Some historians contend that conditions in the United States during the Second World War gave rise to a dynamic wartime alliance between trade unions and the African American community, an alliance that advanced the cause of civil rights. They conclude that the postwar demise of this vital alliance constituted a lost opportunity for the civil rights movement that followed the war. Other scholars, however, have portrayed organized labor as defending all along the relatively privileged position of White workers relative to African American workers. Clearly, these two perspectives are not easily reconcilable, but the historical reality is not reducible to one or the other. Unions faced a choice between either maintaining the prewar status quo or promoting a more inclusive approach that sought for all members the right to participate in the internal affairs of unions, access to skilled and high-paying positions within the occupational hierarchy, and protection against management's arbitrary authority in the workplace. While union representatives often voiced this inclusive ideal, in practice unions far more often favored entrenched interests. The accelerating development of the civil rights movement following the Second World War exacerbated the unions' dilemma, forcing trade unionists to confront contradictions in their own practices.

Jon Clark’s study of the effect of the modernization of a telephone exchange on exchange maintenance work and workers is a solid contribution to a debate that encompasses two lively issues in the history and sociology of technology: technological determinism and social constructivism.

Clark makes the point that the characteristics of a technology have a decisive influence on job skills and work organization. Put more strongly, technology can be a primary determinant of social and managerial organization. Clark believes this possibility has been obscured by the recent sociological fashion, exemplified by Braverman’s analysis, that emphasizes the way machinery reflects social choices. For Braverman, the shape of a technological system is subordinate to the manager’s desire to wrest control of the labor process from the workers. Technological change is construed as the outcome of negotiations among interested parties who seek to incorporate their own interests into the design and configuration of the machinery. This position represents the new mainstream called social constructivism.

The constructivists gain acceptance by misrepresenting technological determinism: technological determinists are supposed to believe, for example, that machinery imposes appropriate forms of order on society. The alternative to constructivism, in other words, is to view technology as existing outside society, capable of directly influencing skills and work organization.

Clark refutes the extremes of the constructivists by both theoretical and empirical arguments. Theoretically he defines "technology" in terms of relationships between social and technical variables. Attempts to reduce the meaning of technology to cold, hard metal are bound to fail, for machinery is just scrap unless it is organized functionally and supported by appropriate systems of operation and maintenance. At the empirical level Clark shows how a change at the telephone exchange from maintenance-intensive electromechanical switches to semi-electronic switching systems altered work tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration, and organization of workers. Some changes Clark attributes to the particular way management and labor unions negotiated the introduction of the technology, whereas others are seen as arising from the capabilities and nature of the technology itself. Thus Clark helps answer the question: "When is social choice decisive and when are the concrete characteristics of technology more important?"

Sports Association

Statement by sports association spokes-­person:

Our sports association issues contracts to television networks for the exclusive right to broadcast our sporting events. For this right, the networks pay the association substantial fees, which help finance our leagues. We also provide free media passes to our events for journalists so that they can effectively report on sports news, including final scores. Now, how­ever, some news organizations are posting video clips, audio clips, digital photographs, and live score updates from our events on their websites. Conditions must be placed on these practices, which go beyond mere sports news reporting; they harm the value of our broad­casting contracts and violate our rights as the owners of the sports leagues. News organiza­tions that wish to post such information on their websites should therefore sign contracts with the sports association that stipulate what post­ings will be allowed and how much they will cost. As we have in the past, we will deny media passes to journalists from news organi­zations that do not comply with our require­ments.

News Organizations

Statement by news organizations spokes­person:

me news business has largely shifted (rom print media to the Internet, where readers expect text to be accompanied by audio and Images To charge news organizations for providing online sports coverage or to place unnecessary conditions on that coverage is to deny news organizations their right to cover the news. Online news sites are not asking to broadcast sporting events In their entirety, and their sports reporting does not detract from the value of the sports leagues or their events. On the contrary—free, engaging sports reporting generates interest in sports and thus benefits readers and the sports association alike. News organizations must be allowed to report freely about sports on their websites, in any time­frame, using any type of online medium they deem effective.