David Macaray: Union Busting 101

… But something emerged in the mid-1980s that has the potential to be even more damaging than anything that came before it. Having concluded that they couldn't destroy union solidarity by attacking, isolating or starving it, management seized upon an alternative tactic that no one (or few) saw coming. Companies discovered that solidarity could be broken down from the inside, by corrupting it. This was done by introducing something called "special assignments." A special assignment is an arrangement where hourly workers are taken off their regular jobs and assigned to non-bargaining, non-supervisory tasks for periods ranging from one week to, literally, several years.

David Macaray: Union Busting 101