U.S. Neoliberal Common Sense: How Private-Sector Labor Unions Exacerbate Density Corrosion

Historically low private-sector labor union density indicates looming labor union extinction. Introducing the self-infliction thesis, I demonstrate that since U.S. neoliberalism negatively correlates to private-sector union density and that U.S. neoliberal common sense pervades social conventions, it is plausible that neoliberal common sense pervades U.S. private-sector union organizational standards, exacerbating density corrosion along the way. In particular, Antonio Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony and common sense inform a frame of reference from which U.S. neoliberal common sense is expressed as a traditionally inherited and reflexively accepted social perspective of the world, assuming U.S. neoliberal inevitability and equity. The self-infliction thesis underscores the urgency of labor unions to transcend neoliberal common sense and foster collective visions for a post-neoliberal, pro-labor socioeconomic paradigm.