Civic Unionism: An Interview with Rosemary Feurer

Northern Illinois Unversity Prof. Rosemary Feurer is a friend to this project and great labor historian and activist. Political Affairs Magazine recently published this interview with her.

In the interview, Rosemary discusses her latest book, Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950. The publisher notes the book "examines the fierce battles between Midwestern electrical workers and bitterly anti-union electrical and metal industry companies during the 1930s and 40s. Organized as District 8 of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) and led by open Communist William Sentner, workers developed a style of unionism designed to confront corporate power and to be a force for social transformation in their community and nation."

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In the interview Feurer describes a broader conception of union organizing known as "civic unionism...It is the idea that the union should reflect workers’ interests, their class interests, and that it should also integrate race and gender issues as an extension of those class interests."

She adds, "capital organizes at the local level, just as they do at the global level, that they need that spatial control. And they [the UE] came...to say that we workers need to control our turf, and that I think is representative of class consciousness and of the power relationships."