Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950

After several failed attempts to organize workers in the early years of the Depression, District Eight of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) elected the openly communist William Sentner as president.

Rosemary Feurer's "Radical Unionism in the Midwest" examines the story of the famously fierce battles between the Sentner-led UE workers and bitterly anti-union companies during the 1930s and '40s.

Feurer studies District Eight through the union backlash in the wake of the 1937-38 recessions, the growth of the district during World War II, and the postwar anticommunist drive that targeted Sentner.

Based on this history, Feurer contests the conventional idea that the political perspectives of radicals held little significance for trade union behaviour and strategies.

From one of the longest sit-down strikes in U.S. history to their community campaigns to democratize union decision making, Feurer argues that radical leaders and a significant segment of UE workers developed a style of unionism that sought to connect union and community concerns in order to undermine business power in the community and on the shop floor.