Recent growth in strike activity in the United States and Canada has motivated a broad scholarship on union organizing and labour movement revitalization. However, researchers and activists particularly concerned with the role of member mobilization in union renewal have downplayed institutional changes to labour law and regulation which might address the decline of union density and worker power. This commentary offers a feminist political economy critique of recent works on ‘the rank and file strategy’ and ‘the militant minority’ by arguing that greater focus should be devoted to how North American labour law and decentralized bargaining continue to impede union renewal. The article briefly traces the gendered legacy of ‘Wagnerism’ and the latter’s growing incompatibility with contemporary workplaces and forms of employment. It then makes the case for thinking through how organizing could also push for labour law reform, particularly towards broader-based, sectoral forms of collective bargaining and labour market regulation.

在美国和加拿大，罢工活动的近期增长激发了关于工会组织和振兴劳工运动的广泛奖学金。但是，特别关注会员动员在工会更新中的作用的研究人员和激进主义者淡化了劳动法律法规的制度变化，这可能解决了工会密度和工人权力的下降。这篇评论评论了女权主义政治经济学对最近关于“军衔战略”和“好战的少数派”的著作的批评，认为应该更加关注北美的劳动法和权力下放的谈判继续阻碍工会的更新。这篇文章简要地追溯了“瓦格纳主义”的性别遗产以及后者与现代工作场所和就业形式的不相容性日益增加。