Labor spying in the United States

Labor spying in the United States had involved people recruited or employed for the purpose of gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, sowing dissent, or engaging in other similar activities, in the context of an employer/labor organization relationship. Spying by companies on union activities has been illegal in the United States since the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. However, non-union monitoring of employee activities while at work is perfectly legal and, according to the American Management Association, nearly 80% of major US companies actively monitor their employees.[1][2]

Statistics suggest that historically trade unions have been frequent targets of labor spying.[3] Labor spying is most typically used by companies or their agents, and such activity often complements union busting. In at least one case, an employer hired labor spies to spy not only upon strikers, but also upon strikebreakers that he had hired.[4]

Sidney Howard observed in 1921 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."[5] Because the labor spy operates in secret, "all [co-workers] are suspected, and intense bitterness is aroused against employers, the innocent and the guilty alike."[6]

Historically, one of the most incriminating indictments of the labor spy business may have been the testimony of Albert Balanow (some sources list the name as Ballin or Blanow) during an investigation of the detective agencies' roles during the Red Scare. Albert Balanow had worked with both the Burns Detective Agency and the Thiel Detective Agency. Balanow testified that the Red Scare was all about shaking down businessmen for protection money. "If there is no conspiracy, you've got to make a conspiracy in order to hold your job."[7][8][9]

The sudden exposure of labor spies has driven workers "to violence and unreason", including at least one shooting war.[10][11]

  1. ^ "Active Monitoring of Employees Rises to 78%". ABC News. 2006-01-06. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
  2. ^ "Is your workplace tracking your computer activities?". HowStuffWorks. 2001-08-22. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
  3. ^ From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States, Robert Michael Smith, 2003, pp. 75–96.
  4. ^ William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, p. 8.
  5. ^ Sidney Howard, The Labor Spy, A Survey of Industrial Espionage, Chapter 1, The New Republic, reprinted in Mixer and server, Volume 30, Hotel and Restaurant Employee's International Alliance and Bartenders' International League of America, April 15, 1921, p. 42
  6. ^ Richard C. Cabot, Introduction, The Labor Spy--A Survey of Industrial Espionage, by Sidney Howard and Robert Dunn, Under the Auspices of the Cabot Fund for Industrial Research, published in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's Magazine, Volume 71, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, 1921, p. 31
  7. ^ William R. Hunt, Front-page detective: William J. Burns and the detective profession, 1880–1930, Popular Press, 1990, p. 166
  8. ^ Donald Oscar Johnson, The challenge to American freedoms: World War I and the rise of the American Civil Liberties Union, Mississippi Valley Historical Association, University of Kentucky Press, 1963, p. 170
  9. ^ Mary Heaton Vorse, A footnote to folly: reminiscences of Mary Heaton Vorse, Ayer Publishing, 1980, pp. 307–308
  10. ^ Advocate, Volumes 28–29, Richard C. Cabot, Introduction, The Labor Spy—A Survey of Industrial Espionage, by Sidney Howard and Robert Dunn, Under the Auspices of the Cabot Fund for Industrial Research, published by the Retail Clerks International Association, 1921, p. 10
  11. ^ Robert Michael Smith, From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States, 2003, pp. 78–79