Confessions of a Union Buster: New Activist Edition

Martin Jay Levitt was a union buster who planned and executed customized anti-union campaigns at more then 250 businesses across America, from coal mines and factories to airlines and nursing homes. Levitt reached the pinnacle of his profession by demolishing friendships, shattering families, and turning worker against worker; he routinely spied on the police records, personnel files, credit histories, medical records, and family lives of union activists in efforts to discredit them.

After a twenty year career that destroyed the lives of potentially tens of thousands of people, Levitt decided to clear his conscience and expose the dirty tricks of the trade. The result was Confessions of a Union Buster, in which he lays out in agonizing detail the disgusting tactics he employed anytime workers sought to improve their lives by organizing a union. He also spoke to auditoriums full of union workers, often beginning his speeches with the words, I come from a very dirty business….

Now, 28 years after the publication of Confessions, this New Activist Edition couldn’t be more relevant as the gap between the worker and executive classes has only gotten wider, reaching epidemic proportions.

A new Foreword by legendary organizer Bob Muehlenkamp, a man who fought his share of campaigns against Marty Levitt and later encouraged Levitt to write this book, outlines in shocking detail why Confessions of a Union Buster: New Activist Edition couldn’t come at a better time. Also new to this edition is Muehlenkamp’s 17 Elements of the Union Busting System, a perfect tool for organizers that draws from Muehlenkamp’s more than forty years campaigning for workers and fighting union busters.