Outline The “Labor Problem”

and the Clayton Act The Class War

Continues: Ludlow,Colorado

WWI Great Migration Institutionalizing

Conflict Boston Police Strike Railway Labor Act Welfare Capitalism National Labor

Relations Act (Wagner Act)

More choices…Labor’s Strategy

1. On Reserve1. PBS Early Labor: Dubofsky

& Kessler…get worksheet from me

2. Extra Credit Option…watch a movie answer 1 question…get 4 points

3. Matewan http://www.videodetective.com/movies/trailers/matewan-trailer/570

1. 6 pm Monday LC 326A

2. Need 7 to commit for it to happen

1. Will put on LUO reserve for 2 pts

Injunctions

Injunctions Court orders issued by judges that prohibited any activity that

might cause irreparable harm

Injunctions were regularly used to block union activities

“Typically these writs also prohibited union leaders from encouraging or advising any form of collective action”(Zieger and Gall 2002: 29)

Limit union organizing, boycotts, sympathy strikes and picketing during a strike

Basis for bringing in militia and army

One judge described an injunction as “Gatling gun on paper” note next slide (Who Built America 1992: 125)

The Clayton Act

Unions lobbied hard to end injunctions

In 1914, Congress passed the Clayton Act

Section 6 of the Clayton Act provides that: "The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce. Nothing contained in the antitrust laws shall be construed to forbid the existence and operation of labor organizations; nor shall such organizations, or the members thereof, be held or construed to be illegal combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade, under the antitrust laws.”

The act was supposed to end the use of injunctions, but courts interpreted it narrowly and state courts continued to use injunctions… nothing changed

Katz and Kochan 2004

One of many Coal Wars…

“Labor Problem” Generates Conflicts in Colorado Where Miners Join Together to Demand Recognition of the Union…A CONTINUING THEME 8 Hour Day Right to use any store, doctor or boarding house

Had been required to use company stores, doctors and housing Demand about mine safety and regulation

Official call to go on strike - September 17, 1913 “All mineworkers are hereby notified that a strike of all

the coal miners and coke oven workers in Colorado will begin on Tuesday, September 23, 1913 … We are striking for improved conditions, better wages, and union recognition. We are sure to win.”

Ludlow and the Freedom of Association What did the

authorities do to Mother Jones?

Again…does this seem like a sensible way to address the “labor problem?”

Ludlow Massacre

New York Times' account of the massacre - April 21, 1914 The Ludlow camp is a mass of charred debris,

and buried beneath it is a story of horror imparalleled [sic] in the history of industrial warfare. In the holes which had been dug for their protection against the rifles' fire the women and children died like trapped rats when the flames swept over them. One pit, uncovered [the day after the massacre] disclosed the bodies of ten children and two women.

President Wilson Appoints Committee on Industrial Relations

John D. Rockefeller defends "open shop" before Congressional committee - April 6, 1914

Rockefeller: "These men have not expressed any dissatisfaction with their conditions. The recostrike has been imposed upon the company from the outsiderds show that the conditions have been admirable … A …

"There is just one thing that can be done to settle this strike, and that is to unionize the camps, and our interest in labor is so profound and we believe so sincerely that that interest demands that the camps shall be open camps, that we expect to stand by the officers at any cost."

Chairman: "And you will do that if it costs all your property and kills all your employees?"

Rockefeller "It is a great principle."

President Wilson Appoints Committee on Industrial Relations

One of three Government reports concluded:

"Where (labor) organization is lacking dangerous discontent is found on every hand; low wages and long hours prevail; exploitation in every direction is practiced; the people become sullen, have no regard for law and government, and are, in reality, a latent volcano, as dangerous to society as are the volcanoes of nature to the landscape surrounding them."

