Confessions of a Union Buster

320 Pages·1993·45.984 MB·English

by  Martin J. Levitt, Terry Conrow

$22.50
BUSINESS
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artin Jay Levitt was a union buster
who planned and executed cus­
tomized union-busting campaigns
at more than 250 businesses across
America, from coal mines "and
factories to airlines and nursing
homes. Levitt reached the pinnacle of his
profession by demolishing friendships, shat­
tering families, and turning worker against
worker; he routinely spied into the police
records, personnel files, credit histories, medi­
cal records, and family lives of union activists
in efforts to discredit them.
These days Levitt speaks to auditoriums
filled with union workers. “I come from a
very dirty business....” he begins. “The en­
emy was the collective spirit. I got hold of that
spirit while it was still a seedling; I poisoned
it, choked it, bludgeoned it if I had to, any­
thing to be sure it would never blossom into
a united work force.” His listeners slowly
realize that the war they suspected was being
waged against them was a real one, not just
the creation of a union’s paranoid imagina­
tion, and often upon this revelation, they
weep.
Levitt’s speeches confirm for his audi­
ences, in sickening detail, how their supervi­
sors were taught to despise and fear unions
and to take a union drive as a personal
attack—a criticism of their leadership skills
and an attempt to humiliate them. Supervi­
sors were compelled to feel that they were
somehow to blame for the union push, and
therefore obligated to defeat it.
This manipulation is just one of the dirty
tricks that have transformed the war on
organized labor into a billion-dollar indus­
try, and Levitt has decided to clear his con­
science and expose them all. This is his candid
acknowledgment of the ruthless campaigns
(continued on back flap)
CONFESSIONS
OF A UNION USTER

Confessions
of a Union Buster
Martin Jay Levitt
with Terry Conrow
Crown Publishers, Inc.
New York
Copyright © 1993 by Martin Jay Levitt and Terry Conrow
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher.
Published by Crown Publishers, Inc., 201 East 50th Street, New
York, New York 10022. Member of the Crown Publishing
Group. Random House, Inc. New York, Toronto, London,
Sydney, Auckland.
CROWN is a trademark of Crown Publishers, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Levitt, Martin Jay.
Confessions of a union buster I by Martin Jay
Levitt, with Terry Conrow. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Union busting—United States. 2. Trade-unions—United
States—Organizing. 3. Corporations—United States—
Corrupt practices.
I. Conrow, Terry. II. Title.
HD6490.072U6493 1993
331.88'092—dc20
IB]
93-14736
CIP
ISBN 0-517-58330-5
10 987654321
First Edition
To Walter, Evelyn, and Harvey Levitt

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword xi
Prologue 1
Cravat Coal 7
Genesis 33
Seduction 45
Paradise 69
World Airways 81
The Storm 113
Pathos 153
Copeland Oaks 163
Bloodletting 201
Gates Mills 227
Poison 239
Descent 261
Apocalypse 275
Epilogue 287
Index 293