Description
At the start of the 1960s, US garment unions prioritized international negotiations over unilateral actions to limit import competition. This paper explains why and how garment union leaders’ faith in international solutions waned over the course of the decade. By the late 1950s, a sharp rise in textile imports led union leaders to demand solutions. The United States initiated multilateral negotiations to manage the international textile trade, but unionists found the resulting agreements too limited. Unions from importing and exporting countries attempted to negotiate their competing interests within international trade union federations, but such efforts foundered. Pushed by competitive pressures and drawn to foreign investment incentives, US firms internationalized their apparel production processes. This shift toward offshore production rendered union concerns about import competition and capital flight all the more pressing. Frustrated by the weaknesses of internationally-negotiated solutions, union leaders demanded that Congress enact unilateral import protections.
About the Speaker
Melanie Sheehan is an Assistant Professor of History at Hartwick College, and her research focuses on US labor unions and business in the global economy during the twentieth century. Her current book project, For an ‘Orderly’ Globalization: The Managed Liberalization Project in US Labor, 1945-1990, is under contract with University of Pennsylvania Press. Her research has been published in Enterprise and Society, and she has written on labor unions and tariff policy for New Labor Forum. She previously held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Business School and Kenyon College.
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