Robert Shogan > Quotes

“This blend of pragmatism and individualism, which carried Lewis to the top of his union, reflected the forces that shaped the shaky status of American labor in a land imbued by the spirit of free enterprise. While business ruled the roost, the promise of abundant economic opportunity supposedly loomed for one and all. Optimism about their chances for economic and social mobility widely shared by American workers undercut the class consciousness and sense of solidarity that held sway among European laborers. To be sure, workers had to deal with plenty of inequity. This was true for all workers, but particularly for immigrants, who learned that they often had to pay off the steel plant foreman to get hired, and even so generally got the job closest to the open hearth furnace. As for African-Americans, they learned early on that certain preferred positions, such as the better-paying craft jobs were out of bounds. In sum, injustice was a fact of working-class existence, almost every day and everywhere.”
― Robert Shogan, The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story Of America's Largest Labor Uprising