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The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by Senator Huey Long in 1932,^{[citation needed]} was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The CIO was more aggressive and militant than the American Federation of Labor (AFL);^{[citation needed]} its leaders were often younger^{[citation needed]} and used more radical tactics^{[citation needed]} until certain leaders within the organization, that are claimed to have been Communists, were purged in the late 1940s and 1950s^{[citation needed]} and the organization merged with the AFL in 1955. The CIO strongly supported Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Coalition,^{[citation needed]} and was notable for being open to African Americans.^{[citation needed]} The CIO grew rapidly from 1936 to 1945,^{[citation needed]} but so did the larger AFL.^{[citation needed]} Battles for control over industrial sectors such as meatpacking and electric machinery made for a bitter and often violent rivalry with the AFL.^{[citation needed]} Originally named the Committee for Industrial Organization, the CIO was founded on November 9, 1935, by eight international unions belonging to the American Federation of Labor.^{[citation needed]} In its statement of purpose, the CIO said it had formed to encourage the AFL to organize workers in mass production industries along industrial union lines.^{[citation needed]} The CIO failed to change AFL policy from within, and on September 10, 1936, the AFL suspended all 10 CIO unions (two more had joined in the previous year).^{[citation needed]} These unions subsequently formed Congress of Industrial Organizations as a rival federation in 1938.^{[citation needed]} The CIO rejoined the AFL, forming the new entity known as the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), in 1955.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Labor unions in the United States today function as legally recognized representatives of workers in numerous industries, but are strongest among public sector employees such as teachers and police. ... Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union — regardless of skill or trade — thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ... The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. ... This article is about the form of society and political movement. ... The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949. ... The 1950s decade refers to the years 1950 to 1959 inclusive. ... Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ... FDR redirects here. ... The New Deal coalition was the alignment of interest groups and voting blocks who supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until approximately 1966, which made the Democratic Party the majority party during the Fifth Party System. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Year 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. ... is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL-CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 54 national and international unions (including Canadian), together representing more than 10 million workers. ...

Founding of the CIO

The CIO was born out of a fundamental dispute within the U.S. labor movement over whether and how to organize industrial workers. Those who favored craft unionism believed that the most effective way to represent workers was to defend the advantages they had secured through their skills. In the case of skilled workers, such as carpenters, lithographers, and railroad engineers this meant maintaining as much control as possible over the work their members did through enforcement of work rules, zealous defense of their jurisdiction to certain types of work, control over apprenticeship programs and exclusion of less skilled workers from membership. Labor unions in the United States today function as legally recognized representatives of workers in numerous industries, but are strongest among public sector employees such as teachers and police. ... by Leon CunninghamCraft unionism refers to an approach to union organizing in the United States and elsewhere that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade that they work in. ...

Craft unionists were therefore opposed to organizing workers on an industrial basis, i.e., into unions that represented all of the production workers in a particular enterprise, rather than in separate units divided along craft lines. Many of the opponents of industrial unionism were also motivated by a general disdain for industrial workers, whom they considered unorganizable, and for the foreign-born and racial minorities who made up a large number of their ranks.

The proponents of industrial unionism, on the other hand, generally believed that these craft distinctions may have been appropriate in those industries in which craft unions had flourished, such as construction or printing, but that they were unworkable in industries such as steel or auto production. In their view, dividing workers in a single plant into a number of different crafts represented by separate organizations, each with its own agenda, would weaken those workers’ bargaining power and leave the majority of them, who had few traditional craft skills, completely unrepresented. Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union — regardless of skill or trade — thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations. ...

While the AFL had always included a number of industrial unions, such as the United Mine Workers and the Brewery Workers, by the 1920s the most dogmatic craft unionists had a strong hold on power within the federation. They used that power to quash any drive toward industrial organizing. The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a United States labor union that represents workers in mining. ... The International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink and Distillery Workers was an international trade union. ...

The debate over industrial unionism became even fiercer in the 1930s, when the Great Depression in the United States caused large membership drops in some unions, such as the United Mine Workers of America and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. A number of labor leaders, and in particular John L. Lewis of the Mine Workers, came to the conclusion that their own unions would not survive while the great majority of workers in basic industry remained nonunion and started to press the AFL to change its policies in this area. The Great Depression was a decade of unemployment, low profits, low prices, high poverty and stagnant trade that affected the entire world in the 1930s. ... United Mine Workers of America seal The United Mine Workers (UMW or UMWA) is a United States labor union that represents workers in mining. ... The International Ladies Garment Workers Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s. ... DAVE ACKERMAN HAS WOOLY SOCKSJohn Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960. ...

