Labor Detectives - Labor Spies, James McParland, Charlie Siringo, Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, Thiel Detective Service Company (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 22. Chapters: Labor spies, James McParland, Charlie Siringo, Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, Thiel Detective Service Company. Excerpt: Labor spies are persons recruited or employed for the purpose of gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, sowing dissent, or engaging in other similar activities, typically within the context of an employer/labor organization relationship. Some of the statistics cited by researchers suggest that, historically, trade unions have been the frequent targets of orchestrated campaigns employing labor spies, indicating that such actions against labor organizations are often the result of strategic considerations. Labor spying is most typically used by companies or their agents, and such activity often complements union busting. In some cases - apparently much less common, according to resources - labor spies have acted in support of union goals, against company interests, or against the company's hired agents. Unions may also utilize labor spies to spy upon other unions, or upon their own members. In at least one case, an employer hired labor spies to spy not only upon strikers, but also upon strikebreakers that he had hired. Within the field of labor relations, union busters make the largest salaries. In 1993, there were seven thousand attorneys and consultants in the United States who made their living busting unions. The war against unions is a $1 billion-plus industry. Labor spying is one of the most formidable tools of the union busters. Sidney Howard observed that the labor spy, "often unknown to the very employer who retains him through his agency, is in a position of immense strength. There is no power to hold him to truth-telling." Because the labor spy operates in secret, "all are suspected, and intense bitterness is aroused against employers, the innocent and the guilty alike...".