The institutional subordination of contested issues: The case of Pittsburgh's steelworkers and ministers

This essay responds to critical theory's challenge for rhetorical criticism to focus on the ways in which the exercise of power influences rhetorical practices in the public sphere. It explores how the relegation of union worker's interests to private institutional entities can result in the institutional subordination of those interests and how this subordination significantly diminishes the range of public discourse and contested issues. It analyzes a case where a group of local steelworkers in the Pittsburgh area, working in conjunction with a small group of Protestant ministers, sought to gain public support for the redress of grievances and how their subordination by the United Steel Workers' union and the Lutheran Church influenced their rhetorical activities.

Key concepts:

• Labor rhetoric
• institutional subordination
• diminished public discourse
• critical theory