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If you think things in SF are contentious now, take a look back at the city's history.

Article about the practice and limitations of union (closed) shops in the US workers' movement in the 1930s and 40s. In particular it examines how they helped unions act as a tool of discipline over workers as opposed to a tool for defending their interests.

A shame revealed: that time The Chronicle tried to kill the cable cars FacebookTwitterEmail A new San Francisco Muni bus next to a cable car in 1947, the year the city considered closing the Powell Street line.Bill Young / The Chronicle 1947 It’s a strange sensation as a journalist, picking a side in a debate, forming a self-righteous (and not particularly controversial) stand and then conducting further research only to realize … that you were the villain in this movie all along. That was the feeling I had yesterday, upon learning that The Chronicle, your compass for living in the city a...

first coast-wide strike, and the day of the shape-ups, the kickbacks, and the blue books was over. [light guitar music] ♪ >> ♪ step by step ♪ the longest march ♪ can be won ♪ can be won >> ♪ many stones ♪ can form an arch ♪ singly none ♪ singly none >> ♪ and by union ♪ what we will ♪ can be accomplished still >> ♪ drops of water ♪ turn a mill ♪ singly none ♪ singly none >> we don't intend to repeat our former mistake of one group settling without the other. the bosses... the bosses will never use their worn-out technique of divide and conquer with us. ...