Unions & Zinc from Shinola

[Terrance]

As early as V., Pynchon is concerned about Labor & Unions.
His Father's political life, his experience as a road
laborer, his political/historical readings, films,  seem to
have
influenced his attitudes toward Union labor. This concern is
an important one in V. GR (see Sasuly's I.G. Farben) and of
course, VL. 

It's perhaps almost too obvious that as world trade
increases labor becomes more and more the most critical
competitive variable. 

Developing countries have relatively low labor costs and
virtually no labor unions. 

What can developing nations learn from the U.S. labor
struggle? 

 After reaching a high point of 35% in the US after full
industrialization (see Chaplin's Modern Times) Union labor
is less than 15% in the U.S. now. 
What can U.S. Labor learn from the U.S. labor struggle? 

In any event, yesterday, I showed my students "The Salt of
the Earth." In the film, workers strike and replacement
workers are brought to the mines by the owners. In a Union
meeting one of the brothers says he was able to spy on the
replacement workers, "don't worry, they don't know zinc from
shinola," he told his brothers.  

http://home.earthlink.net/~connorn/salt.html