Cold War Americanism: Business, Pageantry, and Antiunionism in Weirton, West Virginia

Elizabeth Fones-Wolf and Ken Fones-Wolf

Business History Review, 2003, vol. 77, issue 1, 61-91

Abstract: After World War II, Weirton Steel remained a critical barrier to the unionization of the steel industry. Weirton kept unions at bay through a plan of high wages, welfare, and company unionism, which it combined with an authoritarian style of management. Forbidden from using intimidation by the federal courts, Weirton substituted a celebration of Americanism that associated freedom with limited government and an absence of unionism. Foreseeing a union drive in 1950, Weirton staged a pageant to dramatize its version of patriotism. The steelworkers countered with a competing version that stressed trade unionism as a way to give workers a democratic voice. This article reveals how postwar patriotic pageantry was rooted in the struggle between labor and capital.

Date: 2003
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