"We hold that efforts to stay the organization of labor or to restrict the right of employees to organize should not be tolerated, but that the opposite policy should prevail, and the organization of the trade unions and of the employers' organizations should be promoted...This country is no longer a field for slavery, and where men and women are compelled, in order that they may live, to work under conditions in determining which they have no voice, they are not far removed from a condition existing under feudalism or slavery.“

Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations, 1915

World War erupts…US enters in 1917 Need for soldiers, workers, coal, war

production…

1890, Blacks in America: 90% in South

The Great Migration North: Blacks Move North for Jobs

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

1600000

1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s

Philly: The Great Migration 

Growth in Black Population, Philadelphia 

  Black Population

% of Philly Pop.

1910 

84,000 5.5%

1920  

134,000 7.4%

1930 

220,000 11.3% 

World War I

Mobilization for War Required Production Coal, steel, ships, garments, food, you name it…

Gompers and AFL make a “no strike pledge”…but there is a Massive Strike Wave Metal Trades, Ship-building, coal 6 million workdays lost

You’re an advisor to President Wilson…what do you recommend?

World War I

Develop Institutions to Reduce or Channel Conflict: National War Labor Board

Set up to prevent labor disputes that might weaken the country’s military effort

Self organization and collective bargaining became public policy Employers forbidden from interfering with union

organizing

Substituted settlements based on non binding mediation form of intervention in labor management disputes

whose objective is to help the parties reach a settlement

Changing the Rules

“the right to organize was freely conceded by the government and even insisted upon…The gods were indeed fighting on the side of labor.” -William Z. Foster, meatpacking organizer

Union Membership Grows by 70% between 1914 and 1920 1917 2.9 million 1920 5 million

Machinists grow by six fold, Garment workers double in size

NWLB Dissolved

After the War, the NWLB is eliminated Why? The business community opposes its

continuation

But Labor Problem is not eliminated & Large Scale Conflicts Remerge

1919-10,000 strikes involving 8 million workers Most strikes in any year up that point

General Strike in Seattle a strike by all or most workers in a community or nation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efM5EsZPfbA

Steel, Ship-workers even Police…lets explore Boston

Boston Police Vote to Strike on 9/08/19…1,134 to 2…Why?

Wages Second through 5th year earned $1200 ($14,382 in today’s

dollars) Most anyone could earn was $1400 ($16,779 in today’s

dollars) Had to pay $200 for own uniforms ($2400 in today’s

dollars)

Hours 73 hours a week (day men) 83 hours a week (night men) 98 hours a week (wagon men)

“Such men are deprived of enjoying the comforts of their home and family.

Boston Police Union President

More Importantly…Should Police Be allowed to form unions?

What are some reasons you might answer yes?

What are some reasons you might answer no?

More Importantly…Should Police Be allowed to form unions?

Union Recognition Union position:

Police officers are workers with same values and aspirations as private sector workers

Unions were needed to deal with issues of wages, hours and working conditions

Opponents: Police officers are government workers who are not

employees Not employed, but appointed Nobody profits from their efforts

Unionized police would have divided loyalty Might not be willing to enforce injunctions and break

strikes Strikes by police would be catastrophic

Boston Police Strike: September 9, 1910

Police Strike

Public unrest follows

Governor Coolidge fires all strikers and hires permanent replacement workers

Though unionized garment worker will not sew uniforms for “scabs” …the strike is lost

Under pressure, AFL revokes charter of other Police Unions…things will not change for 40 years…

The Roaring Twenties…

Decade begins with 5 million in unions…by 1931 only 2.1 million are in unions…Why?

No government support…NWLB dissolved

Old Fashioned Management offensive defeats many strikes

Firings, beatings, shootings, firing workers, etc. 921 injunctions issued in 1920…about the same number

issued in the previous 40 years

Yellow dog contracts?

Freedom of Contract?