The AFL did, in fact, respond, and added even more new members than the CIO. The AFL had long permitted the formation of “federal” unions, which were affiliated directly with the AFL; in 1933 it proposed to use these to organize workers on an industrial basis. The AFL did not, however, promise to allow those unions to maintain a separate identity indefinitely, meaning that these unions might be broken up later in order to distribute their members among the craft unions that claimed jurisdiction over their work. The AFL, in fact, dissolved hundreds of these federal unions in late 1934 and early 1935.

While the bureaucratic leadership of the AFL was unable to win strikes, three victorious strikes suddenly exploded onto the scene in 1934. These were the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 led by the Trotskyist Communist League of America, the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike led by the Communist Party USA, and the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite Strike led by the American Workers Party. Victorious industrial unions with militant leaderships, this was the catalyst that brought on the rise of the CIO. The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934 grew out of a strike by Teamsters against most of the trucking companies operating in Minneapolis, a major distribution center for the Upper Midwest. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... The Communist League of America (Left Opposition) was founded by James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern in 1928 after their expulsion from the Communist Party USA for Trotskyism. ... The 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike lasted eighty-three days, triggered a strike by sailors and a four-day general strike in San Francisco, and led to the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States. ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States. ... The Toledo Auto-Lite strike was a strike by a federal labor union of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) against the Electric Auto-Lite company of Toledo, Ohio, from April 12 to June 3, 1934. ... A number of parties have gone by differing versions of the name Workers Party. The American Workers Party is most well known for its leadership in the 1934 Toledo Auto-lite Strike. ...

The AFL did authorize organizing drives in the automobile, rubber and steel industries at its convention in 1934, but gave little financial support or effective leadership to those unions. The AFL’s timidity only succeeded in making it less credible among the workers it was supposedly trying to organize, particularly in those industries, such as auto and rubber, in which workers had already achieved some organizing success at great personal risk.

This dispute came to a head at the AFL’s convention in Atlantic City in 1935, when William Hutcheson, the President of the Carpenters, made a slighting comment about a rubber worker delivering an organizing report. Lewis responded that Hutcheson’s comment was “small potatoes,” to which Hutcheson replied “I was raised on small potatoes, that is why I am so small.” After some more words Lewis punched Hutcheson, knocking him to the ground; Lewis then relit his cigar and returned to the rostrum. The incident – which was also “small potatoes,” but very memorable – helped cement Lewis’ image in the public eye as someone willing to fight for workers’ right to organize. William Hutcheson (February 6, 1874 - October 20, 1953) was the leader of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America from 1915 until 1952. ... The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America is the largest building trades union in the United States. ...

Shortly after the Convention, Lewis called together Charles Howard, President of the International Typographical Union, Sidney Hillman, head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, David Dubinsky, President of the ILGWU, Thomas McMahon, head of the United Textile Workers, John Sheridan of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, Harvey Fremming from the Oil Workers Union and Max Zaritsky of the Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers to discuss the formation of a new group within the AFL to carry on the fight for industrial organizing. The creation of the CIO was announced on November 9, 1935. Whether Lewis always intended to split the AFL over this issue is debatable; at the outset, the CIO presented itself as only a group of unions within the AFL gathered to support industrial unionism, rather than a group opposed to the AFL itself. The International Typographical Union (ITU) was a labor union founded on May 3, 1852, as the National Typographical Union. ... Sidney Hillman (March 23, 1887 - July 10, 1946) was an American labor leader. ... The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for social unionism and progressive political causes. ... David Dubinsky (David Dubnievski) (February 22, 1892 - September 17, 1982) was a U.S. labor leader. ... Thomas McMahon (b. ... Western Federation of Miners famous flyer entitled Is Colorado in America? The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mine fields of the western United States. ...

The AFL leadership, however, treated the CIO as an enemy from the outset, refusing to deal with it and demanding that it dissolve. The AFL’s opposition to the CIO, however, only increased the stature of the CIO and Lewis in the eyes of those industrial workers keen on organizing and disillusioned with the AFL’s ineffective performance. Lewis continued to denounce the AFL’s policies while the CIO offered organizing support to workers in the rubber industry who went on strike and formed the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), in defiance of all of the craft divisions that the AFL had required in past organizing efforts, in 1936; Lee Pressman, affiliated with the far left, became the union's General Counsel. The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (United Steelworkers or USW) claims over 1. ... Lee Pressman (fl. ...

