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The American Labor Movement
Institutions
History,
1-- y----- -T I Structure, and
An informal outline
for Labor and Urban Studies 10
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By David F. Selvin
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Copyright 19.74
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(Revised 1976)
I
IN1TUT O INODUsNTRIAL
RILAtlIONI
LIBRARY
DEC21 1976
!NIVSI'T 0o CALIIIORNIA
LtY
II
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--7
?
Please note:
provided
The materials
for the use of the members
reproduced
for any other purpose with-
They
are
of this class and
may
not be
my specific
consent.
not be used without
tion will be
pages are copyrighted, 1974 by
provided only
David F. Selvin.
out
in these
Other
permission
copyrighted materials
of their
copyright
used herein may
owners.
greatly appreciated.
David F. Selvin
Your
coopera-
I- 1
Some Historical Currents
Unit I.
pressures have operated,
At least four fundamental
hundred years and more, to mold and
shape the American union movement.
ideologies, economic
Forces of the moment -- leaders,
over some two
and
political
movements -- cut across these pressures to create the movement at a
given time. Action and reaction follow, seldom with clear beginnings
or decisive
to
endings,
something
else.
but one
thing leading
This is the
The
persistent longtime pressures:
major and immediate
his unions has been for
it, in turn,
continuity of history.
These are the fundamental,
1.
to another and
concern of the American worker and
higher wages,
better
working conditions,
shorter
hours, here and now. His unions have grown from -- and have been focused
on -- the
2.
with
job.
The American worker and his
varying degrees
of
vigor, have
It has sometimes been their
unions, in one way or another,
never wandered far from
major concern;
politics.
at other times, a lesser in-
terest, but, in one form or another, always present.
3.
The American worker and his unions have been
outset of their
tered
mainly in
degrees
the
shaping
4.
an
unremitting opposition. Though it cen-
employers, it has
-- extended to
frequently
in
history, by
faced, from the
at times -- and in
differing
many sections of the community. And though it
takes new forms, it has remained as a
continuing pressure
the American union movement.
American workers, from the moment of the Industrial Revolution
I-2
(and perhaps before), have been hounded by a basic,
insecurity
-- the
month or next, the
necessity
At
of
haunting fear that,
job
finding
day, this week
this
or next,
will end and that the urgent, even
another will have to start
desperate
again.
any given moment in history, these long-term, underlying
sures are intersected
1.
one
inescapable economic
by
pres-
some or all of these forces:
The state of the
economy: its particular stage
of
develop-
ment, its health and well-being, its course and its goals.
2.
The uses of
political action: weak or strong, primary
secondary, wide-ranging, deeply-involved
3.
The legal conflict:
or
or narrow and limited.
the ceaseless war between unions and em-
ployers frequently and often critically centered in the courts.
4.
Leadership:
stance to the
5.
and
the
personalities who give direction, shape,
sub-
underlying forces.
Environment:
the
thought, belief, creed, myth that dominate
shape the climate of the moment.
I-3
You'll want to know:
1.
The basic forces that
give the American union
movement its
essential shape and substance.
2.
The forces of the moment that
give its
form and appearance at
any given time.
It is not
in these
enough to know them in the general terms that I've used
introductory pages,
each successive
episode
but to use them as a screen in
in the
long history.
examining
II
Unit II.
-
1
A Profile of the American Union Movement
Some 20 million workers
-20,100,000 in fact- make up the American
union movement.
It's a
No rich.
lopsided, badly-skewed cross-section
Some of the
poor
-- the
working poor.
of the American
people.
An over-size chunk of
the middle.
are
It's
mostly
It's
mostly white
It's
mostly blue-collar
-- and
disproportionately
-- male.
disproportionately.
(though both women and white-collar
-- but not
increasing).
It's found in
wildly, widely varying
Heaviest where manual workers are still a
Heaviest in railroads,
all in
trucking, autos,
sectors of the
major part
steel.
And in
shifting proportions
Still: whatever the
American
shape, it's
almost
a
--
to
(though, according
power in the
living with it. Many
to who he
The President of
is, with varying styles
degrees of ardor).
Leaders of the nation's
The liberals
decry it
The conservatives
biggest industries
deal with it.
as too weak, too conservative.
complain it's
The radical calls it narrow,
too
at
banking, insurance,
center of
others would be a great deal worse off without it.
the U.S. courts it
hardly exists
everywhere else.
major
society. Many dislike it, object
economy.
of the work force.
But it
many sections of the service industries
finance.
and
workers
strong.
short-sighted.
The John Bircher
sees it as an extension of an international communist
plot.
II - 2
shape and
Its
substance
emerge from these statistics:
Profile of the American Union Movement
.
.......,,
,
·
·~~~~~~~~~~
Membership (1)
1974):
Total (in
(including Canadian members
113 AFL-CIO international unions
64 unaffiliated international unions
21,600,000
1,500,000
16,900,000
4,700,000
21.6% of the civilian labor force
25.7% of the wage/salary employees in non-farm establishments
In 1972:
71,409 local unions
165,133 collective bargaining agreements
Industrial Distribution (1974) (1)
,
,,
manufacturing industries
non-manufacturing industries
In
In
In
government
In contract construction
(1972)
Transportation
Service Industries
Federal Government
Trade
Electrical machinery,
equipment
Transportation equipment
9,137,000 (42%)
9,508,000 (44%)
2,907,000 (14%)
2,752,000
2,358,000
1,649,000
1,369,000
1,284,000
1,052,000
1,032,000
Occupation (2)
3,900,000 (23%)
11,900,000 (69%)
1,400,000 ( 8%)
White-collar
Blue-collar
Service
Sex
(1)
17,000,000 (79%)
4,594,000 (21%)
Men
Women
Race
(2)
White
Black & other
15,100,000 (88%)
races
2,100,000 (12%)
II - 3
Work force
(wage/salary employees in non-farm establishments) 1970
Participation (2)
ALL
White
Black & other races
MALE - ALL
White
Black & other races
FEMALE - ALL
White
Black & other races
20.4%
20%
22%
28%
28%
29%
10%
10%
14%
Ae (2)
Between 16 and 24
26 and 64
65 and over
14%
84%
2%
Earnings (2)
(Median average of non-farm wage salary employees working yearround, full-time)
All
White-Collar
Blue-Collar
Service
Less than
$5,000 to
$5,000
$10,000
$10,000 and
(Including
over
over $15,000
Union
Non-Union
$8,609
$7,452
8,858
8,664
7,026
8,532
6,690
4,650
11%
57%
32%
5%
25%
4 46%
29%
11%)
Sources:
(1) U.S. Department of Labor, Directory of National Unions and Employee
Associations, 1971, Bulletin 1750 (1972); 1973 (1974)
(2) U.S. Department of Labor, Selected Earnings and Demographic Characteristics of Union Members, 1970, Report 417, 1972
II - 4
You'll want to know:
- The
general shape of the union
movement in terms of:
industry
occupational class
sex
race
geographical distribution
income
And
you'll
want to think about:
- The
impact
of the union movement on the management (the govern-
ment) of industry; on the right to hire and fire;
- The union movement's
-
place under the law;
Other, not necessarily friendly, views of the union movement.
III - 1
Unit III.
Union Structure and Jurisdiction
In the
Workers
try, in terms
beginning
came the local union.
the context of their
organized within
of their own immediate
From their local unions,
job
problems and their
they reached
or their indusown
employer.
out:
- to other local unions of the same kind and from them came na-
tional and international unions;
- to other local unions in the same
community
and from them came
central labor bodies, state and local, and on a national scale, national
federations or union centers.
jurisdiction: the job
At the heart of each local union was its
jobs,
or
craft or combination of crafts, the labor force, in whole or in
part, in a single plant or in an entire industry over which it sought
some measure of influence or control -- the work
territory
over which it
sought to establish some kind of mutually agreeable government.
