All for one and one for all

In his massive history of unions, author Philip Dray provides a grand context for thinking about labor-management relations in a society beset by bad will within millions of workplaces. As he wisely notes, the saga of organized labor in the United States is "much more than a catalog of strikes, picket lines and flailing police batons. The debate about work and industry and the struggle for workers' rights and dignity have been consuming subjects since the birth of our nation; they have shaped laws and customs, acted as a crucible for social change, and ultimately helped define what it means to be an American."

Along the way, Dray explores major themes, including the eternal tension between skilled and unskilled laborers, the conundrums of immigration for unionized workers, the sometimes nasty role of government in labor issues, corruption seemingly embedded long-term within some unions, and passionate philosophical splits within the labor movement.

Dray, author of "At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America," encountered the tensions surrounding unionism early in his everyday life. He recounts a moment in March 1976, as he sat in the office of Doris Johnson, an advertising manager at the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. He wanted a part-time job, and Johnson, a soft-spoken older woman, seemed favorably inclined to make the job offer.

He had already benefited from a brief union membership at age 16 while laboring as a bus boy in a suburban supper club. Dray said nothing to Johnson about unionization, but, as a twenty-something, had developed positive feelings about unions.

Then, unexpectedly, Dray writes that he heard Johnson "talking about a recent attempt to unionize the workers in the advertising department; she wondered if I'd ever be inclined to join such an effort."

Immediately, Dray recognized the "correct" answer would be "no." Still, he felt surprised "that so direct and obviously determinative a question had come from this otherwise pleasant-looking person."

Why Dray at a young age and Johnson at an older age had reached such different conclusions about the value of labor unions is a mystery for the ages. When corporations show a solid front against unionization, the power structure does not criticize such monolithic behavior. But when unions demonstrate solidarity, those in the power structure see the monolithic behavior as downright un-American.

Still, against overwhelming odds, labor leaders such as Samuel Gompers, Eugene Debs, Mother Jones, Bill Haywood, John L. Lewis, Sidney Hillman and Walter Reuther helped their unions' members move toward the ideal that "workers have a right to be equitably paid for the work they do, treated with dignity, and to believe their efforts might better their own prospects and the lives of those dear to them," as Dray writes.

Dray is a refreshing chronicler of history, because he combines his thoroughness as a researcher presenting opposed points of view with a clearly stated personal point of view: "It is this book's faith that there is power in a union, as the old labor song goes, and that in losing them we risk losing something worthwhile in ourselves."

Steve Weinberg is the author of "Taking on the Trust." He lives in Missouri.