Yellow Dog Contracts

Employers required a loyalty oath stating that the employee would not join or participate in union activities

Courts could enforce these common law contracts, and the employee could be fired

Formed the basis for legal action against organizers for interfering with a contractual relationship

Welfare Capitalism Emerges in 20s

Personnel practices such as job ladders, pension & insurance benefits introduced by management with the hope that these would lead employees to shun unions (Katz & Kochan, p.468)

Employee Representation Plan (ERP) Labor/management committees established to

discuss welfare programs, develop schemes for improving efficiency, adjudicating minor disputes and grievances. (Folks, p,177)

Union avoidance via Company Unions An organization of employees that is either

dominated or strongly influenced by management. (Herman, p.524)

Some Common Ground…

AFL Business Unionism and Management Driven Welfare Capitalism differ in the degree of power and autonomy that workers get…

But they share in common a desire to address the “labor problem” without open class warfare…

Both seek to build institutions that can reduce conflict generated by employment relationship…

Outline

Channeling Conflict, 1920s Railway Labor Act

Channeling Conflict, 1930s National Labor Relations

Act (Wagner Act) More choices…Labor’s

Strategy AFL and CIO Sit Down and Fight:

Video Clip Social Unionism

CIO PAC

Matewan on reserve Get sheet from me

Dubofsky/Kessler video sheet…Hand in now

Review Question…big part of grade Some are doing an excellent job Some haven’t done any…what

are you waiting for? Some are not doing

thoroughly…do them thoroughly

Channeling Conflict…

Railways as key Largest Employer in US in 1917

250,000 workers Constant labor conflict a problem for national

economy Railroads are the main mode of transportation

During WWI Government Operates RR

1919 the RR Unions Supports Continued Government Control of the Railroads Unions would help manage them In wake of Bolshevik revolution…this a very radical

demand…

The Railway Labor Act

Passed by Congress in 1926 Specifies that the employees have the right to organize

unions without employer interference and to bargain through the representatives of their own choosing

Establish procedures to reduce conflict in the railroads

Compulsory arbitration Procedure used to settle labor disputes in which a

third party makes a binding decision

Unions drop demands for nationalization

An important step towards “rational” labor relations in one of nation’s most important industries

Side Note: AFL and the Family Wage Trying to be attentive to not just “generic

workers,” but too different segments of the working class Blacks, Immigrants, women…

1. In the section Prosperity in Chapter 2, the authors mention something called the family wage. What does this term refer to? In your opinion, was a family wage something unions should have demanded, or was it something that worked against the interests of women?

RLA as step toward “institutionalizing conflict”….Next step facilitated by the collapse of the American economy….

The “Labor Problem” Intensifies

Great Depression

By 1932, ½ of all factories closed down

By, 1933, 15 million people are unemployed Between 25% and 33% of all workers are out of

work

Wages fall by 60%

Approximately 50% of Americans are living below the poverty level

Conditions are Intolerable

“We cannot endure another winter of hardship such as we are passing through.”

Republican Governor of Washington

The “Labor Problem” Intensifies Workers and unemployed organize

hunger marches and demonstrations across the nation

50,000 march in NYC 60,000 march in Detroit

With banners of Lenin… Who was Lenin?

A “New Deal” for workers…

Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected in 1932 Administration full of people with experience

with WWI War Labor Board & state level reform Belief that industrial conflict could managed

1933, National Industrial Recovery Act Many parts all designed to use government to

re-organize the economy

Section 7 A states workers have right to organize and collectively bargain

7A was like Yeast in Bread…

Unions launch organizing campaigns Organizing and strikes pick-up

Employers refuse to abide by 7A & oppose unionization efforts Believe law is unconstitutional

Result: Intense labor conflict 1934 strikes reach historic highs

From Business Unionism to something more “dangerous”?

Teamsters organize truck drivers in Minneapolis

Goal is not class struggle, but Business unionism A union to represent the bread and butter interests

of truck drivers.

Employers refuse to recognize union…the result…A General Strike

Revolution as possible…? General Strikes in 1934:

Minneapolis San Francisco shuts down ports up and

down west coast Note video clip

Revolution in the Air?

“You have seen strikes in Toledo, you have seen Minneapolis, you have seen San Francisco, and you seen some of the southern textile strikes…but…you have not yet seen the gates of hell opened, and that is what is going to happen from now on.”

-Congressmen Conner, testifying before a Senate Committee

Solidifying a New Deal

1935 NIRA Struck Down by Courts Senator Wagner (D-NY) quickly offers new bill…what is it?

What does it do?

