ABSTRACT
Repression in labor history is easier to describe than quantify. Until well into the twentieth century, few statistics were kept on labor disputes and almost none on employer resistance to unionism. Now data kept by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), administrator of the Wagner Act (NLRA), confirm points about employer resistance that have been made previously by case studies and qualitative records alone. Economists generally attribute the rise in antiunion hostility in the mid-1950s to structural causes, the pressure of market competition, and a need for flexibility in operations. Employers have resisted putting unionists on corporate boards, where strategic policy decisions are made, and unionists usually have not pushed the issue. In the 1970s, employers began to hire consulting firms—or "gentrified union busters"—to conduct their war on labor. The consultants brought about dramatic rises in employer delays in NLRB elections and union decertification elections and decreases in employer "consent elections".
