Wars of attrition: Vietnam, the business roundtable, and the decline of construction unions

by Marc Linder

Against the background of the depletion of the industrial reserve army during the Vietnam War, Wars of Attrition explains how the complex interaction between the invisible hand of the labor market and the visible hands of large industrial customers, the Federal Government, and construction employer organizations inflicted a series of defeats on the building trades unions-the most entrenched segment of the labor movement in the United States-culminating in the vast expansion of the "union-free" sector of the construction industry. Based on thirty years of research, Wars of Attrition is the first study to have access to the archives of the Business Roundtable, which spearheaded and bankrolled the forces that carried out the first major successful deunionization campaign of the 1970s. MARC LINDER, who also wrote Projecting A History of the Internationalization of the Construction industry (Greenwood Press, 1994), is Professor of Law at the University of Iowa. Author of fifteen books on industrial relations, labor history, labor Law, economics, economic history, and legal history, he has also worked for Texas Rural Legal Aid representing migrant farm workers. His most recent book is "Moments Are the Elements of Profit" Overtime and the Deregulation of Working Hours Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (Fanpihua Press, 2000).

Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Jody Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very important text for anyone in a construction union, or perhaps in the labor movement in general. Undertaken in a scientific manner, Linder demonstrates what a serious study of an industry should look like. The text investigates broad political-economical developments, and is careful to bring up various possible causal relationships. There's an emphasis on the importance of the technological-material basis of production without endorsing vulgar materialism. Even if you find some of his arguments unpersuasive you'll come away with a far deeper understanding of an important period for labor in the US.