ABSTRACT
To divide, separate, or portion workers into categories, groups, and classes has long been one of business’s most effective strategies against labor whenever it tried to organize for better work conditions or higher pay. ‘‘I can hire one-half of the working class,’’ boasted robber baron Jay Gould, ‘‘to kill the other half.’’1 It was employers who benefited when white working-class men fought former slaves, British Protestants would not work with Irish Catholics, and men protested the increasing numbers of women in the work force. Now able-bodied employees question the reasonable accommodations employees with disabilities receive. Whether it is ethnicity, race, gender, or disability that separates these groups makes little difference. Nor does it matter much whether these divisions are based on malice, prejudice, or a subtle bias. What matters most is that when employers perceive workers as a threat they often use the divideand-conquer strategy that usually puts them on top.
