In Conversation with Grace Davie — Mapping Corporate Power

When working people in the U.S. sought union representation in the 1970s they faced fierce resistance from businesses willing to increase their use of bare-knuckle anti-union tactics. In response, and in the context of rising conservatism, global economic restructuring, financialization, and weak labor law enforcement, a handful of U.S. trade unions began experimenting. They turned to labor-community coalitions that tried to gain leverage over corporations using power structure analysis, financial research, media strategies, and shareholder activism. The result was a series of “corporate campaigns,” such as the J.P. Stevens Boycott, an effort to unionize the southern textile industry. By the 1990s, mapping corporate power had become foundational to all kinds of social movement labor organizing, including SEIU’s Justice for Janitors Campaign. While corporate campaigns show how the civil rights movement continued into the 1970s and 1980s, they also offer a revealing lens on a period of rapid social change.

The 2019-2020 Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) colloquia series aims to convene faculty, students, and special guests to discuss multidisciplinary research and policy issues impacting workers and their families today.

The Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) houses the Labor Studies academic program and three units – UCLA Labor Center, Human Resources Roundtable, and the Labor Occupational Safety and Health program. IRLE forms wide-ranging research agendas that carry UCLA into the Los Angeles community and beyond.