An in-depth look at how a union of business owners used financial and political power as well as propaganda and violence in their campaign against organized labor in early 20th century Minnesota. This groundbreaking labor study offers a detailed portrait of the Citizens Alliance (CA), a union of Minneapolis business owners that employed any means necessary to squelch the power of organized labor. The association blacklisted union workers, ran a spy network to ferret out union activity, and, when necessary, raised a private army to crush its opposition with brute force. The influence of the CA also reached across the state to battle socialists, labor unions, the Nonpartisan League, and the Industrial Workers of the World. The book examines the philosophies and tactics of the Citizens Alliance from its inception in 1903 to the passage of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, legislation that effectively inhibited the power of unions. Based on over ten years of meticulous archival research, author William Millikan delves into such subjects as the founding of the William Hood Dunwoody Industrial Institute; the 1917 Streetcar Strike and the 1934 Teamsters' Strike; and the CA's collaboration with the Commission of Public Safety, Northwest Bancorporation, the courts, and the military. Both a business history and a labor history, A Union Against Unions offers a comprehensive picture of the CA's brutal campaign against organized labor and a fascinating view of Minnesota history during the first half of the twentieth century. A one-of-a-kind study, providing an insight into the complex nature of labor relations in the United States, a perspective on the power of class and business alliance in American politics, and an exploration into the ways powerful interests have used the state to distort the labor market, the workplace, and the political arena. This book will reshape the way we think and teach about labor and politics in the twentieth-century American city." -- Elizabeth Faue, author of Community of Suffering and Struggle: Women, Men, and the Labor Movement in Minneapolis, 1915-1945This valuable history of Minneapolis' most powerful business organization . . . details how employers secretly fought labor unions. . . . well-researched.--Minneapolis Star Tribune William Millikan is a historian, author, and researcher with a focus on the labor history in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. He has written numerous articles for Minnesota History  magazine. Peter Rachleff is a co-executive director of the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul and a retired professor of history at Macalester College. He is the author of Black Labor in Richmond, Virginia, 1865–1890 and Hard-Pressed in the Heartland: The Hormel Strike and the Future of the Labor Movement . A UNION AGAINST UNIONS The Minneapolis Citizens Alliance and Its Fight Against Organized Labor, 1903-1947 By William Millikan MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS Copyright © 2001 Minnesota Historical Society All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-87351-499-6 Contents Introduction....................................................................................ixAcknowledgements................................................................................xxvPrologue........................................................................................xxvii1 An Ideology Takes Root........................................................................32 Organizing Minneapolis Business for the Open Shop.............................................173 A Declaration of Class Warfare................................................................304 Controlling Public Affairs....................................................................425 An Industrial Institute for Open-shop Workers.................................................596 The CA's Oligarchy and the Minneapolis Renaissance............................................747 The Year of Emerging Threats..................................................................878 The Minnesota Coup............................................................................1029 The CA's Private Army and the 1917 Streetcar Strike...........................................12410 Saving Minnesota from Radicals...............................................................14311 The Establishment of the American Plan.......................................................15912 Shaping the Hand of Justice..................................................................18113 Guarding an Empire...........................................................................19714 A Network of Spies...........................................................................21315 Financing the War on Labor...................................................................22716 A Social Agenda for an Open-shop City........................................................24417 The CA and the 1934 Teamsters' Strike..