Early Mont Pèlerin members held a friendly stance toward certain unions

Evidence

At the end of the 1940s, one can roughly describe the dominant position on unions within the MPS as entertaining a not unfriendly stance toward them. At the outset, many MPS members were willing to argue that valuable cooperative arrangements between trade unions and employers existed elsewhere, particularly in Europe. From their experience, it seemed that labor leaders could come to understand the ways that their own interests converged with those of their employers. Besides, it could be argued that a nationally centralized wage-bargaining process resulted in certain political benefits for the capitalist class. This faction argued that the unions’ open-minded attitude might permit some form of inclusion in the conduct of the enterprise, at least in several specific areas such as social policy. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 957

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the common assumption that the MPS was uniformly anti-union from the start — connects to broader historiography on neoliberalism’s ‘two souls’ or internal diversity. — connects to: Mont Pèlerin members saw depoliticized workplace partnership as compatible with free society. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 959

Broader Connections

• Mont Pèlerin members saw depoliticized workplace partnership as compatible with free society. #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 959