Initial triumphs

The CIO met with dramatic initial successes in 1937, with the UAW winning union recognition at General Motors Corporation after a tumultuous forty-four day sit-down strike, while the SWOC signed a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel. Those two victories, however, came about very differently. Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United Auto Workers (UAW), headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, officially the United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America International Union, is one of the largest labor unions in North America, The UAW has approximately 540,000 active members and over 500,000 retired members in the United States, Canada... General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM), also known as GM, is an American automobile maker with worldwide operations and brands including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Vauxhall. ... A sitdown strike is a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at a factory or other centralized location, take possession of the workplace by sitting down at their stations, effectively preventing their employers from replacing them with scab labor or, in some cases... The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the contract between the NHL and the NHLPA that defines the structure of procedural, financial, and disciplinary relationships between the NHL, its teams, and its players. ... The United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) is an integrated steel producer with major production operations in the United States and Central Europe. ...

The CIO’s initial strategy was to focus its efforts in the steel industry and then build from there. The UAW, however, did not wait for the CIO to lead it. Instead, having built up a membership of roughly 25,000 workers by gathering in federal unions and some locals from rival unions in the industry, the union decided to go after GM, the largest car maker of them all, by shutting down its nerve center, the production complex in Flint, Michigan. Nickname: Location of Flint within Genesee County, Michigan. ...

The Flint Sit-Down Strike was a risky and illegal enterprise from the outset: the union was able to share its plans with only a few workers because of the danger that spies employed by GM would alert management in time to stop it, yet needed to be able to mobilize enough to seize physical control of GM’s factories. The union, in fact, not only took over several GM factories in Flint, including one that made the dies necessary to stamp automotive body parts and a companion facility in Cleveland, Ohio, but held on to those sites despite repeated attempts by the police and National Guard to retake them and court orders threatening the union with ruinous fines if it did not call off the strike. Sit-down strikers at Fisher Body Plant (1937) The Flint Sit-Down Strike changed the United Automobile Workers from a collection of isolated locals on the fringes of the industry into a major union and led to the unionization of the United States automobile industry. ... Cleveland redirects here. ...

While Lewis played a key role in negotiating the one-page agreement that ended the strike with GM’s promise to recognize the UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative of its employees for a six months period, UAW activists, rather than CIO staff, led the strike.

The organizing campaign in the steel industry, by contrast, was a top-down affair. Lewis, who had a particular interest in organizing the steel industry because of its important role in the coal industry where UMW members worked, dispatched hundreds of organizers, many his past political opponents or radicals drawn from the Communist-led unions that had attempted to organize the industry earlier in the 1930’s, to sign up members. Lewis was not particularly concerned with the political beliefs of his organizers, so long as he controlled the organization; as he once famously remarked, when asked about the “reds” on the SWOC staff, “Who gets the bird? The hunter or the dog?”.

The SWOC signed up thousands of members and absorbed a number of company unions at U.S. Steel and elsewhere, but did not attempt the sort of daring strike that the UAW had pulled off against GM. Instead Lewis was able to extract a collective bargaining agreement from U.S. Steel, which had previously been an implacable enemy of unions, by pointing to the chaos and loss of business that GM had suffered by fighting the UAW. The agreement provided for union recognition, a modest wage increase and a grievance procedure.

The CIO also won several significant legal battles as well. Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization 307 U.S. 496 (1939), arose out of events late in 1937. Jersey City, New Jersey Mayor Frank "Boss" Hague had used a city ordinance to prevent labor meetings in public places and stop the distribution of literature pertaining to the CIO's cause. District and circuit courts ruled in favor of the CIO. Hague appealed to the United States Supreme Court, held in 1939 that Hague's ban on political meetings violated the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly. Holding The Court held that Hagues ban on political meetings violated the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly. ... // The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral form which will... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Location of Jersey City within Hudson County Coordinates: , Country State County Hudson Government  - Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy  - Business Administrator Brian P. OReilly Area  - City 21. ... A mayor (from the Latin māior, meaning larger, greater) is the modern title of the highest ranking municipal officer. ... Frank Hague Frank Hague (January 17, 1876 – January 1, 1956) was the mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey from 1917 to 1947. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States...

