Anti-union violence in the United States

Anti-union violence in the United States is physical force intended to harm union officials, union organizers, union members, union sympathizers, or their families. It has most commonly been used either during union organizing efforts, or during strikes. The aim most often is to prevent a union from forming, to destroy an existing union, or to reduce the effectiveness of a union or a particular strike action. If strikers prevent people or goods to enter or leave a workplace, violence may be used to allow people and goods to pass the picket line.

Violence against unions may be isolated, or may occur as part of a campaign that includes spying, intimidation, impersonation, disinformation, and sabotage.^[1] Violence in labor disputes may be the result of unreasonable polarization, or miscalculation. It may be willful and provoked, or senseless and tragic. On some occasions, violence in labor disputes may be purposeful and calculated,^[2] for example the hiring and deployment of goon squads to intimidate, threaten or even assault strikers.

According to labor historians and other scholars, the US has had the bloodiest and most violent labor history of any industrialized nation.^[3]^[4]^[5]

^ Smith, Robert Michael (2003). From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States. p. 87.
^ Hunter, Robert (1919) [First published 1914]. Violence and the labor movement. Macmillan. p. 318.
^ Taft, Philip; Ross, Philip (1969). "American Labor Violence: Its Causes, Character, and Outcome". In Graham, Hugh Davis; Gurr, Ted Robert (eds.). The History of Violence in America: A Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. p. 221 – via Google Books.
^ Goldstein, Robert Justin (2001). Political Repression in Modern America. University of Illinois Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0252069642.
^ Lipold, Paul F. (2015). ""Striking Deaths" at their Roots: Assaying the Social Determinants of Extreme Labor-Management Violence in US Labor History—1877–1947". Social Science History. 38 (3–4): 541–575. doi:10.1017/ssh.2015.24. S2CID 142526387.

[1] Smith, Robert Michael (2003). From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States. p. 87.

[2] Hunter, Robert (1919) [First published 1914]. Violence and the labor movement. Macmillan. p. 318.

[3] Taft, Philip; Ross, Philip (1969). "American Labor Violence: Its Causes, Character, and Outcome". In Graham, Hugh Davis; Gurr, Ted Robert (eds.). The History of Violence in America: A Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. p. 221 – via Google Books.

[4] Goldstein, Robert Justin (2001). Political Repression in Modern America. University of Illinois Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0252069642.

[5] Lipold, Paul F. (2015). ""Striking Deaths" at their Roots: Assaying the Social Determinants of Extreme Labor-Management Violence in US Labor History—1877–1947". Social Science History. 38 (3–4): 541–575. doi:10.1017/ssh.2015.24. S2CID 142526387.

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