olson,et al.  The Logic of Collective Action , 1965 .

[42]  P. Ordeshook,et al.  Crime and Punishment: Are One-Shot, Two-Person Games Enough? , 1990, American Political Science Review.

[43]  J. A. Garraty.  The United States Steel Corporation versus labor : the early years , 1960 .

[44]  J. A. Fitch,et al.  The Great Steel Strike And Its Lessons , 1920 .

[45]  A. Zolberg,et al.  Birds of Passage: Migrant Labor and Industrial Societies. , 1981 .

[46]  Michael Taylor.  The possibility of cooperation , 1987 .

[47]  Douglas D. Heckathorn,et al.  Collective Sanctions and Compliance Norms: A Formal Theory of Group-Mediated Social Control , 1990 .

[48]  D. Dickerson.  Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1980 , 1986 .

[49]  J. Barbash,et al.  History of the Labor Movement in the United States , 1948 .

[50]  N. D. Pidgen,et al.  The Comparative Method , 1987 .

[51]  N. Polsby,et al.  Case Study and Theory in Political Science , 1975 .