Early setbacks and successes

The UAW was able to capitalize on its stunning victory over GM by winning recognition at Chrysler and smaller manufacturers. It then focused its organizing efforts on Ford, sometimes battling company security forces as at the Battle of the Overpass on May 26, 1937; but there were no concrete organizing successes. For other uses, including the Chrysler Brand, see Chrysler (disambiguation). ... The Battle of the Overpass was an incident on 26 May 1937, in which labor organizers clashed with Ford Motor Company security. ... is the 146th day of the year (147th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

At the same time, the UAW was in danger of being torn apart by internal political rivalries. Homer Martin, the first president of the UAW, expelled a number of the union organizers who had led the Flint sit-down strike and other early drives on charges that they were communists. In some cases, such as Wyndham Mortimer. Bob Travis and Henry Kraus those charges may have been true; in other cases, such as Victor Reuther and Roy Reuther, they were probably not. Those expulsions were reversed at the next convention of the UAW in 1939, which expelled Martin instead. He took approximately 20,000 UAW members with him to form a rival union, known for a time as the UAW-AFL, later renamed the Allied Industrial Workers of America. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States. ... Victor Reuther (January 1, 1912 - June 3, 2004) was a prominent international Labor organizer. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The SWOC encountered equally serious problems: after winning union recognition after a strike against Jones & Laughlin Steel, SWOC's strikes against the rest of "Little Steel," i.e., Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, National Steel, Inland Steel American Rolling Mills and Republic Steel failed. The steelmakers offered workers the same wage increases that U.S. Steel had offered, In the Memorial Day Massacre on May 30, 1937, Chicago police opened fire on a group of strikers who had attempted to picket at Republic Steel, killing ten and seriously wounding dozens. A month and a half later police in Massillon, Ohio fired on a crowd of unionists, resulting in three deaths, when one union supporter failed to dim his headlights. The strike collapsed shortly thereafter. Bethlehem Steel Corporations manufacturing facility in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the United States. ... The Youngstown Iron Sheet and Tube Company was one of the largest steel manufacturers in the world. ... National Steel has several meanings: National Steel is a steel production company in the United States. ... AK Steel Holding Corporation, formerly known as Armco, is a major American steel company founded in 1900 as the American Rolling Mills Corporation. ... Republic Steel was once the third largest steel producer in the United States. ... is the 150th day of the year (151st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: Motto: Urbs in Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in the Chicago metro area and Illinois Coordinates: , Country State Counties Cook, DuPage Settled 1770s Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government  - Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area  - City 234. ... Massillon is a city located in Stark County, Ohio. ...

The CIO found organizing textile workers in the South even harder. As in steel, these workers had abundant recent first-hand experience of failed organizing drives and defeated strikes, which resulted in unionists being blacklisted or worse. In addition, the intense antagonism of white workers toward black workers and the conservative political and religious milieu made organizing even harder. On the other hand, some independent left-wing unions, such as Mine, Mill and the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union of America, that aggressively organized both black and white workers had more success than the more cautious Textile Workers Organizing Committee founded by the CIO. Historic Southern United States. ... Blacklisted redirects here. ...

Adding to the uncertainties for the CIO was its own internal disarray. When the CIO formally established itself as a rival to the AFL in 1938, renaming itself as the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the ILGWU and the Millinery Workers left the CIO to return to the AFL. Lewis feuded with Hillman and Philip Murray, his long-time assistant and head of the SWOC, over both the CIO's own activities and its relations with the FDR administration. Lewis finally resigned as President of the CIO in 1941, after endorsing Wendell Willkie for President in 1940, choosing his protégé Murray to succeed him. Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Philip Murray (May 25, 1886 - November 9, 1952) was a U.S. (Scottish-born) labor leader. ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... Wendell L. Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was a lawyer in the United States and the Republican nominee for the 1940 presidential election. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The doldrums did not last forever, however. The UAW finally organized Ford in 1941. The SWOC, now known as the United Steel Workers of America, won recognition in Little Steel in 1941 through a combination of strikes and National Labor Relations Board elections in the same year. Other CIO affiliates made progress during these years in organizing workers in mass transit, packinghouses, tire factories, shipyards and electrical manufacturers while the UAW successfully organized aircraft workers. For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... The United Steel Workers of America (USWA) claims over 1. ... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the United States Government charged with conducting elections for union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. ...

