From Wagner Act to Growth of Union
Power (1935-1955)
John L Lewis
George Meany
Sidney Hillman
Walter Reuther
Wagner Act & Rise of CIO

Wagner (National Labor Relations) Act:
Distinctive US State Intervention
• Establishing Right to Collective Bargaining
• Banning Employer Unfair Labor Practices:
End to Company Unions
• NLRB & Enforcement of Majority Rule
• NLRB Determination of Bargaining Unit:
Potential Conflict between Industrial
& Craft Unionism
Emergence of Congress of Industrial
Organization, 1935-38


Establishment of Committee for Industrial
Organization (CIO): Role of John L. Lewis
& Sidney Hillman (1935)
CIO’s Organizing Tactics
• Focus on Basic Industries: Autos, Steel,
Rubber
• Inclusion of Women & Blacks
• Direct Involvement in Politics: Support for
FDR
• Role of Communists (Lee Pressman)
CIO’s Successes & Failures, 1936-38




General Motors (Flint) Sit-Down Strike
(1936-37): Rapid Growth of UAW (200,000)
US Steel Agreement with SWOC (1937):
Growth of Steelworkers’ Union (300,000)
Failure of Little Steel Strike (1937)
AFL Counteroffensive
• Organizing Competition
• Attacks on NLRB
WW II: Ambiguous Impact on Labor


Growth in Union Membership &
Rise in Wages, Fringe Benefits
Centralization of Power in Labor Movement:
Bureaucratization vs. Shopfloor Activism

Dependency on State: CIO-FDR Alliance

Lack of Reform Momentum: Contrast to UK
Wartime Developments

Continuing Labor Conflicts
• AFL v. CIO Competition
• No Strike Pledge v. Wildcat Strikes
• Coal Strike of 1943: John L. Lewis’s
Successful Defiance of Government
• Passage of Smith-Connally Act (1943):
Backlash to Coal Strike
Transition to Peace: Mixed Results for Labor

Postwar Strike Wave: Contrast to 1919
Strikes, Percentage of Total Employed
Transition to Peace: Mixed Results for Labor
• Importance of GM Strike: Wage v. Worker
Control Issues (Role of Walter Reuther)
• Mixed Results
 Wage Gains v. Failure on Control Issues
• Contrast to British Postwar Situation:
Triumph of Labor Party & Nationalization
Movement
Flint (GM) Sit-Down Strike, 1936-37
Origins of Taft-Hartley Act (1947)
Contradictory Postwar Trends


WWII & Institutionalization of Union Power
Anti-Union Developments
• Wartime Backlash: Resentment against
John L. Lewis
• Postwar Growth of Anticommunism
• Failure of CIO’s Operation Dixie (1946)
 Historic Weakness of Unions in South
 Complicating Factor of Race
Changes in Labor Law: Taft-Hartley Act (1947)
• Pre-WWII Origins: Dixiecrat-GOP-AFL Bloc
• Truman’s Ambiguous Opposition
• Major Provisions
 Presidential Authority to Halt Strikes
 Limits on Secondary Boycotts
 Ban on Closed Shop
 State Authority to Ban Union Shop
 Employer Rights to Oppose Unions
 Exclusion of Supervisors/Foremen
 Restrictions on Communist Officials
Impact of Taft-Hartley Act


Union Fears v. Short-term Reality: Continuing
Growth in Membership
Long-Term Significance
• Political Significance: Limits of Union Power
• Impact of State Right-to-Work Laws
• Basis for Future Government Regulation of
Unions
Little Steel Strike, 1937
Membership in Largest CIO Unions
1200
1000
800
UAW
USW
UE/IUE
600
400
200
0
1939
1941
1944
Percentage Increases in Wages at End of Year
(1940 as Base)
80
70
60
50
Current
Real
40
30
20
10
0
1941
1942
1943
1944