Chapter 6: A Culture of Free Enterprise: Employer Management Policies in the United States Since 1970

{abs}Since 1970, culture as much as economic interest has shaped the strong anti-union policies of American managers. When the Nixon administration first recognized a split between working class people and the counterculture of the 1960s, companies began to exploit the same differences to get their employees to believe that the ethos of individual achievement that they favored was more important than joining any trade union. The popularity of business literature that emphasized the control that individuals have over their own economic fate both seduced employees and convinced employers of their own righteousness. Today, despite having an extraordinarily weak union movement by world standards, the culture of anti-unionism remains stronger than ever in the United States, and it continues to influence political developments at the state and federal levels.