World War II defense contracts raised labor standards. Government could use the same leverage in peacetime.
Steve Fraser
Steve Fraser is the author of Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise of American Labor and the co-editor of The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order. He is editor-
at-large for the journal New Labor Forum.
Labor — Inescapably!
Once upon a time — as in long, long ago — all presidents and presidential candidates were expected to have an answer for the “labor question.” Nowadays, not only are there no answers, there’s scarcely a question, at least not one demanding enough to command prolonged attention in this election year. Unasked, unanswerable, yet inescapable! […]


