Mass Unionism
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Transcript of Mass Unionism
Mass UnionismI. The Problem of Unorganized Workers
A. ExtentB. Reasons
II. The Birth of the CIOA. HistoryB. Strategy
III. Union explosionA. Radical nationB. The CIO organizes industryC. Sit-down strikesD. New UnionistsE. Craftsmen under pressure
IV. Reaction
Unorganized Workers• In 1932,
only 3 million out of 49M gainfully employed Americans belong to unions
Ford assembly line, 1928
Reasons for the Problem
• AFL ideology– Skill– Craft jurisdiction– Homogeneity & exclusivity
• Racism & racial antagonism– 85,000 black steelworkers
• Sexism and gender roles– Journeymen Barbers’ IU
• “Blithering liability”
• Nativism and ethnic division– Tobin (Teamsters)
• “Rubbish” Nativist union badge
The Congress of Industrial
Organizations• Amalgamated Clothing Workers
• United Mine Workers
• ILGWU
• Textile workers
• Mine, Mill and Smelting Workers
CIO leaders Sidney Hillman (garment), Francis Gorman (textile), and John L. Lewis
(mining)
CIO strategy
• Organizing Committees– Not unions– Centralized– Control
• Grass Roots– Build on
ethnicity– Communists
• Politics– Lewis and UMW
give $600K to Roosevelt New York City garment workers’ protest,
1936
Radical Nation• 1936 election• FDR polls 60.8% of
vote– Landon gets only
36.5%
• Inaugural, 1937– “One-third of a nation
…”
FDR meets farmer impoverished by drought
Campaign trail, August, 1936
Organizing Industry
• 4.7M workers strike in 1937– Electric– Steel – Rubber
Jones & Laughlin Steel, 1937
Sit-down Strikes
• 400,000 workers stage sit down strikes in 1937– 130,000 in
March alone
• In one year, UAW membership rises from 30,000 to 400,000
General Motors, 1937
New Unionists
• Textile Workers’ gains 100,000
• ACW gains 240,000
• ILGWU gains 140,000
• UE gains 90,000
• Sit down strikes among workers at Woolworth’s
ILGWU basketball teamNew Haven, 1937
Craftsmen under Pressure
• Competition forces AFL to be aggressive
• Uses Wagner Act to gain over 1M new members
Striking cabbies, 1939
Reaction
• South resists organization
• Little Steel strike fails– Chicago, Youngstown– Memorial Day Massacre, 1937
• Police kill ten strikers, disable nine, injure thirty
• Shift in political winds– Americans are tired,
frustrated– FDR: “A pox on both your
houses.”– Dems lose 1938 midterm
elections
ILGWU organizer tarred-and-feathered by Ford goon squad Dallas, Texas—1937