In addition, after the west coast longshoremen organized in the strike led by Harry Bridges in 1934 split from the International Longshoremen's Association in 1937 to form the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, the ILWU joined the CIO. Bridges became the most powerful force within the CIO in California and the west. The Transport Workers Union of America, originally representing the subway workers in New York, also joined, as did the National Maritime Union, made up of sailors based on the east coast, and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, which represented workers in a range of electrical manufacturing facilities. Harry Bridges (July 28, 1901 – March 30, 1990) was an influential American labor leader in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), a union of longshore and warehouse workers on the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska which he helped form and led for over forty years. ... Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The International Longshoremens Association is a labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is a labor union which primarily represents dock workers won the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii and Alaska; it also represents hotel workers in Hawaii, cannery workers in Alaska and warehouse workers throughout the West. ... Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article discusses the parent union and its largest local, Local... The National Maritime Union (NMU) was an American labor union founded in May 1937. ... The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) is a United States labor union which was one of the first unions to affiliate with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1936 and grew to more than 400,000 members in the 1940s. ...

The AFL continued to fight the CIO, forcing the NLRB to allow skilled trades employees in large industrial facilities the option to choose, in what came to be called "Globe elections," between representation by the CIO or separate representation by AFL craft unions. The CIO now also faced competition, moreover, from a number of AFL affiliates who now sought to organize industrial workers. The competition was particularly sharp in the aircraft industry, where the UAW went head-to-head against the International Association of Machinists, originally a craft union of railroad workers and skilled trade employees. The AFL organizing drives proved even more successful, and they gained new members as fast or faster than the CIO. In some instances bloody confrontations took place between the rival federations, each supported by their political allies. Logo of the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is an AFL-CIO/CLC trade union representing over 800,000 workers in more than 200 industries. ...

The Dies Committee determined in 1938 that 280 salaried CIO organizers, were members of the CPUSA. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was an investigating committee of the United States House of Representatives. ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is one of several Marxist-Leninist groups in the United States. ...

Growth during the Second World War

See Homefront-United States-World War II Homefront-United States-World War II covers all the developments inside the United States, 1940-1945. ...

The unemployment problem ended in the United States with the beginning of World War II, as stepped up wartime production created millions of new jobs, and the draft pulled young men out. The war mobilization also changed the CIO’s relationship with both employers and the national government.

In spite of its strong opposition to fascism, in August 1939 the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in order to protect iself from possible attack. Because of this American Communists took the public position of being opposed to the war against Germany. The Mine Workers led by Lewis, with a strong pro-Soviet presence, opposed Roosevelt’s reelection in 1940, left the CIO in 1942. After June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the Communists became fervent supporters of the war and sought to end wildcat strikes that might hurt war production. The CIO, and in particular the UAW, supported a wartime no-strike pledge that aimed to eliminate not only major strikes for new contracts, but also the innumerable small strikes called by shop stewards and local union leadership to protest particular grievances. The terms steward or stewardess can refer to a number of different professional roles. ...

That pledge did not, however, actually eliminate all wartime strikes; in fact there were nearly as many strikes in 1944 as there had been in 1937. But those strikes tended to be far shorter and far less tumultuous than the earlier ones, usually involving small groups of workers over working conditions and other local concerns.

The CIO did not, on the other hand, strike over wages during the war. In return for labor’s no-strike pledge, the government offered arbitration to determine the wages and other terms of new contracts. Those procedures produced modest wage increases during the first few years of the war, but, over time, not enough to keep up with inflation, particularly when combined with the slowness of the arbitration machinery. Arbitration is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, wherein the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons (the arbitrators or arbitral tribunal), by whose decision (the award) they agree to be bound. ...

Yet even though the complaints from union members about the no-strike pledge became louder and more bitter, the CIO did not abandon it. The Mine Workers, by contrast, who did not belong to either the AFL or the CIO for much of the war, engaged in a successful twelve-day strike in 1943.

But the CIO unions on the whole grew stronger during the war. The government put pressure on employers to recognize unions to avoid the sort of turbulent struggles over union recognition of the 1930s, while unions were generally able to obtain maintenance of membership clauses, a form of union security, through arbitration and negotiation. Workers also won benefits, such as vacation pay, that had been available only to a few in the past while wage gaps between higher skilled and less skilled workers narrowed. Union Security is the enactment of various policies in an employer-union agreement to ensure the unions continued survival. ...

The experience of bargaining on a national basis, while restraining local unions from striking, also tended to accelerate the trend toward bureaucracy within the larger CIO unions. Some, such as the Steelworkers, had always been centralized organizations in which authority for major decisions resided at the top. The UAW, by contrast, had always been a more grassroots organization, but it also started to try to rein in its maverick local leadership during these years.

