Movement Spillover and Union Support during the Long Protest Wave

• In Event: 503 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Paper Session. History and Social Movements

Abstract

Did the wave of social protest that began in the 1960s spill over to private-sector labor unions? This question has implications for theories about the interaction between different social movements and the channels by which such movements affect formal organizations. Additionally, contemporary labor scholars have advocated “social-movement unionism” as a solution for labor’s woes, which lends urgency to understanding labor’s past interactions with other social movements. Yet prior attempts to answer this question have used limited data that obscure any impact that protest might have on organized labor in the private sector. We employ a unique dataset leveraging the most comprehensive national record of protest events and every private-
sector union-representation election between 1960 and 1995 to explore this question in greater detail. Contrary to earlier work, we find that increased levels of social protest are associated with increased support for unions in private-sector elections. We discuss
the implications of this finding for research on social movements, collective behavior, and organizational theory.

Authors

• John-Paul Ferguson, Stanford University

• Thomas Dudley, Stanford University