'DAVE ACKERMAN HAS WOOLY SOCKS'John 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. He was a major player in the history of coal mining. He was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s. After resigning as head of the CIO in 1941, he took the Mine Workers out of the CIO in 1942, then back into the American Federation of Labor in 1944. February 12 is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... June 11 is the 162nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (163rd in leap years), with 203 days remaining. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... 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. ... United Mine Workers of America seal The United Mine Workers (UMW or UMWA) is a United States labor union that represents workers in mining. ... Coal has been used for centuries, in many parts of the world. ... The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, was a federation of unions that organized industrial workers in the United States and Canada in 1935-1955. ... The United Steel Workers of America (USWA) claims over 1. ... The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ... The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. ...

Rise to Power

Born to a Welsh immigrant in Lucas, Iowa, Lewis began working in the "BIG HILL" Mine in Lucas, Iowa as a teenager. He began working around the countryside as a "ten day miner" in the western United States. He moved to Panama, Illinois then finally to Springfield, Illinois in 1910 with other members of his family. He joined the United Mine Workers and was eventually elected to the position of branch secretary. In 1911 Lewis began organizing for the AFL full time. By 1921 he had been elected president of the UMWA. Lewis quickly asserted himself as a dominant figure in what was then the largest and most influential trade union in the country. Lucas is a city located in Lucas County, Iowa. ... Nickname: i did your mom a fovor tomake you a sandwich Motto: poo poo smells Location of Springfield within Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Sangamon Founded 1819  - Mayor Timothy Davlin Area    - City 156. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... 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. ...

Lewis was considered by some a despotic leader of the Mine Workers: he expelled his political rivals within the UMWA, such as John Brophy and Adolph Germer. Communists in District 26 (Nova Scotia), including Canadian labor legend JB McLachlan, were banned from running for the union executive after a strike in 1923. McLachlan described him as "a traitor to the working class". Lewis nonetheless commanded great loyalty from many of his followers, even those he had exiled in the past. John Brophy ( 1883 – 1963) was an important figure in the United Mine Workers in the 1920s and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the 1930s and 1940s. ... Motto: Munit Haec et Altera Vincit (Latin: One defends and the other conquers) Official languages English, French (Canadian Gaelic) [] Capital Halifax Largest city Halifax Regional Municipality Lieutenant-Governor Mayann E. Francis Premier Rodney MacDonald (PC) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 11 10 Area Total  - Land  - Water  (% of total)  Ranked... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...

A powerful speaker and strategist, Lewis used the nation's dependence on coal to increase the wages and improve the safety of miners, even during several severe recessions. He masterminded a five-month strike, ensuring that the increase in wages gained during World War I would not be lost. Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert Henry Asquith Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow...

Lewis challenged Samuel Gompers, who had led the AFL for nearly forty years, for the Presidency of the AFL in 1921. William Green, one of his subordinates within the Mine Workers at the time, nominated him; William Hutcheson, the President of the Carpenters, supported him. Gompers won. Three years later, on Gompers' death, Green succeeded him as AFL President. Samuel Gompers (January 26, 1850 - December 13, 1924) was an American labor and political leader. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... William Green (March 3, 1873 - November 21, 1952) was president of the American Federation of Labor from 1924 to 1952. ... 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. ...

Thanks to the Wagner Act of 1935, labor union membership grew rapidly, especially in the coal mines. Lewis and the UMW were major backers of Franklin D. Roosevelt's reelection in 1936, and were firmly committed to the New Deal. National Labor Relations Act - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... FDR redirects here. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: New Deal For other uses of New Deal and The New Deal, see New Deal (disambiguation). ...

Lewis sent his best organizers into heavy industry in 1935-37, to organize the auto workers, the glass workers, the rubber workers and others. He supported the illegal sit-down strike (but did not use that tactic in the mines).

When the AFL balked at organizing unskilled workers, Lewis withdrew his unions and formed a new organization, the CIO. By 1937-40 the CIO was spending as much time fighting the AFL as organizing, with the result that union political power was divided against itself. During the late-1930s struggle over the AFL's refusal to organize mass production workers, Green became the target of some of Lewis' most stinging attacks while Hutcheson was the recipient of a famous punch from Lewis that came to symbolize the dispute between the conservative AFL and the rebellious CIO. The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, was a federation of unions that organized industrial workers in the United States and Canada in 1935-1955. ...

