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Strikebreaking and the Labor Market in the United States, 1881–1894

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Joshua L. Rosenbloom
Joshua L. Rosenbloom
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 and Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
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Extract

Using data from a sample of over 2,000 individual strikes in the United States from 1881 to 1894 this article examines geographic, industrial, and temporal variations in the use of strikebreakers and the sources from which they were recruited. The use of strikebrekers was not correlated with business cycle and did not vary appreciably by region or city size, but employers located outside the Northeast or in smaller cities were more likely to use replacement workers recruited from other places. The use of strikebreakers also varied considerably across industries, and was affected by union authorization and strike size.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 1998 , pp. 183 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1998

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