Mass Homicidal Worker Dissent in America's New Age of Precarity

• In Event: 30826 - Unions and Labor Unrest

Abstract

In this paper, we present and test the Workforce Precarity Thesis of mass homicidal dissent against the null hypothesis that the cross-time, aggregate likelihood of workplace mass shootings is random and unknowable. We argue the atomization of labor's collective power and militancy to be a theoretical lynchpin to understanding the era of workplace mass shootings: simultaneously fostering the precarious conditions believed to enhance the likelihood of worker aggression while delimiting the basis for alternative collective actions. The results of our time-series regression analysis suggest that workplace mass shootings are stimulated by a broad legacy of generalized mass shooting events plus macro-economic strain and pressures associated with increased worker precarity. The sole condition found within our models that works as a counterweight to workplace mass shootings is union density. Thus, as neoliberal reforms have driven union density and worker precarity to pre-Keynesian levels, the likelihood of atomized violent responses to transgressions of workers' moral economy has increased.

Authors

• Paul F. Lipold, Unaffiliated

• Larry W. Isaac, Vanderbilt University

• Daniel M. Harrison, Lander University