Jurisdiction
measuring job
ship,
of
provided
a useful means of
or work boundaries, of
providing
defining organization,
determining eligibility
a feasible basis for common
for member-
goals and concerted action.
Jurisdiction may be measured by:
- the work it
covers;
area over which it extends;
- the
geographic
- the
specific purpose
- the level of
for which it is
of
being
used.
union (or industrial) government where it is
III - 2
being applied.
Jurisdiction,
as a
major component of collective bargaining, gave
rise to many other forms (or structures) of
- intermediate
- national
organization:
organizations
organizations
- substructures
-
special-purpose organizations (benefit funds,
for example)
III - 3
JURISDICTION & STRUCTURE*
I.
Jurisdiction.
The
job
or
jobs;
the craft, a subdivision of a craft, or a com-
bination of crafts; the labor force, in whole or in part, in a
industry
or in an entire
plant
over which a union seeks to establish its
influence and some measure of control -- in short, the work
over which it seeks to
able (or
acceptable)
provide
single
some kind of
territory
government mutually agree-
to those who work within that
territory.
Your union:
No.
Name:
Jurisdiction:
II.
diction) in
-
A union establishes its claim to its work
one or more of the
The labor movement
grants or concedes
the national
union,
decisions of a
or
a
territory (juris-
following ways:
(historically through
given jurisdiction
a central
federation)
to a national union and,
through
The grant may be affected by the
to a local union.
judicial procedure established by
the central federation
by agreement among several unions for resolving jurisdictional dis-
putes.
-
ment
The
jurisdiction may be,
and
usually is, confirmed by
a
govern-
agency, principally the National Labor Relations Board and usually
on the basis of some method of
showing
that the union
represents
a
III - 4
majority
of the workers within the work
labeled the
- An
territory (in this instance,
bargaining unit).
a union's
employer may confirm
part) by recognizing it
cific unit (or work
as the
jurisdiction (in
representative
of his
whole or in
employees in
a
spe-
territory).
In which of these
ways
was
your union's jurisdiction
over
your
job confirmed?
-
By grant (or concession) of the central federation.
-
By charter from a national union.
-
By certification by the National Labor Relations Board (or by
some other
-
government agency. If the latter, what agency?
By recognition of your employer.
Jurisdiction may be measured in these interrelated and
III.
interdependent ways:
- A
tion of
description
of the work
territory: in
occupation, worksite, industry, employer,
tools, machinery,
geographic
of course, cover
work process,
materials,
or other common denominator.
How is the work
- The
terms of some combina-
any
territory
of your union described?
area to which the
area from a
jurisdiction applied.
single department in
the entire work force of an entire
industry, from
a
a
It can,
single plant
portion
of a
city
to
to
III - 5
the entire nation (and sometimes Canada and Puerto
What is the
- The
*
that
geographic
area covered
Rico). 1
by your union?
specific purpose for which jurisdiction is being exercised:
is, for collective bargaining, for joint or coordinated bargaining,
for consultation, mutual support, or other
gaining
is the
purposes. Collective bar-
major focus of union activity; jurisdiction
for that
purpose is largely regulated by the Federal labor relations law and by
the National Labor Relations Board.
Traditional
jurisdiction
-- the
grant of jurisdiction by a central federation, the constitutional
claim of a national union, the charter of a local union, the
demarcation of a craft or
by the
industry
--
may be (and often is) modified
NLRB to accommodate the demands of workers for
an
"appropriate bargaining unit."
be
primarily
a means of
tical
bargaining unit.
which
employees
zation."
vote for or
actual
you work in
Is the NLRB
a
recognition as
time, given unit may
and not
necessarily a prac-
may be "an election district in
against representation by
The "election district" may not be the same
bargaining unit in
Do
At the same
organizing workers
A NLRB unit
customary
a labor
thing
organi-
as the
practice.
bargaining unit confirmed by
bargaining unit the
se as the
the NLRB?
bargaining unit
that ac-
tually negotiates your union contract?
Unions also
as mutual
participate
in a
variety
of other activities (such
consultation, legislative, research, education, etc.).
of these activities take
place among local unions within
a
Some
particular
III - 6
national
organization,
or
they may take place among nations from
ber of different national unions.
And unions may also
organizations formed for administrative
health & welfare and
Identify
ganizations
participate in
functions, such as
pension funds.
other purposes for which your union
of broader or different
Organization:
or other
a num-
participates
in or-
jurisdiction?
Purpose:
_
III - 7
You'll want to know:
- union
jurisdiction and its relation to the
and international
unions,
to state and local central
structure of local
bodies,
to na-
tional federations and to the several functions of the union (collec-
tive
bargaining, benefit programs, political action, etc.)
- the
application of these principles to your own local union.
You should be able to see how
your own
local union relates to
your
international union and to various kinds of intermediate and sub-local
organizations.
IV
1
-
The beginnings
Unit IV.
In
1805, in the city of Philadelphia, eight cordwainers were
charged with the crime of combining and conspiring to raise their wages.
Their trial is
1.
ment.
the
significant because:
It was a
major
Its outcome was
test of workers'
heavily influenced by
political attitudes of
to the
carryover into the
law and British
2.
rights under
the
parties.
the
political climate and
It was an
new nation's laws and
the new govern-
important challenge
practices
of British
practice.
It was,
characteristically, focused
on the
shop,
on the im-
mediate issue of wages.
3.
It
4.
And, finally, it did much to set the tone and direction of
helps
newly-developing
The
us to see how conditions conducive to unions
labor relations in the
Philadelphia
developed.
developing nation.
union of cordwainers was not the first
organized
protest of workers against exploitation and abuse. They had, long before the
Revolution, acted in concert. Workers in licensed trades
combined to seek
and in
higher prices.
or deserted.
groups,
"store" orders.
a
Boston caulkers
New York tailors
chose instead to work
(1767) formed
Bound servants refused to work,
directly
(1741) refused to accept
(1768) refused to
for customers.
"friendly" society.
singly
work for
New York house
masters,
carpenters
Mariners (1779) organized to help
widows and children of their fellow workers.
The colonial
period
was dominated
by British law, which imposed
IV - 2
severe restrictions on workers, and
by other practices aimed
at
pre-
venting workers from exploiting the unending shortage of labor that
persisted through
the colonial years.
lawing combinations
to raise
fixing prices
fixing,
out-
wages, requiring apprentices to finish
their terms, use of child labor,
sion to trades,
These included wage
pirating workers, regulation
or rates for certain classes of
of admis-
public
(porter, carmen, chimney sweeps, bakers, etc.).
workers
1790 was "the seedtime of American industrialism."
were made in
Beginnings
developing manufacturing industry (cottons, woolens,
paper, brick, glass, iron, soft coal). Highways and canals pushed
west from the coast.
industry emerged
An
organizations
and markets
expanded, first signs of worker
are seen:
Black
chimney sweeps "turned out"
delphia printers
in 1761; New York and Phila-
called strikes.
- Crude collective
bargaining developed:
closed
shop, control of
entry into trade, rules of conduct for members, "tramping committee" to
enforce trade rules.
Key
to rise of unions
Bespoke
directly
work:
shoes and boots made to order;
between master or
Shop work:
(as Commons saw it):
journeyman
and customer.
stocked standards sizes,
Required capital (wages, rent, materials)
sold.
