Labor and Working-Class History Association 17
Session Abstract
Richard A. Bachmann shows how, in the 1920s, proponents of “scientific management” operationalized concerns for employee health to expand their vision of rationalization and optimization in industry. They argued that attempts to achieve greater productivity through technological improvements and the regimentation of workers’ physical movements had limits. Instead, these “corporate liberals" advocated for workers and managers to cultivate healthy habits at work to create a more productive and collaborative workforce. Kat Brausch follows the litigation tactics of radical lawyers in support of a 1973 wildcat strike. The strike, in defiance of both Chrysler and the UAW, arose in response to the increasingly dangerous conditions in the Dodge Main plant; the litigation in the strike’s aftermath showcases the creativity of radical lawyers and the limitations of relying on the law to support workers. Jeremy Milloy charts the incursion of management into workers’ bodies, lives and homes in the 1980s by exploring the instantiation and impacts of workplace drug testing during the Reagan administration. Couched in concerns over drug use and safety in the workplace, drug testing created new regimes of surveillance, stigmatized drug users, challenged unions, and expanded a class of undesirable workers. Michael Brier places the origins of algorithmic management systems in the home, exploring the development of smart homes over the late twentieth century. This narrative, too, shows the imbrication of surveillance in the workplace and at home.