ABSTRACT
This chapter examines an American plant closing, the union that fought it and the federal tax law that enabled it. It explores how the union transformed a routine plant closing into a national debate over the US government's role in displacing American jobs and then compelled Congressional action on the matter. Plant closings are a fact of life in market economies like the United States and likewise, attempts by unions, employees and local communities to avert them are recurrent and well-documented. Local union leaders first learned the company planned to close Whitehall during routine contract negotiations in April 1990. The US economic recession in 1990-1991 differed from previous downturns in that for the first time on record more white-collar workers were laid-off than blue-collar workers. In 1990, at the time of the Whitehall plant closing announcement, Puerto Ricans were embroiled in a debate over their political status with regard to the United States.