Master
increasingly
prices settled
shapes for
to hold
casual customers.
completed goods until
retail merchant and, as work expanded,
employer.
IV - 3
But
price still settled mainly by direct negotiation between
master and
customer.
master is now
Market work:
employ
tal to
full-fledged employer; provides capi-
workers and to maintain stock of
goods. Competes in open
market, his prices directly determined by competition (of which wage
cost an
man
important item).
Now the interests of the
diverge: employer interested
journeyman interested
for the
rivalry.
point,
journey-
cheapest possible labor costs;
maintaining wages. Competition
At this
and
Cemmous
set conditions
said, "the conflict of capital
begins."
and labor
As market
journeymen
wages and
in
in
employer
expanded,
competition
as
more and more set
prices,
increasingly necessary to join together to protect
conditions against market pressures. Individual bargaining
found it
gave way to a form of collective bargaining.
This was the economic
setting in which the Philadelphia
wainers chose to form a union of their own.
Their union led a
cord-
rocky
existence, culminating in the conspiracy charges in 1805.
In
and
1805, eight cordwainers were indicted on charges of combining
conspiring
to raise their
- It wasn't the
rights under the
- It was,
new
wages.
It is
significant
first strike but it was a
major
because:
test of workers'
government.
characteristically, focused
on the
shop
on immediate
questions of wages.
- It was
trialization.
typical
of the
early response
to the
beginning
of indus-
IV - 4
- It was
heavily influenced by
political climate
and the po-
parties. The goals of the American Revolution
litical attitudes of the
were still fresh in
the
many minds.
- And it was a
challenge
carryover of British law and
to the
practices in employer-employee relations.
The
prosecution argued that
rights of
feres with the
others and makes itself
the state, forces loss and
imposes its will
vidual is free to set his own
workings
crime under the
resist
prices;
to the laws of
employer. The indi-
the evil is in the combination.
of the "natural" law of
English
superior
on the
against other workers, employers,
The crime is
with the
the combination to set wages inter-
customers.
supply
It interferes
and demand.
It was a
common law.
The defense countered:
if one man is free to set his own wage,
exploitation, why
group? The purpose in either case is
not a
equally innocent. English
Pennsylvania. Employers
denied the same right?
common law does not
are free to set
apply
to
post-Revolution
prices; why should workers be
Association of workers to better their conditions
is an exercise of the freedom that had been won in the Revolution.
The
eight cordwainers
were found
guilty.
To allow such combina-
tions, said Recorder Levy, would leave the public's pockets free to be
picked.
No
group
can set
finding
of a
up laws which
are
contrary to laws of the
country.
The
other states.
conspiracy in the Cordwainers
case
spread to
Would-be unionists were held to be "criminals" in 19
IV
Many unions faded; many turned
cases in five states.
The
In the same
cessful but it
year,
politics.
central labor union was formed in
country's first
in 1827, the result of an
to
attempt by carpenters
a
Workingmen's party
5
-
Philadelphia
to win a 10-hour
was formed.
began the agitation that ultimately
day.
It was unsuc-
won free
public
education, abolition of imprisonment for debt, right to vote. Workingmen's
political
others
parts
The
reform
of New
groups formed in
New York,
Pennsylvania, Delaware,
England.
Philadelphia
Trades Union in 1834,
Trades Union led to formation of the National
bringing together delegates from Boston, Philadel-
phia, Newark, Brooklyn,
New York in the first effort to form a national
center.
New
England textile mills demonstrated the problems that grew from
the
factory system.
the
country.
In
the
In the
mid-1850's, immigration began to pour into
Massachusetts, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, in a case involving
conspiracy doctrine, held that neither
the intended
purpose of the
combination or the means used by its members was unlawful.
organization
opened again
to union
the courts.
Unions were lawful only to the degree that
but now with the final
their purposes and their tactics lawful.
came to be called
way
was
say left with
judges
found
It laid the basis for what
"government by injunction" which
difficulties for the union movement.
The
It erased in
later raised great
part the taint of
conspiracy.
Still a national union movement had not yet formed.
Too
many
IV - 6
Americans remained close to the land, to the tools of their trade, to
their own
and
workshops. They held
mobility,
society
was
if not wealth.
taking
on solid
on to a
a national
independence
shape; it began in growing numbers
farm workers from the land to the
economy,
measure of
By mid-century, the developing industrial
rate craftsmen from their tools and
new and distinct class of
good
people
workshops.
sepa-
It drew farmers and
growing cities.
who lived
to
It was
creating
a
by wages. An industrial
market, and a growing working class, provided the
soil in which the national union movement could take root.
IV - 7
You'll want to know:
- the conditions and tone of
to the Revolution and what
- the
shaped them.
kinds, purposes and methods of employee response.
- the economic
developments that created the conditions in which
unions were the natural
- the
employer-employee relations prior
response.
key arguments
and
significance
of the
prosecution
of the
Philadelphia cordwainers.
- the goals of
workingmen's political parties.
- the
shape of the emerging factory system.
- the
arguments and significance of Justice Shaw's ruling in
Commonwealth v. Hunt.
V- 1
Unit V.
Rise of the National Unions
By
1850 the conditions for a national industrial economy -- and
a union movement -- had
clearly emerged. The nation's 23 million people
(19-1/2 million white, free; 3-1/2 million "non-white," most of them
black and slave)
occupied virtually
the same continental space the nation
occupies today. It was still a predominantly agricultural society
were in the
changes
but
making.
More than a third of the workforce made their livelihood in non-
farm
occupations.
(It had been 28 per cent in 1820; by the 1880's the
non-farm workforce would
marily mineral fuels)
surpass
had
the farm.)
The use of
multiplied nearly
energy (pri-
25 times since 1820.
Some
nine thousand miles of railroad track had been built since 1820.
Manu-
facturing establishments employed nearly
wages
added
up
to
a million workers; their
$237,000,000 -- about $250 per year per worker or $5 a week.
(See background statistics)
A national market was
shipped
developing. Through-freight
from the Eastern seaboard to the
major market, now, products from
with each other.
another.
The
A
highly mobile
could be
Mississippi Valley.
several different localities
In
any
competed
work force flowed from one area to
development of factory systems, crude assembly lines,
and
power tools opened the way to "greenhands" (off the farm and by rising
immigration),
the
employment
to the utilization of lesser
skills, the division of labor,
of women and children.
Workers began to sense the
impact
of broader markets, more
V- 2
price (and labor) competition, the spreading introduction of
intense
machinery.
saw the conditions around them:
They
that two-thirds of New York's
scarcely
Greeley estimated
population who lived by simple
one dollar a week for each
sistence.
Horace
person who relied
on it for his sub-
Journeyman printers worked for less than $6
ers earned a dollar a
day or, perhaps, about $200
a
Irish laborers flooded the seaboard cities; farmers'
labor earned
a week;
day labor-
year. English and
boys invaded
the
cities.
The
poor lived in unbelievable conditions of congestion and filth:
cellars used as
living quarters; large numbers
of families
living
under-
ground. The labor press complained that the condition of workers
was
deteriorating, they
re-
sources were
life as to
were
increasingly dependent
on
capital, their
being curtailed, that "a new uncertainty had entered his
wages and employment."
Unions revived and the slow, difficult
tional union movement began.
Typographical Union
was
Hatters
process of foregoing a na-
organized. In 1852 the National
organized. Other national unions formed
in the
1850's included the molders, blacksmiths and machinists, locomotive
engineers.
The movement had
barely begun
break of the Civil War.
release a flood of
when it was
disrupted by
the out-
Many workers feared abolition of slavery would
competition for jobs; abolitionists
voice their
objections
competition
to "free" labor were even more
to
"wage slavery
were slow to
and the use of slaves in direct
recognizable
menaces.
