The Conflict at Caterpillar: The UAW in the “Post-Strike” Era

Will it play in Peoria? If you think of the history of this town, where Lincoln and Douglas debated on the courthouse steps and Charles Lindbergh once flew the air mail, it seems like the right question to ask. But according to the 1990 census, taking the pulse of Peoria no longer promises reassuring answers about middle America. Peoria is in trouble. Its population and real estate market are down, and its manufacturing jobs have gone from 53,350 in 1978 to just 32,000 in 1991.