Is Change A’Comin? A Challenge to Structural Macrosociological Models of Society

• In Event: Labor and Labor Movements Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Roundtable 8: State Power, Class Formation, and Historical Political Economy

Abstract

A comparative-historical study of the processes of unionization during the 1930s-1950s in the steel and meatpacking industries in the Chicago area, including Northwest Indiana, show that there were two different conceptualizations of trade unionism within the CIO, and these were opposed to each other; what has been delineated as 'business unionism' and 'social justice unionism.' These have been shown to be qualitatively different, and it is expected that these would lead to qualitatively different organizational behaviors. This was empirically verified by a study of how each union dealt with a common problem, white supremacy and racism, which the packinghouse workers directly attacked and the steel workers ignored. (This study will be published by Cornell University Press in August 2026.)

This paper applies these findings to challenge macro-sociological structural theories that attempt to explain, in this case, organizational behavior: established theories are explicated, drawn out, and then existentially challenged by this study, which shows structural position does not and cannot determine organizational behavior as shown by presentation of two organizations sharing the exact same structural position (industrial workers) yet take opposing approaches to the exact same problem shared by both.

In light of the conference theme, it asks if the sociological status-quo should be disrupted in addition to the societal disruption implicitly challenged in the conference title...?

Author

• Kim Scipes