In
V
the church, free workers
When war came, whole
coln's armies.
living
came
during
the war
3
opposed slavery and supported its abolition.
shops and entire unions volunteered for
After the inevitable
higher and
once
confusion, prices began
again unions began
to form --
Mr.
Lin-
to mount,
many of them
years.
One of them was the national union of soldiers.
union a
-
major figure
was William H.
Sylvis,
And in that
as he came to
be, too, in
the formation of the National Labor Union.
In the
tices and
molders, Sylvis as president introduced many of the prac-
policies
that
began the process of centralizing authority in
the national union (strike funds, strike aid, nationally-uniform dues,
national union clearance for transfers, national
membership).
Under
his
leadership,
and
cooperative foundries to meet continuing antagonism from the em-
the molders tried both trade
agreements (or work rules)
ployers.
Sylvis joined with
bringing together
other union leaders and "labor reformers" in
the National Labor Union.
homogeneous base; it could
it lacked
everything that
never
could
It lacked
any kind of a
agree on any basic purpose or program;
give it stability. It explored (without
reaching any conclusion) the issues of the black worker in the union
movement, of women workers, of cooperatives, political action, and of
the shorter
workday. After Sylvis's death, it split
and then faded
away.
Contemporary with the NLU,
zations of workers appeared.
the first
Isaac
Meyers,
post Civil-war black organia Baltimore
caulker, heading
-
a state labor union of black workers, was a
convention.
in
In the same
tion of
at the 1869 NLU
year the National Colored Labor Convention met
Washington. Though the
terms of mutual economic
delegate
4
black
delegates found some common ground in
interests, they strongly opposed any sugges-
independent political action.
On that rock, the efforts for
unity, limited though they were, foundered.
V - 5
Background Statistics
Gainful Workers
1820
1850
1880
1900
(Farm)
2,069,000
(Non-Farm)
4,902,000
8,585,000
10,912,000
2,795,000
8,807,000
18,161,000
812,000
Energy Consumption
(In trillions of BTUs of mineral fuels)
1820
1850
1880
1900
(Percent)
(28)
(36)
(51)
(62)
9
219
2,150
7,322
US
Foreign
(Total)
2,881
7,697
17,392
29,073
Railroads -- Miles Operated
1820
1850
1880
1900
93,262
258,784
(1930
429,883)
23
9,021
Trade
(in millions of dollars)
Bituminous coal
(Production in tons)
1820
1850
1880
1900
330,000
4,029,000
50,757,000
212,316,000
(Exports)
1820
1850
1880
1900
(Imports)
65
152
853
63
178
761
$1,499
$930
Pig iron
(Shipments in tons)
1820
1850
1880
1900
22,000
631,000
4,295,000
15,444,000
US Manufactures
1849
No. of establishments
Production & related workers
Wages ($1,000)
Value added ($1,000)
Source:
1879
1899
253,852
509,940
2,733,000
5,098,000
$ 237,000 $
948,000 $ 2,207,000
$ 464,000 $ 1,973,000 $ 5,475,000
123,025
957,000
Historical Statistics of the United States:
to 1957, Bureau of the Census, 1960.
Colonial Times
V- 6
You'll want to know:
- The
general shape and
structure of economic
development in
mid-19th Century.
-
Something
about the
their structures and
beginnings of national unions
authority were shaped by local union
and how
needs -- as
in the case of the molders.
- The attitude of free workers toward
- The
to workers'
- The
hopes for
-- and
problems with
slavery
--
and the Civil War.
cooperation as a solution
problems.
development
of the National Labor Union and its
in the long view of the union movement.
importance
VI - 1
Powderly and the Knights
Unit VI.
Sometime in the 1870's the non-farm work force equalled, then
passed farm employment
The enormous
the
doubling of
that
expansion.
expansion in
the number of
explosive economic growth
society.
the face of the American
changing
that was
-- a reflection of the
the use of energy,
manufacturing
building railroads,
workers were all measures of
(See background statistics, V-5).
Still, livin' was by no means easy.
A
variety
of estimates put
average earnings in the years between 1880 and 1900 at something like
$400 to $600 a year. Manufacturing workers earned on the average $439
a
year in 1980, $435 in 1900.
only
worked
It seems
some 36 weeks of the
year,
likely
was
that the average worker
unemployed nearly 16.
Among the forces that battered the workers, their efforts
ganize, their efforts
1.
The
to earn a
beginnings
living
of a vast
to or-
were:
immigration that, in
century, would bring millions of newcomers
the next half-
to these shores -- from
Western
Europe, from Southern and Eastern Europe, Russia and Poland,
and the
beginnings
of Asiatic and Latin American
immigration. They
were, at the same time, competitors for jobs and a market for the goods
others
produced.
2.
Technological developments, only hinted
at in
mid-century,
exploded dramatically in its last decades. New industries, new techniques
destroyed
old industries and old
skills, put competitive pressure on the
VI - 2
survivors.
They
3.
the
were a constant threat to worker and union.
Markets
expanded rapidly,
growth of the union
development
that was reflected in
The trade union, says Commons, is "the
movement.
expanding markets."
institutional reflex of
from
a
Goods moved into new markets
every direction, competing with local products and with each other;
workers were forced to defend themselves from the
rising competitive
pressures.
4.
The structure of
the number and
time of
bining
diversity
aggregation
of
of
industry underwent massive changes,
industry
capital,
of
smaller ones, of trusts and
between the
but also in its scale.
too:
in
It became a
building bigger industries by
com-
attempted monopolies. The distance
average worker and his employer stretched into vast empty
spaces; the day of the absentee boss was here.
Under these
pressures, the first major national organization to
emerge was The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. Formed by
a secretive
garment cutter, Uriah Stephens, it progressed only slowly
until Terence V.
ended its
Powderly
became its Chief Grand Workman and until it
secrecy and its closeness. Under the spur of a series of
strikes (both won and lost), the
more than
Knights' membership exploded reaching
729,000 by 1886; it might have been more had not Powderly
closed the books for several weeks.
The
Knights of
-Goals:
extend
Labor was tested on these counts:
cooperation;
organization
into
the
right
of all toilers to combine; to
every segment of industry, a "proper share of
wealth," weekly paydays, mechanics liens, "arbitration" instead of
VI - 3
strikes, equal pay for equal work, eight-hour day.
- Strikes:
participated in
Powderly
was an
outspoken opponent of strikes but
hundreds and had a hand in
settling many of
was never able to make up its mind for
Knights
toward strikes or a defense fund.
on the Union
them.
The
long about its attitude
Nevertheless, a long series of strikes --
Pacific, the glass workers, the Missouri Pacific and the
Wabash, the Texas & Pacific and the Southwest system, the meatpackers,
telegraphers
-
--
helped to spread the Knights' fame and recruit
Structure:
could be a mixed
and
The
Knights' basic unit
was the local
assembly (made up of workers from
a
members.
assembly: it
variety
of trades
businesses) or a trade assembly (made up of workers from a given
trade or
industry).
In
turn, the local assemblies (especially the trade
assemblies) formed national district assemblies, the equivalent of national trade unions-- and so laid the foundation for the feud with the
national trade unions.
The basic structure, however, rested in
open admission: all workers
(except bankers, lawyers, doctors, liquor-sellers)
were admitted.
And so,
too, were black workers. While rejecting any idea of "social equality,"
Powderly defended
the
right of black
workers in the
Knights (though
he
sometimes thought they would have been better off in their own assemblies).
