ABSTRACT
Organic imagery applies poorly to trade unionism: resurrection is not only possible, it is common; age may bring vitality rather than decline. This fitful, nonlinear pattern best characterizes the emergence, growth, and decline of most individual unions, as well. This chapter presents the details of the case related to the history of the International Seamen's Union of America, not because its history is so compelling, but because it provides a clear example of the uneven nature of institutional emergence, development, and decline. It offers six propositions as a start toward a three-tiered theory of union emergence and demise. These propositions suggest a dynamic system that derives its impetus from macrosocial, organizational, and individual processes. In addition to being the precondition for the emergence of unions, uncertainty is also the precondition for their demise. The 1860's and 1870's were characterized by significant economic fluctuations, but the uncertainty that resulted, in and of itself, was insufficient to produce organization.
