Managing Heterogeneity

This chapter examines how the national-level organizations manage internal heterogeneity across individual members, as well as specific geographically defined subunits. By observing internal opposition to the dominant national leadership of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), and Waterside Workers' Federation (WWF), the chapter compares specific locals within each union. Consequently, it shows the robustness of the larger organizational governance institutions to perturbation once in equilibrium and that, at the local level, workers did not sort in to unions for political or social reasons; rather, they joined where the economic opportunities first appeared. The ILWU and WWF, whose leaders ask member contributions to political projects, pursued active persuasion combined with tolerance. The IBT, on the other hand, invested less in persuasion and employed screening and repression.

Pork, Perks, and Predation

This chapter examines two business unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA). Business unions differ from each other as well as from activist unions. Some, like the Teamsters, are legitimate unions whose leaders, while far less constrained and far better compensated than those in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), are nonetheless subject to regulation and re-election. Others, such as the ILA, are little more than a protection racket, whose leaders prey upon members and collaborate with employers and the mob. Unlike the leadership of activist unions, business union leaders believe that expanding the scope of the union's activities is costly, with few, if any, downstream benefits. If leaders provide sufficient selective incentives in services, patronage, or coercion, then the members are likely to comply.