-
Eight-hour campaign: Powderly refused any measure
tion with the movement for the
of
The
eight-hour day, launched by
Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1884
Knights repudiated, though it did
not
and set for
of
coopera-
the Federation
May 1, 1886.
expressly forbid, participation
VI
-
4
by local assemblies. The partial, though still substantial, victories
in the
eight-hour campaign, despite being
cut short
by the Haymarket
bomb, left the Knights in disrepute.
As the trade unions
began
to search for some kind of national
center -- and as district trade assemblies
table clash occurred.
differences failed.
began
to
develop, the inevi-
Efforts, crude and undiplomatic,
In the end the trade
to resolve the
unions, not the Knights,
sur-
vived.
The factors, then, that led to the deterioration of the
Knights
were these:
- Lost strikes:
the Gould railroad and
meatpacking strikes,
were
major instances.
- Lost face:
paign
its role in
refusing
to back the
eight-hour
cam-
won it no friends.
- Trade union conflict:
sharply job-focused,
more
the trade unions were
aggressive. The Knights
tightly-organized,
were confused and
uncertain.
Confused
viable
goals:
The
Knights could
policies dealing with strikes
never make
and defense
up its mind about
funds, political action,
or, for that matter, with a basic, functional union structure.
mixed assemblies and mixed
its
purpose.
Its
policies disspiated its strength and clouded
VI - 5
You'll want to know:
-
developments in the shape, size, and direction of the national
economy.
in
- the
goals, structure, and tactics of the Knights of Labor.
- the
Knights' strengths and weakness in practice: in strikes,
organizing,
in relations with the trade unions.
- the basic reasons
why
the
trade unions were able to make it.
Knights failed
to survive and
why the
VII - 1
Gompers and the AFL
Unit VII.
The unions formed in the
closing decades
the shadow of -- and in response to -- a
of the 18th Century in
continuing
and
mushrooming
pansion of the American economy. By every conceivable yardstick
ex-
-- work
force, energy, railroads in operation, foreign trade, manufacturing -the
economy surged upward.
It was a time of
giants,
of
too:
Carnegie,
Gould, Morgan, Rockefeller, of trusts and monopolies.
From the national
unions, and from the Knights, too,
effort to form a national center:
and Labor Unions.
the
Labor.
Sam
perhaps
the dominant force in
came to this
He worked as a
the factories.
shops and in the
Trades
legacies: one,
In the AFL he became a
shaping its
major,
character and direction.
country when he was 13 in the midst of the
cigarmaker
-- both in the tenements and in
He learned about unions at the
streets.
major
the other, the American Federation of
Gompers was party to both.
Gompers
Organized
It failed to survive but it left two
eight-hour campaign of 1886;
Civil War.
the Federation of
came a
He saw, even more
-- in the
grass roots
clearly
than
Sylvis
and
others, that a union needed the strength and stamina to survive:
through industrial depression
and
shape the Cigarmakers in
image.
that
employer warfare.
And he
helped
to
And he built on those beliefs,
too, in shaping the policies and programs of the American Federation
of Labor.
Slowly,
the AFL took
shape
in bits and
-- the
pieces,
product
of
over decades, the policies of
pressure and counter-pressure, of
VII - 2
outside forces and economic
In time, the
principle characteristics
conception
its main concern
of the trade union as an economic
higher wages,
shorter hours, better
skills, though the notion of craft was
the
the
not as
instrument,
conditions,
now.
grew from its craft
tightly
held as it later
Gompers and the AFL made room for the semi-skilled worker --
factory operative, the
training,
and
of the AFL included these:
- Its central strength and its cohesiveness
came to be.
on the unions
generating its response.
their members and
- The
developments pressing in
experience,
stituted a shared
worker who lacked the fine
of a
experience,
journeyman's trade,
a common
employer,
precision, the
the worker who sub-
a common
grievance
for
the cohesiveness of craft.
- It was
ideology
operated on
of a future
a business
society.
It was
basis, with little room for
pragmatic, down-to-earth, day-to-
day.
- It was
cal
partisan
on behalf of its
principles,
but for no politi-
party. Its political action was characteristically short-run and
sharply-focused.
At the same
time, these pressures pushed in on the AFL and its
unions, shaping and molding them:
-
Continuing economic development: expansion
and in scale of
operation, extension of markets, developments
industries, increasing technological innovation, new
cation of
both in
energy.
gross size
of new
and extended
appli-
VII - 3
- The tides of
comers crowded
immigration continued
through the ports of entry. They
employer exploitation. They also constituted
goods. Many
unskilled.
and
were
But
ignorant; they
were
Millions of new-
to mount.
ready targets of
were
a market for
industry's
ill, under-nourished, untrained,
many carried with them the skills, political and union
educational, of the old world.
Employers increasingly organized
-
organization by their employees,
ever it
cropped up.
and labor tactics.
It
fought
not
merely
but to defeat or
to stave off union
extinguish it wher-
back with efforts to curtail labor
It mobilized
money and resources and opinion
rights
to
fight
unions.
By the end of the 18th Century, the Jim Crow pattern, fixed on
-
the South
following
the American
the end of Reconstruction, had penetrated
society. The Supreme
equal gave official recognition
discrimination in
and
Court decision that
place
to
jobs, education, housing,
deep into
separate could be
segregation
-- and to the
etc. that flowed from it.
The response of the AFL and the union movement took these direc-
tions:
-
The
policy
the craft lines
of exclusive
tighter
as a
jurisdiction:
a
process of drawing
tougher, less penetrable defense against
employer and community antagonism.
- The
of the AFL
policy
of Jim Crow unions:
only occasionally did the unions
challenge the Jim Crow pattern, though it paid extensive lip
service both to mutual interest between black workers and white and to
VII - 4
the
equality
- The
of separateness.
policy
on the tactic of
of
non-partisan politics.
supporting
or
The AFL embarked
opposing individual candidates
finally
on the
basis of their records or of their stand on labor issues.
- The
dream it
policy of day-to-day, pragmatic unionism
that
gave up any
may have had of organizing those workers who described them-
selves as "labor" as
men, skilled workers.
opposed
to those who were trade unionists, crafts-
VII - 5
You'll want to know:
- What the AFL stood for-- in its
employers, with
each other, with the
- The forces that
pressed in
approach
to relations with
society generally.
on the AFL,
helping
to mold its
response.
- And the
ways in which the Federation responded both to its
internal necessities and external pressures.
VIII --
Pressure from the left
Unit VIII.
response to industrialization was not limited to that of the
The
AFL and Sam
Gompers.
It extended to the Socialists, in and out of the
AFL, to Debs and the American Railway Union, to Haywood and the Industrial Workers of the World, to the Communists and their
revolutionary
unions.
-
for
The Socialists
fought battles within the
AFL to
gain admission
party representatives, to impose a "political program" on the Federa-
tion, in general opposition. They lost.
-
Eugene Debs learned his unionism from
hood of Locomotive Firemen.
was
He tried to overcome it
railway crafts; it failed.
the American
cipation in
Railway Union.
did, of course.
He was
by forming
Army down
overwhelming success,
on its head.
He went on to become a
major
and
presidential
the
parti-
its
government,
It didn't survive.
Debs
respected figure in
candidate.
Western Federation of Miners
that led to the formation of the Industrial Workers of the World.
ed and
of
Big Bill Heywood learned his unionism in the mines of the Rockies.
part of the outward thrust by the
time, the
joint
a
organization
brought railroad management
the Socialist Party and a four-time
-
he became convinced,
He then undertook
At first an
the Pullman strike
the courts, and the U.S.
top post in the Brother-
organization,
But craft
inadequate, ineffective.
council of
a
IWW -- the Wobblies -- undertook
forgotten workers
at the
organization among
the
In
neglect-
very bottom of the nation's economic pile.
