| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

David Palmer. Organizing the Shipyards: Union Strategy in Three Northeast Ports, 1933–1945. Ithaca, N.Y.: IRL Press of Cornell University Press. 1998. Pp. xvi, 264. $39.95.

How do you organize a union? Judging from the experiences of the International Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America (IUMSWA), the answer depends mostly on the setting. Leadership, a shared sense of grievance, rank-and-file esprit de corps—the internal dynamics that define labor organizations—were important but rarely decisive. David Palmer's detailed case studies of unionization in three major shipyards during the 1930s and 1940s emphasizes the influence of local, external factors in the emergence of a union presence. An additional external factor that Palmer considers only in passing, the World War II-inspired growth of the shipbuilding industry, had an even greater impact on the health of the IUMSWA. 1

Like many industrial unions of the 1930s, the IUMSWA grew out of a rank-and-file uprising. This upheaval at New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey, and the rise of a powerful local union at the plant, was a classic story of Depression-era activism. After years of declining wages and opportunities, workers were frustrated and angry; the employer was ill-prepared for a militant labor organization; and government officials, operating through the National Recovery Administration, were ineffectual. Strikes created leaders, solidified the organization, and inspired a history of struggle and triumph. Local 1 henceforth played a dominating role in the IUMSWA, not least because its leaders became the leaders of the international union. . . .

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