Labor History Archives
The 1930's was a period of great economic hardship for the American people, a period of upheaval in the social and political structure. Streets were filled with hungry people waiting in breadlines. During the Great Depression, workers also walked the picket lines demanding their rights under laws passed during the New Deal.
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), passed in 1933, contained a section guaranteeing to workers a right to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining. Several large and sometimes violent strikes occurred in 1934 involving unions struggling for recognition as collective bargaining agent under the NIRA. Toledo, Minneapolis, and San Francisco were scenes of three of the best known strikes.
The level of strike activity was the highest in American history. Between May, 1933 and July, 1937, 10,000 strikes took place involving some 5,600,000 workers. It was a period of bitter conflict between Capital and Labor.
There is a never ending conflict between Capitalism and Labor. This has been expressed in many ways. The bottom line is Capitalism depends upon Wage Slavery to create wealth.
When we think of slaves, we think of people being beaten and forced to work merciless hours just for the privilege of being alive. Wage Slavery is a little more subtle and has given rise to a generation of people who just don’t get it.
These history postings are meant to show what things were like and could become again.
In May 1935, the NIRA was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Its labor provisions, however, were replaced on July 5, 1935 by the National Labor Relations Act, popularly referred to as the Wagner Act.
This act set up elaborate machinery for the determination of collective bargaining agencies and for the protection of labor from unfair practices by employers who might attempt to hinder union organization. By its protection of workers who chose to organize, it went much further than any previous law to encourage a policy of collective bargaining. The steelworkers were among the first to begin organizing under this new law.
The Courts are a critical component in the makeup of our Government. We are in a very bad situation now with antiunion corporate control of our Government. Recently, the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] decided it was legal for a company to tell its employees they could not talk to each other on their own time away from work.
This violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the Sec. 7 rights in the NLRA which the NLRB is supposed to enforce. Laws can change and the courts can ignore them. Our freedom on many levels depends upon informed and active citizens.
The steelworkers received the stimulus for organization from the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), a group of unions which defied the craft orientation of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in November, 1935. The leader of the CIO was the United Mine Workers' president, John L. Lewis. Lewis believed that the mass production industries should be organized on an industrial, rather than a craft basis.
Under the AFL, union workers in the steel industry would be required to join their respective craft organizations, and these different unions would then negotiate separately with management. Under the CIO plan, all steelworkers would join one union only, and bargain as a united group. The craft approach had failed previously in the steel industry, and the workers were anxious to organize under the CIO with its industry-wide approach.
The recent disaffiliation of several big unions from the AFL-CIO recently has some parallels to what happened in 1935. Things do happen again. History repeats itself.
Under SEIU President Andy Stern’s plan, the Building Trades would bargain as a single unit. A similar approach is used by the Metal Trades where the crafts are separate but bargain together for a contract.
In June of 1936, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SCOW) was set up in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania by the CIO. Its chairman was Philip Murray, a vice president of the United Mine Workers. Many of the SWOC officials at all levels were mine union members and officers. A large number of organizers were sent out into the steel areas and the SWOC newspaper, Steel Labor, began to report the progress of the drive to organize.
The economy was improving at this time and the steel industry was running at almost 90% of capacity, employing about 800,000 men. Of the large number of companies producing steel, one stood out as the leader, the United States Steel Corporation, dubbed "Big Steel."
SWOC exerted most of its early efforts toward the U.S. Steel plants. In November, 1936, U.S. Steel granted a wage increase to its employees to try to undermine the union's growing strength. It was to no avail, U.S. Steel workers continued to join up with SWOC.
This happens today, too. Companies will try most anything today, legal or not, to keep from being unionized. Now that they have control of both our Country and the press we are rapidly losing ground. Everything seems to be in reverse.
In January, 1937, a personal meeting between Lewis and U.S. Steel's chairman of the Board, Myron Taylor commenced a series of secret negotiations which culminated on March 1, 1937 with the signing of a contract, the company recognizing SWOC as the bargaining agent for its members only.
The contract made binding arbitration the terminal point of the grievance procedure. It established a common labor wage of $5.00 a day, and an 8-hour day with time and one-half for overtime work. The SWOC rejoiced over this victory and turned to the rest of the steel industry, fully expecting the "Little Steel" companies to follow the Big Steel lead.
The remainder of the steel industry matched the wage and hour provisions of the U.S. Steel agreement, but went no further than that. While it is true that some small companies signed contracts with SWOC, the Little Steel group opposed recognition of the union and refused to sign a contract, relying on a theory that the Wagner Act required only negotiation and not a written agreement.
The group included Bethlehem Steel Corp., Republic Steel Corp., Youngstown Sheet and Tube, National Steel Corp., Inland Steel Co., and American Rolling Mill Co. Their leaders were entrepreneurial types with strong anti-union attitudes. They believed that unionization would infringe upon what they felt was their management prerogative. One man, in particular, stood out in the vehemence of his anti-union stance, Tom M. Girdler of Republic Steel.
Girdler had worked his way up through the ranks of management for 30 years to become in 1930, the Chairman of the Board of the newly-formed Republic Steel Corp. Girdler totally controlled the operations, and sought to dominate the employees as completely. Through an Employee Representation Plan, or company union, Republic sought to divert the employees' away from true collective bargaining.
Republic used espionage, firing of union men, and hiring of strikebreakers. It built up a stockpile of industrial munitions, including guns, tear gas, and clubs. These munitions were placed in the various plants of Republic Steel in preparation for a strike which the company anticipated.
Clearly Girdler was a whacko, caught up in a bunch of bull about capitalism, ownership and class superiority. Look, no one is self made. Everyone depends upon society for everything; from schooling to good food, and countless regulations affording them opportunities, and on and on.
Working people create wealth. Some of their money is placed in a commonwealth via taxes. This commonwealth is used for the good of all citizens. Everyone depends upon everyone else through a division of labor. Capitalists try to exploit all of this to their own ends. Unions try to stop the Capitalists from cheating working families out of their fair share of the wealth they produce.
There is less personal accountability for the executives under a corporate structure. Money is the bottom line and moral economics just isn’t part of making that money. This is false. As history shows us, when people have had enough, they rebel. And no one makes money in a rebellion.
To be continued.
The most important word in the language of the working class is "solidarity."
Harry Bridges
http://www.theharry
bridgesproject.org/The Harry Bridges Institute (HBI) was founded in 1993 to meet a pressing need to educate a new generation of workers about the rich history of the labor movement; to demonstrate the benefit of union membership to the working community - and to showcase and celebrate the contributions of labor leaders as well as rank-and-file trade unionists, not only in the founding of unions but in the continued struggle for workers' rights.
