Discourse and Dignity: The Case of the 1969 Charleston Hospital Worker’s Strike

• In Event: 539 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Social Movements and Labor Solidarity, in the United States

Abstract

We investigate how employer countermobilization may take the form of discursive obstruction, rhetoric designed to delegitimize worker grievance claims, by investigating the 1969 Hospital Workers Strike. Discursive tactics by multiple actors, both allies and opponents, are shown to water down worker messages through an analysis of newspapers, interviews, and archival materials. In our case study, worker messages focusing on worker dignity compete with claims from allies more narrowly focused on wages or social justice frames. Discursive obstruction by employers is effective, yet must compete with larger societal messages of social justice that dilute management claims of bureaucratic fairness.

Authors

• William F. Danaher, Southern Illinois University

• Marc Dixon, Dartmouth College