ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to cut through much of the detail and partisan wrangling and attempts a more analytical review of the main points that seem to emerge from the description of labor-management political activities in Massachusetts during the post World War II period. It considers the industrial climate debate in more detail after viewing some of the other elements in the postwar Massachusetts legislative record. Massachusetts entered the postwar period with a privately financed plan administered by a nine man industrial accident board. An “issues oriented” analysis of almost every item of serious labor-management contention in Massachusetts during the postwar period shows that the Democrats were overwhelmingly on the side of organized labor while the Republicans were, likewise, almost completely in agreement with the business and industry position. Even the 1958 election sweep which gave the Democrats control of the Senate as well as the House, did not seem to revive the prospects for a cash sickness bill in Massachusetts.