Wagner Act or National Labor Relations Act(1935) a federal law that among other things guaranteed

workers to organize unions, join unions and collectively bargain.

Turning point in American History A conscious effort to strengthen unionism by Federal

Government Still the framework we operate under

What Drove Wagner

“There can no more be democratic self government in industry without workers participating therein, than there could be democratic government in politics without workers having the right to vote.”

“That is why the right to collectively bargain is at the bottom of social justice for the workers as well as the sensible conduct of business affairs. The denial or observance of this right means the difference between despotism and democracy.” (Tomlins, p.105)

What do you think? Do you agree with Wagner?

Wagner Act (1935)

Section 1: The denial by some employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal by some employers to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to strikes and other forms of industrial strife and or unrest, which have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce…

 

Wagner Act (1935)

The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership substantially burdens and affects the flow of commerce, and tends to aggravate the recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners…

Wagner Act (1935)

It is declared to be the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions…by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms of and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.

Wagner Act/National Labor Relations Act, 1935

Most non-agricultural private-sector employees ensured the right to organize

Anyone know/guess which racial or ethnic groups this will leave behind?

Wagner Act/National Labor Relations Act, 1935

Most non-agricultural private-sector employees ensured the right to organize

Bow to Southern Democrats boxes African American Sharecroppers out of deal…

NLRA, 1935

Section 7 Employees have the “right to self organization” and

the right to “bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, or to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining”

Right to strike, picket, etc.

O.K…What happens if these rights are violated? Can employers hire temporary replacement workers? What about permanent replacement workers? Can workers strike company B to support workers at company A?…All things we’ll consider

NLRA, 1935: Section 8

Employers must bargain in good faith Duty to bargain with the intent of reaching an agreement.

O.K…So what can and can not be the subject of bargaining? Still to be determined?

Unfair Labor Practices by Employers are Specified Can’t interfere with right to unionize. Can’t set up company

unions. Can’t discriminate against union members.

O.K…so what happens if an ER does this…?

NLRA, 1935

O.K…what if different workers want different unions to represent them…

Section 9 Union representatives selected by majority

vote of designated bargaining unit Victorious unions wins exclusive

representation rights

O.K…How will bargaining unit be defined? All Hospital workers? Just the nurses? Nurse and orderlies but not cafeteria workers?

NLRB Created…

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Government agency created to enforce provisions of

the Act

5 persons appointed by the President of the U.S. & confirmed by the Senate

Guiding principles Organize elections & recognize majority

representation

Investigate claims of unfair labor practices and impose sanctions or punishments for violations of the NLRA

President Roosevelt as Pro-Union “If I went to work in a

factory, the first thing I’d do would be TO JOIN A UNION” -Franklin Roosevelt

It’s not clear if he ever really said this, but union leaders made poster declaring that he did

Opportunity for AFL

AFL primarily comprised of Craft Unions representing skilled workers

But economy now comprised of large, mass production industries full of immigrants, women and Blacks Ford’s River Rouge plant employed 100,000

in one factory… Most of them were unskilled or semi-skilled

Choices….

Wagner Act as the opportunity of a lifetime?

AFL leaders hold negative views of unskilled and immigrant workers

“The scramble for admittance to the union is on. We do not want to charter the riff-raff or good for nothings, or those for whom we cannot make wages or conditions Daniel Tobin, Head of the AFL Teamsters Union

Tobin referred to the “the rubbish that have lately come into other organizations.”

“My wife can always tell from the smell of my clothes what breed of foreigners I have been hanging out with.” William Collins, AFL organizer

Choices AFL: You are a (skilled white/unskilled

white, Hispanic, Black, woman, Asian) worker in a Ford Factory. Organizers from the AFL have visited your factory, and told you that your best strategy is to divide the workforce of 100,000 into 13 different unions, each of which should bargain with Ford independently. This will give skilled workers an edge. Unskilled workers, the majority, will be lowest priority.

See next slide

AFL Craft Unions Divide workers

in one car factory into 13 separate craft unions.

