Summary Of David Montgomery The New Unionism

David Montgomery, "The 'New Unionism ' and the Transformation of Workers ' Consciousness in America, 1909-22," Journal of Social History, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Summer, 1974): pp. 509-529

The “New Unionism” and the Transformation of Worker’s Consciousness in America, 1909-22 by David Montgomery, analyzes the attitude changes with blue-collar workers and the events that took place that caused the changes. The question that the author is attempting to answer is “Why did the working class perception change and how did employers respond to the working class demands?” Montgomery argues that the new vision of the working class is to control and manage industries, which caused employers to create new management initiatives.

One major point Montgomery makes is when he claims the working class shifted their behavior in an effort to control their

Employers reorganized management practices by creating an educated management staff is another major point that supports Montgomery’s argument. The evidence that Montgomery uses is from a book called Scientific Management and Labor, written by Robert F. Hoxie, who was a special investigator for the U.S Commission on Industrial Relations and another book by Hugh G.J. Aitken who wrote Taylorism at the Watertown Arsenal: Scientific Management in Action, which explains Taylorism. Montgomery includes these sources to depict how employers used a management system to weaken craftsmen workers since their craft was no longer needed. This reduces the need for craftsman because an employer can train any worker to preform the same task while constantly being watched by managers. Craftsmen had a sense of pride for the particular craft that they had acquired. Since there was a shift from craftsmen to trained specialized workers, the sense of pride craftsmen had for the work faded away and negative sentiment towards the actual work that was being performed had no significance. The source Montgomery uses to describe this state of mind is a book