The Struggle for Hearts and Minds

Abstract

Labor studies scholars and union organizers agree that rank-and- file union drives are effective, even against union busters, anti- union consultants, and intransigent employers. This paper syn thesizes organizers' analyses of such campaigns in Los Angeles to explain why rank-and-file union drives work. We suggest that anti- union campaigns create fairly standard and locally hegemonic anti- union workplace cultures. We examine struggles between manage ment and unions around workplace social relations and control of space as a Gramscian war of position in which both sides seek to make their ideology and its emotional scaffolding workers' com mon sense. Our explanation for what successful rank-and-file strat egies do also reveals some current limitations.