Try to bargain separately…

Unskilled, women, Blacks, Asians and others are low priority

Ford

Plant A Plant B

Plumbers Union Local 1

PaintersUnion

Local 1

Machinists Union

Local 1

Janitors Union

Local 1

Plumbers Union

Local 2

Painters Union

Local 2

MachinistsUnion

Local 2

JanitorsUnion

Local 2

Choices AFL: You are a (skilled white/unskilled white, Black,

woman, HispanicAsian) worker in a Ford Factory. Organizers from the AFL have visited your factory, and told you that your best strategy is to divide the workforce of 100,000 into 13 different unions, each of which should bargain with Ford independently. This will give skilled workers an edge. Unskilled workers, the majority, will be lowest priority.

Organizer Lewis: You are a (skilled white/unskilled white, Black, woman, Asian) worker in a Ford Factory. Organizers from the new group tell you that the AFL strategy is flawed. Division into separate unions weakens your power. It is too easy to divide and conquer. Skilled and unskilled, regardless of race, should form one industrial union. This will give workers the power to shut down production, and will force Ford to deal with you. See next slide

Congress of Industrial Unions Organize all workers

along industrial lines (one factory, one local union) Including women,

Blacks, immigrants and others

Demand that Ford negotiate a deal that applies to all of its factories

U A W 1

P lan t A

U A W 2

P lan t B

U A W 3

P la n t C

UAW -Ford

BARGAIN PERTAINSTO

FORD

Ford

Choices

AFL: You are an (unskilled White, Black, woman, Hispanic, Asian) worker in a Ford Factory. Organizers from the AFL have visited your factory, and told you that your best strategy is to divide the workforce of 100,000 into 13 different unions, each of which should bargain with Ford independently. This will give skilled workers an edge. Unskilled workers, the majority, will be lowest priority.

Organizer Lewis: You are an (unskilled White, Black, woman, Hispanic, Asian) worker in a Ford Factory. Organizers from the new group tell you that the AFL strategy is flawed. Division into separate unions weakens your power. It is too easy to divide and conquer. Skilled and unskilled, regardless of race, should form one industrial union. This will give workers the power to shut down production, and will force Ford to deal with you.

Choices

AFL: You are a skilled White worker in a Ford Factory. Organizers from the AFL have visited your factory, and told you that your best strategy is to divide the workforce of 100,000 into 13 different unions, each of which should bargain with Ford independently. This will give skilled workers an edge. Unskilled workers, the majority, will be lowest priority.

Organizer Lewis: You are a skilled White worker in a Ford Factory. Organizers from the new group tell you that the AFL strategy is flawed. Division into separate unions weakens your power. It is too easy to divide and conquer. Skilled and unskilled, regardless of race, should form one industrial union. This will give workers the power to shut down production, and will force Ford to deal with you.

CIO Challenge to the AFL

Debate over craft or industrial organizing came to a head at the 1935 AFL convention in Atlantic City.

United Mine Workers President John Lewis lost a crucial vote to organize the auto and rubber industries along industrial lines…

Punches Out President of Carpenters Union Next time you’re in AC…walk as far south as you can on

the boardwalk…there is a memorial to the events

With several other AFL leaders, Lewis formed the more militant Committee of Industrial Organizations which ultimately become the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

The CIO Challenge to the AFL…

CIO Federation of national labor unions created in 1938

with the goal of promoting industrial unionism

Industrial Union (as opposed to craft union) Unions that represent workers across a number of

different skill levels and/or occupations

Sometimes One Industry, One Union (US) Auto Industry = Autoworkers Union…not machinists union,

painters union, electricians union, etc

Sometimes One Sector, One Union (Germany, Sweden) Metalworkers Union…not autoworkers union, steelworkers

union, machinists union

The Rise of the CIO…

Attitudes toward minorities or women?

The Rise of the CIO…

Attitudes toward minorities or women?