VIII - 2
It led a series of dramatic and
equally dramatic strikes.
to
It
significant
free
speech fights and
finally fell victim
to its own failure
put down roots and to vicious, anti-red, anti-foreigner drive of
the Federal
government.
- Divisions in the Socialist
Party brought on by the Russian
Revolution in 1917 led to the formation of what became the Communist
Party.
It
was, at various times, committed to "boring from within" --
the tactic of
and to its own
the 1920's to
seeking
to
capture leadership in established unions --
revolutionary unions.
It
fought
capture leadership in the Ladies
several battles
during
Garment Workers, the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers, and other unions; it also led in the early
thirties in an effort to create new,
variety of
results in the
revolutionary unions.
And to a
Congress of Industrial Organizations.
VIII - 3
You'll want to know:
- the differences in
philosophy
the unions of the left -- the
munists .
and tactics between the AFL and
Socialists, the ARU, the IWW, the Com-
IX - 1
Unit IX.
Accommodation and Survival
The road the American Federation of Labor traveled was neither
easy nor smooth. The response of American workers to industrialization
was
opposed, smothered, fought
-- often
World War I, the union movement -
violently yet by
principally
the end of
the AFL -- reached a
peak membership of over five million, its strength and prestige never
higher.
Here are some memorable stretches on that road.
- A number of crucial strikes tested the new union movement and
helped
to circumscribe and define its boundaries.
These included:
Homestead, 1892, which began the process of ousting unions from the
nations steel mills; the Pullman strike, 1894, which saw the government,
the courts, and railroad
management combine
to defeat the workers; coal,
1901; steel, 1901, 1909, and 1919: the establishment and confirmation
of the anti-union
open shop.
- A number of court battles drew
littered its road with new barriers:
heavily
on union resources and
The use of the
injunction
in the
1894 Pullman strike and the extension of court rule in labor relations;
the court
rulings in
the
Danbury Hatters and Bucks
Stove cases and in
the Hitchman Coal case.
- The
employer offensive: the Citizens Industrial Association,
the National Association of Manufacturers, the American
Anti-Boycott
Association
employers'
union
gave formal organization and purpose
to the
anti-
campaign.
-
Labor
developed
new
approaches
to
politics (it always
seems to
IX - 2
have been a
question
position
The initial
of the ballot,"
on
of not whether, but how):
was not clear; the AFL
accompanied by
labor-supported
demands on candidates to take
political parties
positions
Socialists, the direct support
or
definitely rejected.
was
groups continued
Local labor
the "use
measures.
In convention battles with the
affiliation of
supported
to seek a
variety
of
protective
laws:
eight-hour laws, safety regulations, eventually workmen's compensation,
etc.
The
gress
spreading
injunctions
use of court
and the refusal of Con-
to hear labor on a number of issues led in 1906 to the Bill of
Grievances, its presentation to Administration and Congressional leaders.
It led to the decision to launch a
E.
Littlefield, Maine -- a major
campaign
turn in labor's
also led to the submission of labor's
cal
parties' platform committees.
AFL leaders to
The
to defeat
political
concerns to both
And it contributed to
politithe
support Woodrow Wilson for the presidency in 1912.
AFL.
Labor had
the nation
traditionally opposed war,
ened to wash up on American shores, its
parations did
not
political
victories
And it led to a favorable consideration of labor
by the Wilson Administration when
must
bringing
It
passage of the Clayton Act, the LaFollette Seamen's Act, the
by the
-
Charles
political tactics.
creation of the Department of Labor were among the
counted
Republican
geared
to
fight
World War I.
but when World War I threat-
position
declared that war pre-
stop the struggle for "industrial rights," that labor
oppose exploitation at home and abroad, that justice among
men is
IX - 3
a
necessary element in national defense.
Gompers was appointed
to Wilson's Council of National Defense Ad-
visory Committee and made chairman of its committee
Under his
leadership, the unions gained recognition for union wages
conditions in the defense
building, etc.).
the
in coal, too.
principle recognizing unions
put under national control and the
The National War Labor Board established
and the
representatives
of workers,
adopted prevailing wage principle, and established the idea of
wage" for
all workers.
(In its
embodied later in New Deal
Note these
Union
as
comparisons
were some of the
Average annual earnings (nonfarm)
between 1900 and 1920
791,000
5,034,000
3%
12%
$435
$1,358
68
204
$640
$665
living index
(1913-100)
Real average annual
earnings
"living
major ideas
cent of civilian labor
force
Cost of
principles
the
legislation.)
membership
per
and
building program (camps, cantonments, ship-
The railroads were
recognized;
unions
on welfare of workers.
IX - 4
You'll want to know:
- The issues and outcome of some of the
fought
between 1886 and World War I -- The
rights:
rulings of the nation's
the Debs case,
major
battles that were
steel, coal, railroads.
courts in
Danbury Hatters,
applying
Bucks Stove,
- The
development of labor's political tactics.
- The
significance of
the
the law to labor
Hitchman,
etc.
Clayton Act, the LaFollette Seamen's Act,
creation of the.Labor Department, etc.
- The historical effect of labor's role in World War I.
In
short, you'll want to know something about the compromises, the
settlements, the accommodations that were made by labor
survival.
on its road to
X- 1
Turning
Unit X.
The
Point - 1
membership
never stood
and
prestige of
higher than it did
the American Federation of Labor
when World War I came to an end.
had led the unionists to a
place of recognition
duct of the war; he was an
important figure in
Gompers
and status in the con-
the postwar peace
conferences, presiding over the formation of the International Labor
Organization. Membership topped
12
3
the five-million mark,
cent of the civilian labor force --
per
representing
up from 5.6 per cent in 1910,
per cent in 1900. But its stay at the peak was short-lived.
next dozen
drifting
years it was to know only retreat, much of its membership
or driven
away.
For a moment in 1919 it seemed as if the entrenched
the nation's steel mills would be
whelmed
the
conquered.
But the
open shop in
promise
was over-
by superior forces: by money and violence, by influence with
press, the makers of opinion,
indifference of the government,
fort.
For the
some
help from the
courts and the
by dividing and conquering the bold ef-
The defeat foreshadowed the
coming open-shop
attack and the so-
called American Plan.
A
The
short, sharp depression in 1920-21 speeded the attack
on its
way.
longshoremen had lost their union in postwar strikes. The seamen's
unions were driven from the merchant marine.
major cities throughout
Plan.
The
building
the country were handcuffed
trades in
by the American
Prohibition rubbed out the hotel and restaurant workers' union.
Internal strife racked the Ladies Garment Workers.
And efforts to
X- 2
organize
autos and the South never got off the
On another flank
with a
variety
kept from
employers countered unionism of
employee representation plans,
of
fare programs, and
were
ground.
works
the AFL brand
councils, wel-
paternal gestures. Hundreds of thousands of
the ranks of
devices -- and with
organized
by the spread of these
labor
special effectiveness
workers
in
large companies.
By 1933 the union had lost nearly half of their peak strength.
What hadn't been lost to the
farism" were
The
being lost increasingly
depression
stein, the only
depth.
was
"great."
unique
It was
so
wel-
depression.
to Professor
many been unemployed for
Irving
Bern-
for sheer size --
long.
It
caught
the
totally unprepared for economic catastrophe of such scope and
And it manifested itself
the characteristics of
at
"corporate
and
to the inroads of
"unique," according
one we call
never before had so
nation
open-shop campaigns
3,250,000
by 1933.
