Mass Unionism I.The Problem of Unorganized Workers A.Extent B.Reasons II.The Birth of the CIO...

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