The CIO also had to confront deep racial divides in its own membership, particularly in the UAW plants in Detroit where white workers sometimes struck to protest the promotion of black workers to production jobs, but also in shipyards in Alabama, mass transit in Philadelphia, and steel plants in Baltimore. The CIO leadership, particularly those in more left unions such as the Packinghouse Workers, the UAW, the NMU and the Transport Workers, undertook serious efforts to suppress hate strikes, to educate their membership and to support the Roosevelt Administration’s tentative efforts to remedy racial discrimination in war industries through the Fair Employment Practices Commission. Those unions contrasted their relatively bold attack on the problem with the timidity and racism of the AFL. Detroit redirects here. ... On June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) by signing Executive Order 8802. ...

The CIO unions were less progressive in dealing with sex discrimination in wartime industry, which now employed many more women workers in nontraditional jobs. Some unions who had represented large numbers of women workers before the war, such as the UE and the Food and Tobacco Workers, had fairly good records of fighting discrimination against women; others often saw them as merely wartime replacements for the men in the armed forces. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Sexism. ...

The post-War era

The end of the war meant the end of the no-strike pledge and a wave of strikes as workers sought to make up the ground they had lost, particularly in wages, during the war. The UAW went on strike against GM in November 1945; the Steelworkers, UE and Packinghouse Workers struck in January 1946. Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Murray, as head of both the CIO and the Steelworkers, wanted to avoid a wave of mass strikes in favor of high-level negotiations with employers, with government intervention to balance wage demands with price controls. That project failed when employers showed that they were not willing to accept the wartime status quo, but instead demanded broad management rights clauses to reassert their workplace authority, while the new Truman administration proved unwilling to intervene on labor’s side. For other persons named Harry Truman, see Harry Truman (disambiguation). ...

The UAW took a different tack: rather than involve the federal government, it wanted to bargain directly with GM over management issues, such as the prices it charged for its cars, and went on strike for 113 days over these and other issues. The union eventually settled for the same wage increase that the Steelworkers and the UE had gotten in their negotiations; GM not only did not concede any of its managerial authority, but never even bargained over the UAW’s proposals over its pricing policies.

These strikes were qualitatively different from those waged over union recognition in the 1930s: employers did not try to hire strikebreakers to replace their employees, while the unions kept a tight lid on picketers to maintain order and decorum even as they completely shut down some of the largest enterprises in the United States. Look up strikebreaker in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The CIO’s major organizing drive of this era, Operation Dixie, aimed at the textile workers of the South, was a complete failure, due both to the social and political backwardness of the region and the CIO’s reluctance to confront Jim Crow. Although the Steelworkers' Southern outpost in the steel industry remained intact, the CIO and the union movement as a whole remained marginalized in the Deep South and surrounding states. Operation Dixie was the name of the post-war campaign by the Congress of Industrial Organizations to unionize industry in the Southern United States, particularly the textile industry. ... Manifestations Slavery Racial profiling Lynching Hate speech Hate crime Genocide (examples) Ethnocide Ethnic cleansing Pogrom Race war Religious persecution Gay bashing Blood libel Paternalism Police brutality Movements Policies Discriminatory Race / Religion / Sex segregation Apartheid Redlining Internment Anti-discriminatory Emancipation Civil rights Desegregation Integration Equal opportunity Counter-discriminatory Affirmative action Racial...

In 1946 the Republican Party took control of both the House and Senate. That Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act, which made organizing more difficult, gave the states authority to pass so-called right to work laws, and outlawed certain types of strikes and secondary boycotts. It also required all union officers to sign an affidavit that they were not Communists in order for the union to bring a case before the NLRB. This affidavit requirement, later declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court, was the first sign of serious trouble ahead for a number of Communists in the CIO. The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... The Labor-Management Relations Act, commonly known as the Taft-Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that greatly restricts the activities and power of labor unions. ... ... A secondary boycott is an attempt by labor to convince others to stop doing business with a particular firm because that firm does business with another firm that is the subject of a strike and/or a primary boycott. ...

Purging the Communists

The Taft Hartley Act of 1947 penalized unions whose officers failed to sign statements that they were not members of the Communist Party. Many Communists held power in the CIO unions (few did so in the AFL). The most affected unions were the ILWU, UE, TWU and Fur and Leather Workers. Other Communists held senior staff positions in a number of other unions. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is one of several Marxist-Leninist groups in the United States. ... The International Fur and Leather Workers Union (IFLWU), was a labor union that represented workers in the fur and leather trades. ...

