Union Threat, Countermovement Organization, and Labor Policy in the States, 1944–1960

This article evaluates social movement perspectives on repression and movement-countermovement organization relative to the wave of policy setbacks that unions experienced in the pivotal two decades following the New Deal. An event history analysis of the adoption of right-to-work laws across states between 1944 and 1960 supports social movement perspectives that emphasize the relative threat posed by challenging groups, but the impact of threat is uneven. The findings advance a more contextualized and historically grounded understanding, demonstrating how union threat takes on greater meaning in contexts where authorities side with employers relative to labor. This study improves upon prior labor scholarship by including data on both union and employer organization, each of which are shown to be influential for right-to-work outcomes independent of notable political opportunities. I conclude by discussing the implications of the findings for scholarship on labor and social movements more generally. Keywords: labor unions, labor politics, social movements, political repression, protest.