The Workplace Constitution from the New Deal to the New Right

This book explains why most Americans lack constitutional rights on the job and can be fired for almost any reason or no reason at all.

Sophia Z. Lee (Author)

9781107613218, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 October 2014

412 pages, 21 b/w illus.
23 x 15.4 x 2.3 cm, 0.58 kg

'A gripping and richly illuminating history of the passionate and partly successful post-New Deal litigation battles to expand workers' constitutional rights and the scope of state action in the workplace.' Cynthia Estlund, Texas Law Review

Today, most Americans lack constitutional rights on the job. Instead of enjoying free speech or privacy, they can be fired for almost any reason or no reason at all. This book uses history to explain why. It takes readers back to the 1930s and 1940s when advocates across the political spectrum - labor leaders, civil rights advocates and conservatives opposed to government regulation - set out to enshrine constitutional rights in the workplace. The book tells their interlocking stories of fighting for constitutional protections for American workers, recovers their surprising successes, explains their ultimate failure, and helps readers assess this outcome.

Introduction
Part I. Crafting the Workplace Constitutions in the New Deal 1930s and 1940s: 1. Liberals forge a workplace constitution in the courts
2. Agencies discover the liberal workplace constitution
3. Conservatives create a workplace constitution in the courts
Part II. Advancing the Workplace Constitutions in the Cold War 1950s: 4. Liberals test the workplace constitution in the courts
5. Agencies consider the liberal workplace constitution
6. Conservatives pursue the workplace constitution in the courts
Part III. Administering the Liberal Workplace Constitution in the Long 1960s: 7. Agencies recognize the liberal workplace constitution in the new frontier
8. The liberal workplace constitution on the air and the wires
9. The NLRB expands the liberal workplace constitution
Part IV. The Workplace Constitutions in the New Right 1970s and 1980s: 10. Conservatives reject the liberal workplace constitution
11. Liberals rethink their workplace constitution
12. Conservatives unite the workplace constitutions
13. The conservative workplace constitution divides the New Right coalition
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]