Official Position Class…or at least Industry based Solidarity

should trump other concerns

Racial, ethnic & gender differences inconsequential “Black and White Unite and Fight”

The CIO Challenge to the AFL…

CIO Federation of national labor unions created in 1938

with the goal of promoting industrial unionism

Industrial Union (as opposed to craft union) Unions that represent workers across a number of

different skill levels and/or occupations

Sometimes One Industry, One Union (US) Auto Industry = Autoworkers Union…not machinists union,

painters union, electricians union, etc

Sometimes One Sector, One Union (Germany, Sweden) Metalworkers Union…not autoworkers union, steelworkers

union, machinists union

6. The United Autoworkers first great victory occurred in Flint Michigan. What made this strike unique? Why do you think the strike was successful?

Video Clip

The Rise of the CIO

From Poverty Level Wages to Middle Class Wages

The CIO, the United Autoworkers (UAW) and General Motors

Union membership as a percentage of the nonagricultural labor force, 1930-2002

Unions Force Re-slicing of Economic Pie

Estimated that $ 1billion transferred from capitalist class to working class in 1937 alone

This a BIG deal…

Alters American Society

Improves the standard of living of millions…helps create a middle class

But for the CIO…it is not just abuot wages…

AFL…Business unionism using collective bargaining to improve the wages, hours

and working conditions of members who belong to a particular union. Focus on bread-and-butter issues

“pure and simple” agenda of improving wages and working conditions (Zieger 2002: 25)

Limited political activity and no vision of large scale social transformation Early AFL ascribed to something called Voluntarism

opposition to government relief and welfare legislation and stressing the need for workers to depend on their own economic strength (Zieger 2002:62)

Often little inter-union solidarity “craft unions routinely crossed one another’s pickets and

endlessly disputed jurisdictions” (Folks, 145)

8. In what ways did the CIO’s attitude toward political action differ from that of the AFL? Briefly explain one of the reasons that CIO adopted this attitude?

CIO: Beyond Business Unionism …workers and Labor Union members have many

problems affecting their lives in addition to wages, hours and working conditions, and related matters involving the employer. These are the wide range of the citizen in the community. The CIO Council becomes the voice of the Labor movement about housing, public and personal health, child care, education, public and private welfare, city and community planning, recreating, and a large number of things which are the concern of the worker as citizen where he lives. Ted Silvey, CIO Leader, 1948

The CIO: From Voluntarism to Political Action

“It is difficult to conceive of any functioning labor organization which does not take part in politics. For the leaders of of labor, politics was, and is, the other side of of the trade union coin.” CIO pamphlet

CIO more aggressively fights to elect people who are more tolerant of unions and to use government to solve social problems

Goal is to reform capitalism, not abolish it More public housing, health care, civil rights,

jobs, etc.

From Business Unionism to Social Unionism a form of unionism that focuses on using

collective bargaining to improve the wages, hours and working conditions of members who belong to a particular union WHILE also engaging in campaigns that will improve the conditions of the working class a whole.

GOAL IS TO ADVANCE A BROADER SET OF ECONOMC INTERESTS…ABOVE AND BEYOND THOSE DEALT WITH BY COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

The CIO and Politics

In 1936 CIO puts $74 million behind FDR (2007 dollars)

1943 CIO Political Action Committee formed

CIO committee created to register voters, educate them, and get them out to vote

In some cities, extremely well organized City broken down into

districts…districts into wards…wards into blocks…each block had community steward in charge of mobilizing union vote

Brokering a “New Deal”

CIO was Key Part of New Deal coalition that passed legislation creating

Old Age Pensions (Social Security)

Unemployment Insurance Why would providing money to unemployed workers be helpful

to the labor movement?

Aid for Dependent Mothers (Welfare)

Fair Labor Standards Act (AFL initially opposes based on commitment to voluntarism, CIO supports) Minimum wages; maximum hours; prohibitions on child labor

Agricultural workers and public employees not covered by the wages and hours standards

8. In what ways did the CIO’s attitude toward political action differ from that of the AFL? Briefly explain one of the reasons that CIO adopted this attitude? Who had it right, the AFL or the CIO?

Risk for the CIO of getting so politically involved in support of the Democratic Party?

Next

Unions and WWII Social Unionism…Just how far? Unions in Post War America