In the Presidential election of 1940, Lewis, heavily dependent on pro-Soviet organizers, rejected Roosevelt and supported Wendell Willkie, a Republican candidate, fearing Roosevelt's intention for American involvement in World War II. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the miners issued a no-strike pledge "for the duration" in support of the war effort. However, Lewis repeatedly violated the pledge, most notably in 1943 when half a million workers walked off the job. Public opinion was extremely angry and demanded new laws. President Roosevelt, a traditional ally of labor, felt he had no choice but to seize the mines. Even so, some steel mills closed for weeks and power shortages crippled production. 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. ... Satellite image of Pearl Harbor. ...

The 1950s

In the 1950s, Lewis won periodic wage and benefit increases for miners and led the campaign for the first Federal Mine Safety Act in 1952. Lewis tried to impose some order on a declining industry through collective bargaining, maintaining standards for his members by insisting that small operators agree to contract terms that effectively put many of them out of business. Mechanization nonetheless eliminated many of the jobs in his industry while scattered non-union operations persisted. // Recovering from World War II and its aftermath, the economic miracle emerged in West Germany and Italy. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A collective agreement is a labor contract between an employer and one or more unions. ... Mechanization is the use of machines to replace manual labour or animals and can also refer to the use of powered machinery to help a human operator in some task. ...

Lewis continued to be as autocratic as ever within the UMWA: until the passage of the Landrum-Griffin Act in 1959, the UMWA had kept a number of its districts in trusteeship for decades, meaning that Lewis appointed union officers who otherwise would have been elected by the membership. The Labour Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act, is a United States labour law statute that regulates labour unions internal affairs and union officials relationships with employers. ...

Lewis retired as president of the UMWA in 1960 and was succeeded as president by Thomas Kennedy until his death in 1963, when he was succeeded by Lewis-anointed successor W.A. "Tony" Boyle, who was just as dictatorial, but without any of Lewis' leadership skills or vision. 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Thomas Kennedy (November 2, 1887 - January 19, 1963) was a miner and president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1960 to 1963. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... Joseph Jock Yablonski was an American labor leader who was murdered in 1969 by assassins hired by a union political opponent, W.A. Tony Boyle. ...

Lewis purchased the "Lee-Fendall House", in Alexandria, Virginia in 1937. He resided here with his wife and daughter for 32 years until his death in 1969. He is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois.[1] Lee Fendall House, Alexandria, Virginia The Lee-Fendall House, located at 614 Oronoco St. ... Location in Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia Founded 1718 Mayor William D. Euille Area    - City 39. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... Categories: Stub ... Nickname: i did your mom a fovor tomake you a sandwich Motto: poo poo smells Location of Springfield within Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Sangamon Founded 1819  - Mayor Timothy Davlin Area    - City 156. ...

Alternate views

Although proclaimed by many as a great labor leader, many miners during the 1920s and 1930s believed him to be more interested in gaining personal power than advancing the cause of the miners themselves. This spawed the creation of competing unions such as the Progressive Mine Workers which was formed in Springfield, Illinois during the time period. A coal miners union organized in 1932. ...

John L. Lewis quotes

"I have pleaded (labor's) case, not in the quavering tones of a feeble mendicant asking alms, but in the thundering voice of the captain of a mighty host, demanding the rights to which free men are entitled."

(Asked about the number of communists and other radicals he had hired as organizers for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee) "Who gets the bird, the hunter or the dog?" The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (United Steelworkers or USW) claims over 1. ...

"The union miner cannot agree to the acceptance of a wage principle which will permit his annual earnings and his living standards to be determined by the hungriest unfortunates whom the non-union operators can employ."

"A CIO contract is adequate protection against sit-downs, lie downs, or any other kind of strike" (Quoted by Jeremy Brecher on page 226 of Strike!, 2nd edition)

References

• Alinsky, Saul. John L. Lewis: An Unauthorized Biography. Reprint paperback ed. Vancouver, Wash.: Vintage Books, 1970. ISBN 0394708822 (Originally published in 1949.)
• Bernstein, Irving. The Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941. Paperback edition. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1970. ISBN 039511778X (Originally published 1969.)
• Cantril, Hadley and Strunk, Mildred, eds. Public Opinion, 1935-1946. Princeton, N.J." Princeton University Press, 1951.
• Dubofsky, Warren and Van Tine, Warren. John L. Lewis: A Biography. Reprint ed. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1992. ISBN 081290673X
• Galenson, Walter. The CIO Challenge to the AFL: AHistory of the American Labor Movement, 1935-1941. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960. ISBN 0674131509
• Zieger, Robert. The CIO, 1935-1955. Reprint ed. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. ISBN 0807846309

External links

• United Mine Workers of America