VLVL (About Work, the failure of Wlfare Capitalism).6

[Terrance]

Sasha found a rip-roaring Union town, still riding the waves of euphoria
from the General Strike of '34. The Great Depression profoundly altered
not only the economic and social, but also the ideological climate of
the times. Faith in Capitalism was shockingly undermined. By 1933, one
quarter of the workforce was unemployed. Unionization stirred once more.
The leaders of these efforts were mostly  highly skilled and well paid
workers.  Most had considerable seniority, enough, obviously, to have
escaped the deep cuts and layoffs of the great Depression. Many were
radicals and came from families  in which radicalism, or unionism, or
both had been part of the experience of their brothers or fathers or,
though less likely, their mothers and sisters. As older, skilled
workers, they were conscious of the inroads that technology and  how the
concomitant changes in the  organization of work had influenced their
status and power on shop floors and in their communities. These radicals
and union supporters had been overwhelmed by the successful waves of
Welfare Capitalism in the 1920's.  But the flame of Unionism, if
extinguished by the successive waves of Welfare Capitalism, now stood on
the shores of Capitalism's greatest failure, the calm before the storm.
The Capitalists tried to honor welfare capitalism's implied contract
based on good pay and job security, but they could not do it. So,
radicals, such as the Socialists Turnball and Lynn at GE, the
Communist-led Metal Workers Industrial Union, Communist organizers like
Kirkendahl at General Motors, and IWW supporters such as Schaeffer and
Price at Westinghouse saw the opportunity to organize. But what about
women? Un-skilled workers. Farm workers? All that union work Sasha got
into? And why does Pynchon tack that particular slice of history onto
Sasha's tail/tale?