1930, climbing steadily until it hit
For a time
some
wages held but then they fell,
too, under the pressures of the depression.
came to know two,
in contrast to
previous depressions. Estimates put unemployment
to 4 million in
15 or 16 million
chiefly in unemployment
three, and even four wage
Those who held on to
jobs
cuts before the tide turned
again. Average hourly earnings in manufacturing dropped
from 57 cents
in 1929 to 44 cents in .1933;
to
weekly earnings from $25.03
$16.73.
The nation's leaders -- economic, financial, industrial,
cal -- had few remedies to offer.
It calledfor a
create
jobs.
Nor was the AFL
thirty-hour week and
It was 1932 before it
for
fo increased
politi-
any more creative.
public
finally gave up its
works to
stubborn stand
X- 3
1933 was a time of
nation's
banking system
nation's work force was
and
outright starvation
on March
profound despair
was
collapsing,
and
discouragement.
The
a fourth -- at least -- of the
jobless; suffering, deprivation,
-- were close at hand.
and want --
This was the climate
4, 1933 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office
as President of the United States.
X - 4
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X
-
4
You'll want to know:
to the union movement in the 1920's.
- What
happened
- What
happened to workers in
- The mechanics of
the Great
"corporate welfarism"
Depression..
and
"company unions."
XI - 1
Turning Point
Unit XI.
major item
The
--
- 2
agenda
on the Roosevelt
was
recovery legislation
programs aimed at turning the depression around, restoring the unem-
ployed
and
jobs, getting
to
proposals
the economy
came the National Industrial
its administrative agency,
shattering
symbolized by
thunderbolt in its
The NIRA authorized
fair
moving.
a
Out of a
variety
of
plans
Recovery Act -- and the NRA,
brassy
Blue
Eagle with a
sharp-taloned claw.
self-regulation of industry
under codes of
competition, proposed, often drafted by industry associations,
approved by the
maintain
prices, regulate production,
prosperity.
right
of
A code allowed an
NRA.
The code was also
employees
to
unions of their own
organized
choosing
to include a
a
-- famed Section
7(a). They
spurred by
ganizing. Lewis launched
major part
clothing
The
$3.3 billion authorization for public works.
"Magna Charta."
John
compared it to the Emancipation Proclamation.
The NRA,
from a
set maximum
working conditions.
AFL President William Green hailed it as labor's
L. Lewis
guarantee of the
bargain collectively through
hours of work, minimum rates of pay, and other
program also authorized
to combine forces to
take other measures to restore
required
and to
industry
and
workers
a
an
freshening of hope, spurred
organizing drive
of the soft coal mines.
a wave of or-
that drove the open
shop
Ladies garment workers, and
put massive organizing drives into action.
Auto
workers,
rubber workers, steel workers -- workers in hundreds of industries clamored for
organization. Massive strikes broke
out -- in San
Francisco,
XI - 2
half a million new members were recruited
Minneapolis,
Toledo.
by the union
movement in each of the next two years.
the
Nearly
And it was
only
beginning.
The
employers fought
back
7(a)
soon made it clear that Section
tiger.
In the flush of the
against
was
the tidal wave of unionism.
essentially toothless,
the Wagner Act.
It was
promptly passed and
apart.
A
setting
-- in which the union move-
group of unions, under the leadership of John
Lewis of the Mine Workers formed the Committee for Industrial
tion.
were in-
law in 1935.
This was the moment -- and the
ment broke
predecessors)
And a substantial measure of government
sanction was added to the law's guarantees.
signed into
paper
times, though, the principles developed under
the National Labor Board (as under its World War I
corporated in
a
They
The unions acted, then, after
an effective
failing
L.
Organiza-
to move the AFL itself into
organizing campaign among industrial workers
--
principally,
autos, steel, rubber, as well as the newer manufacturing industries --
radio, electrical, machine. The craft unions, asserting their claim
they worked
craftsmen wherever
and unskilled workers,
and
ignoring the legions
suspended, then expelled
to
of semi-skilled
the CIO unions.
Soon
after, it abandoned the Committee for the Congress -- and the competition was on in brutal earnest.
The auto strikes -- and
were followed
the General Motors sitdown --
by Lewis' astonishing coup in negotiating
with U.S. Steel.
union open
particularly
(
In a few short
shop had
an
agreement
months, the two major bastions of anti-
been taken -- the core of American
industry
worked
XI - 3
They
under a union label.
were followed
by the extension of unionism
country -- not only in autos and steel but
in
major industries
in
rubber, communications, electrical and radio manufacturing, and many
more.
Union
across the
membership climbed
from 2.9 million in 1933 to 4.1 million
in 1936, 7.2 million in 1937, and 10 million
They made up by
been 11.5
by the
end of the decade.
then 28 per cent of the non-farm work force --
per cent in 1933. The upward climb
was halted
they had
briefly
in the
Little Steel strikes in 1937 and by a brief recession in 1937-38, then
resumed.
It was a
time, too, of expansion in labor's political role.
was an active force --
sweep in 1936.
especially Lewis
Its ideas of
legislation
It
and the CIO -- in FDR's massive
were received and often enacted
by the Congress. Minimum wages, social security, unemployment insurance
became
living realities in the lives of the nation's workers.
Out of it came a basic decision -- a
nation's economic affairs.
an affirmative role in
and the health of the
major turning point
It was a decision that
determining, shaping,
economy
-- that it can
and
in the
government can play
maintaining
the
goals
pursue policies and pro-
grams dedicated to maintaining jobs, improving living conditions, af-
fecting
the
general welfare of the American people.
XI - 4
You'll want to know:
-
Something
about the
size, the scope, the
extent of the Great
Depression.
- The issues that divided the AFL and the CIO.
- The
Steel
significance of
the General Motors strike and the U.S.
agreement.
- What
happened
ner Act and under the
to the union movement under the NRA and the
impulse
of the
- What was the fundamental
Wag-
mid-thirties.
political decision
and how does it affect the union movement.
made in the thirties
XI - 5
1933
Trade Union Members
millions
% of work force
Work
1935
1937
1939
1941
7.2
22.8
9.0
1,120
4,240
1,860
28,400
1,170
17,800
23,000
926
533
760
945
1,410
699
2,728
1,411
1,535
2,138
.442
.550
.624
.633
.729
2.9
11.5
13.4
1,695
1,170
16,900
15,500
3.7
23.5
10.5
28.2
2,613
4,288
Stoppages
Number
Workers
(000's)
Mandays idle (000's)
2,014
2,360
Major Issues
'Wages
Union
& Hours
Organization
Average Hourly Earnings ($)
Average !ieekly lours
38.1
36.6
38.6
37.7
40.6
Average Weekly Earning ($)
16.73
20.13
24.05
23.86
29.58
XII - 1
From World War II to Merger
XII.
The end of World War II was marked
a wave of walkouts that
to a climax in the
by
an
eruption
of strikes --
began almost before the fighting ended and swept
eighteen months that followed. 1946
saw
4,985 strikes
(an unprecedented number), idling 14,600,000 workers (one in every seven),
for a total of 116 million
each
striking worker,
to 1.43
major
per
man-days. The record-breaking walkouts
on the
cost
average, 25.2 days off the job and added up
cent of the estimated available
working time.