The leftists had an uneasy relationship with Murray while he headed the CIO. He mistrusted the radicalism of some of their positions and was innately far more sympathetic to anti-Communist organizations such as the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists. He also believed, however, that making anti-Communism a crusade would only strengthen labor’s enemies and the rival AFL at a time when labor unity was most important.

Murray might have let the status quo continue, even while Walter Reuther and others within the CIO attacked Communists in their unions, if the CPUSA had not chosen to back Henry Wallace's Progressive Party campaign for President in 1948. That, and an increasingly bitter division over whether the CIO should support the Marshall Plan, brought Murray to the conclusion that peaceful co-existence with Communists within the CIO was impossible. Walter Philip Reuther (September 1, 1907 – May 10, 1970) was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic party]] in the mid 20th century. ... Henry Wallace may refer to: Henry A. Wallace (1888–1965), U.S. Vice President Henry Cantwell Wallace (1866–1924), U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, father of Henry A. Wallace Harry Brookings Wallace, former Chancellor of Washington University in St. ... The United States Progressive Party of 1948 was a political party that ran former Vice President Henry A. Wallace of Iowa for president and U.S. Senator Glen H. Taylor of Idaho for vice president in 1948. ... Map of Cold-War era Europe and the Near East showing countries that received Marshall Plan aid. ...

Murray began by removing Bridges from his position as the California Regional Director for the CIO and firing Lee Pressman as General Counsel of both the Steelworkers and the CIO. Anti-communist unionists then took the battle to the City and State Councils where they ousted Communist leaders who did not support the CIO’s position favoring the Marshall Plan and opposing Wallace.

After the 1948 election, the CIO took the fight one step further, expelling the ILWU, Mine, Mill, the Farm Equipment Union (FE), the Food and Tobacco Workers, and the Fur and Leather Workers after a series of internal trials in the first few months of 1950, while creating a new union, the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers(IUE), to replace the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE), which left the CIO. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is a Labor union which primarily represents dock workers, who load ships. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) is a United States labor union which was one of the first unions to affiliate with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1936 and grew to more than 400,000 members in the 1940s. ...

Merger with the AFL

Reuther succeeded Murray, who died in 1952, as head of the CIO. William Green, who had headed the AFL since the 1920s, died the same month. Reuther began discussing merger of the two organizations with George Meany, Green’s successor as head of the AFL, the next year. Year 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... William Green (March 3, 1873 - November 21, 1952) was president of the American Federation of Labor from 1924 to 1952. ... George Meany (August 16, 1894 – January 10, 1980) was an American labor leader, who served as President of the American Federation of Labor from 1952 to 1955, and then, following its merger with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the latter year, as president of the united AFL-CIO from...

Most of the critical differences that once separated the two organizations had faded since the 1930s. The AFL had not only embraced industrial organizing, but included industrial unions, such as the International Association of Machinists, that had become as large as the UAW or the Steelworkers.

The AFL had a number of advantages in those negotiations. It was, for one thing, twice as large as the CIO. The CIO was, for its part, once again facing internal rivalries that threatened to seriously weaken it.

Reuther was spurred toward merger by the threats from David McDonald, Murray’s successor as President of the Steelworkers, who disliked Reuther intensely, insulted him publicly and flirted with disaffiliation from the CIO. While Reuther set out a number of conditions for merger with the AFL, such as constitutional provisions supporting industrial unionism, guarantees against racial discrimination, and internal procedures to clean up corrupt unions, his weak bargaining position forced him to compromise most of these demands. Although the unions that made up the CIO survived, and in some cases thrived, as members of the newly created AFL-CIO, the CIO as an organization essentially disappeared in the merger process. David John McDonald (November 22, 1902 - August 8, 1979) was an American labor leader and president of the United Steelworkers of America from 1952 to 1965. ...

Industrial Unionization: CIO and the Black Community

Although CIO was beneficial to all workers, it is known to have helped the black workers the most. In the days prior to the establishment of the CIO, under one hundred thousand blacks only were members of the American trade union. This number rapidly multiplied after the foundation of CIO was in place. The number grew until it reached upwards around five hundred thousand in the early 1940s.

