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Strikes may seem to be the last thing that the U.S. needs when it is struggling to regain price stability and social peace, but it was by wielding that blunt weapon that labor won its largest gains in the past. It is ironic that blue collar workers are suspicious of today's social disruptions; labor often created the disturbances of yesteryear, and they helped the workingman to come a long way from the bad old days. As late as 1900, seven-year-old boys worked in the mines of Pennsylvania, and girls of six helped run the mills of the South. The regular work week ran as high as 84 hours, the pay from $1 to $3 a week. Each time the workers tried to organize, they earned only public obloquy and a growing list of martyrs. The right to organize was not firmly and finally established until the 1930s, when more than 100 working men and women were killed by police or by company thugs during strikes and hunger marches. The decades since then have been almost unnaturally peaceful. Militancy was submerged during World War II and again during the Korean War. Then, in the late '50s and '60s, wages jumped in reward for fast-rising productivity.
Blue collar workers are more militant today largely because their aspirations have been raised while their real income remains static. "In a sense, businessmen bring labor militance on themselves by advertising and raising prices," says Clark Kerr, former chancellor of the University of California and a top labor expert. "They constantly raise the level of expectations of their own workers." Blue collar workers are also profoundly influenced by what Leonard Woodcock, president of the United Auto Workers, calls "the second life that everyone leads through TV." The worker and his wife constantly see advertised on television the products that he makes, but they often find it hard to buy them. TV programs also portray an alien world. "In the land of the media, whether it is movies, magazines or TV," complains Floyd Smith, president of the International Association of Machinists, "Daddy always goes to the office, not to the factory." And he brings home plenty of money without appearing to sweat hard for it.
Not Making It