Some of the
battles in this industrial war:
Auto Workers v. General Motors.
the auto workers asked for a 30
could be
paid,
the union
per
cent
Under Walter Reuther's
pay raise --
leadership,
an increase that
said, without boosting auto prices and the com-
pany books would prove it. GM replied that it would not open its books,
that the union was
Prices and
seeking
to invade
rights
board recommended
GM offered
It was
only
13 cents.
hour after steel,
creases.
to use
management.
profits, it said, were none of the union's business. A Tru-
man-appointed fact-finding
In
reserved to
19-1/2 cents an hour raise;
finally settled
at
18-1/2 cents an
oil, UE, coal settled at that figure.
steel, the comapnies refused to budge until assured price inOn the
against
railroads,
Truman called on
a railroad strike.
Congress for drastic powers
He wanted to seize and
operate struck
plants affecting the public safety and welfare, with authority to draft
strikers into the U.S. Army.
Even as he addressed
road unions ended their strike.
In
Congress, the rail-
coal, Lewis signed with Secretary
XII - 2
18-1/2
of the Interior Krug for
cents
plus, significantly, 5
cents an hour
The miners walked
ton of coal for a health and welfare fund.
per
out later in a
dispute
over vacation
payments in the face of
a court
Lewis and the UMW were both fined for contempt of court.
order.
called a
one-day general strike in Rochester,
Unions
Oakland, Cali-
New York.
fornia unions called a general strike when merchants used strikebreakers
to haul merchandise to two struck stores.
The
victory
of
propaganda impact of the strike wave, coupled with
Republicans in
the 1946 elections,
scale overhaul of labor relations law.
ship finally
enacted the
during
But the
Taft-Hartley
to a
large-
Several even more drastic mea-
sures had been turned down -- the Case bill
proposed anti-strike law, and others.
opened the way
sweeping
a
the war, Truman's
Congress under GOP leader-
Act.
T-H, for the first time since 1935, affected the balance between
employer and organized workers. Convinced that,
favor had
weighed
to balance it.
applied
too
for the first
secondary boycotts
was allowed
members of the
on the unions'
time,
to unions --
practices which
The closed
only after it had
workers to call for a vote
shop
was
been authorized
particular bargaining
were
coercion, discrimination, pay-
performed. Jurisdictional strikes
outlawed.
Wagner Act,
side, the Congress now sought
It created a series of unfair labor
ment for services not
shop
heavily
under the
unit.
were banned and
prohibited;
by
a
the union
majority
It allowed 30
of the
per cent of the
challenging their unions' representation and
decertified the union where a
majority
voted
against it.
It created the
80-day cooling-off period in so-called "emergency" strikes.
It
put
XII
restrictions on union and
supervisory employees
And it
law.
corporation political activities.
and certain other groups from the
required union officers
3
It removed
protection of the
sign declarations
to
-
that
they
were
not communists.
The
--
major impact
of the law struck
sympathetic strikes, "hot cargo," secondary boycotts,
decertification
unions.
their
It
machinery
imposed
organizational
others were
for
and
question
bargaining rights.
at
of
1947 AFL convention (in San
of
etc.
cooperation
It
provided
implementing divisive activities within
new restrictions on workers
plainly aimed
When the
a
against any form
weakening
fighting
attempting
the
to exercise
Some were reasonable but
the unions.
the
Taft-Hartley
Francisco), John
Act came up in the
L. Lewis led the
fight for
boycott of the law; George Meany opposed him. Meany prevailed and Lewis
walked out of the convention and the AFL.
piece of stationery, "We disaffiliate."
"Green," he scribbled on a
And
signed it bluntly, "Lewis."
Within a month of each other in 1952, William Green and
Phillip
Murray died. George Meany succeeded Green, Reuther followed Murray. The
new
leadership
ment.
They
moved
quickly
toward
worked out a means of
merger. They set up a non-raid agree-
effecting
an
early merger by putting off
any questions of jurisdiction, the major barrier, to post-merger negotiation, arbitration, and eventual merger of the contesting unions themselves.
XII - 4
You'll want to know:
- The issues (and the
- The issues raised in
- The issued raised
under
context) of the postwar strike wave.
enacting
the
Taft-Hartley
by Meany and Lewis in debating AFL's policy
Taft-Hartley.
- The mechanism
Act.
by which merger
was achieved.
XII
XIII.
After
1
-
Merger
Enactment of the
Taft-Hartley Act forced union leadership to
reconsideration of political
activity. Both the
AFL
a
(in Labor's League
for Political Education) and the CIO (in its Political Action Committee)
intensified their
political activities. And in
AFL would endorse a
developing political
the years
just ahead, the
presidential candidate (Adlai Stevenson)
concerns a
push its
and
step farther.
This would be reinforced in the latter half of the Fifties
McClellan (Select Committee on Improper Activities in
Labor-Management
Field) hearings and enactment of the Landrum-Griffin Act.
hearings
turned a
sharp light
The AFL in 1955 had invoked
The McClellan
on unionists misdeeds both real and
far-reaching
by the
codes of ethics on a
imagined.
voluntary
basis in an effort to reach some aggravated cases of criminal conduct.
It had ousted the International
to
get rid of its corrupt leadership but was unable to establish a re-
placement union.
committee guns.
probed vice in
on
Longshoremen's Association in an effort
But its efforts did not save it from the McClellan
The Committee (with Robert F.
Teamster
Kennedy
as Chief
Counsel)
leadership (Dave Beck, Brewster, others), focused
corrupt leaders in the Bakers, Operating Engineers.
Landrum-Griffin, largely
of financial
limited
result, imposed heavier requirements
reporting, prohibited conflict
trusteeships
over individual
the so-called "bill of
court of
as a
rights"
of interest of union
officers,
unions, regulated elections, enacted
for union members, and it
appeals for members claiming their rights
were
opened an outside
being denied
or
XIII - 2
union funds misused.
For the most
difficulty --
part,-unions met
Landrum-Griffin with little or no
in many cases, with less
difficulty
than even
they had
anticipated.
Meantime, new issues were developing at the bargaining table.
The
coal miners had established a health and welfare fund in their 1946 conAnd in 1948 the miners walked out in an effort to break a deadlock
tract.
in the trustees of their
pension fund.
The strike was held to be in con-
tempt of court (and the union and Lewis were fined again) but on the
central issue of the walkout -- the refusal of the
act on
pensions
-- the court
challenged the right of
right
tract.
was
upheld,
They
both
employer trustee
upheld the miners. The
the union to
pension
steel
to
companies
bargain for pensions. When
that
and health care moved into the union con-
were the forerunner of a wide
variety
of welfare
questions
that were brought within the scope of the collective agreement.
XIII - 3
You'll want to know:
- The nature and extent of labor's
and as it has
- The
of financial
- The
tive
political involvement,
then
developed since.
response of unions
responsibility,
development
bargaining.
of
to Landrum-Griffin -- to its
electoral
requirements
fairness, democratic conduct.
fringe benefits
as a
major aspect
of collec-
Labor Today
Labor faces serious
influence in the American
face -- these
- A
labor
society.
to maintain or extend its
It confronts -- or,
surely,
soon will
questions:
response
Are unfair
and sex.
challenges if it is
to discrimination on
gkounds
of race, national origin,
employment practices enough? What other steps can
alone, or in conjunction with other sectors of society, take?
- What is the direction of labor's
- How can unions meet the
political
challenge of organization among those sec-
tors of the work force where
organization is weakest
companies, public employees,
etc.?
- How
concerns? and activities?
adequate is labor's economic program
to
--
banks, insurance
cope with problems of
inflation and recession?
- What is the
society
-- and its
economy?
direction of the union movement in its posture toward
place in society? Is it a missionary force in the
Or are its concerns
- What
primarily tactical
and less
strategic?
part of the union movement -- leadership, tactics, struc-
ture, policies, programs -- is adequate, what part inadequate to the
problems?