At the events which were held by the union prior to 1939-1940, it was very rare and unlikely to see a black union official representing them. But in the year of 1939-1940, it became more and more common to the point where it was actually seen as a normal occurrence that there would be a black union official at all of these events. During these time periods another group was formed to help support the black workers. This group was known as the National Negro Congress. The National Negro Congress supported both the AFL and the CIO. However, it was more interested in forming an alliance with the CIO rather than the AFL due to the fact that they believed the CIO would accomplish and get a lot more beneficial things done for the black workers. Although many of the black community felt this way and agreed that their should be a unionization, The National Negro Congress did not speak for the whole black community. In fact many felt that unionization with the CIO was not the way to go. One side felt that racism should be the major argument and was strongly linked to capital. The other side felt the National Trade Union was the only way to go. Although they were split the one thing that did not waiver was that both sides were strongly looking to further advancing the presence and strength of the black community in the workforce.

Presidents of the CIO, 1935-1955

• John L. Lewis 1935-1940
• Philip Murray 1940-1952
• Walter Reuther 1952-1955

DAVE ACKERMAN HAS WOOLY SOCKSJohn Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960. ... Philip Murray (May 25, 1886 - November 9, 1952) was a U.S. (Scottish-born) labor leader. ... Walter Philip Reuther (September 1, 1907 – May 10, 1970) was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic party]] in the mid 20th century. ...

Further reading

Archives

• Southern Labor Archives. Department of Special Collections, The University Library, Georgia State University. (Official repository for hundreds of local and regional union offices, as well as the national offices of IAMAW, NFFE, UGWA, UFWA, PATCO, UTWA, and the Georgia State AFL-CIO.)Online guide retrieved April 27, 2005.
• Martin, Katherine F., ed. Operation Dixie: The CIO Organizing Committee Papers, 1946-1953. Media: 75 reels of 35mm microfilm. Online guide to the microfilm edition retrieved April 27, 2005.

Georgia State University (GSU) is an urban research university in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1913, it serves over 28,000[1] students, and is one of the University System of Georgias four research universities. ... The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization or PATCO was a labor union that once represented air traffic controllers in the United States in matters relating to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. ...

Books

• Fraser, Steven. Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise of American Labor. Reprint ed. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8014-8126-0
• Griffith, Barbara S. The Crisis of American Labor: Operation Dixie and the Defeat of the CIO. Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press. ISBN 0-87722-503-6
• Lichtenstein, Nelson. Labor's War at Home: The CIO in World War II. Reprint ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-521-33573-6
• Lipsitz, George. Rainbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in the 1940s. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1994. ISBN 0-252-06394-5
• Preis, Art. Labor's Giant Step: The First Twenty Years of the CIO: 1936-55. Rev. ed. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1964. ISBN 0-87348-263-8
• Phelan, Craig. William Green: Biography of a Labor Leader. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989. ISBN 0-88706-871-5
• Zieger, Robert H. The CIO 1935-1955. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8078-2182-9

Cornell University Press, established in 1869, was the first university publishing enterprise in the United States and is one of the countrys largest university presses. ... Temple University Press is a university press, was founded in 1969, and is part of Temple University. ... The University of Illinois Press is a major American university press. ... Logo of the Pathfinder grouping The Pathfinder tendency is the unofficial name of a group of historically Trotskyist organizations that have now adopted positions of political convergence with the Cuban Communist Party. ... The State University of New York Press (or SUNY Press), founded in 1966, is a university press that is part of State University of New York system. ... The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina. ...

Web sites

• Work'n'Progress: Stories of Southern Labor. A project of the Southern Labor Archives, Department of Special Collections, The University Library, Georgia State University.

Georgia State University (GSU) is an urban research university in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1913, it serves over 28,000[1] students, and is one of the University System of Georgias four research universities. ...

See also

Organized Labour Portal

• Communists in the U.S. Labor Movement (1919-1937)
• Communists in the U.S. Labor Movement (1937-1950)

Image File history File links Syndicalism. ... The Communist Party and its allies played an important role in the United States labor movement, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s, but never succeeded, with rare exceptions, either in bringing the labor movement around to its agenda or in converting their influence in any particular union into membership gains... The Communist Party and its allies played an important role in the United States labor movement, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s, but never succeeded, with rare exceptions, either in bringing the labor movement around to its agenda or in converting their influence in any particular union into membership gains...

External links

• Sakai, J. "The CIO's Integration & Imperialist Labor Policy." Part 4, Chapter VII. Settlers: Mythology of the White Proletariat. Morningstar Press, 1989. (Excerpt from an extreme leftist analysis of the CIO.)
• AFL-CIO Web site