Transcript Mgmt 583 - University of Mississippi

Mgmt 583
Chapter 2: The Evolution of the
American Labor Movement
Fall 2008
Robert Hoxie’s 5 Classes of Unionism
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Business Unionism
Uplift Unionism
Revolutionary Unionism
Predatory Unionism
Dependent Unionism
Source: E. H. Downey (1914). Professor Hoxie's Interpretation of Trade Unionism,
The American Journal of Sociology
Business Unionism
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Accepts the wage system as is and seeks to
obtain the best terms for its members.
View collective bargaining as a means to
achieve this end.
AFL
Uplift Unionism
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Accepts the wage system and social order.
Its mission is to improve the life of all
members of the working class, not just its
members.
Knights of Labor, Woman’s Trade Union
League
Revolutionary Unionism
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Abhors the wage system and social order.
Seeks to overthrow the capitalist socioeconomic order by and for the proletariat.
Socialistic in its world view.
Industrial Workers of the World.
Predatory Unionism
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The aggrandizement of a narrow ring of union
members for their own gain.
Sometimes called hold-up unionism.
IBT under Beck & Hoffa
Craft Unions
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Union membership is limited to members of a
specific craft (example: IBEW, UBCJA).
One craft, one union.
Exercise economic power by controlling the
supply of the craft.
Control apprenticeship.
Trace history to the guilds.
Industrial Unions
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Union membership open to employees of a
specific industry (example: UAW, USW).
One industry, one union.
Exercises economic power only by political
fiat.
In recent years, industry designations have
become meaningless.
Pre-Revolutionary Unionism
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Craft unions on a local basis: printers, carpenters,
and cordwainers.
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New York journeymen printers won a wage increase in
1778.
Concerns: Closed shops, rules of apprenticeship,
wages and methods of payment,
Economy and society was primarily agricultural.
Labor shortages exacerbated by availability of cheap
land.
The Philadelphia Cordwainers
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Federal Society of Journeyman Cordwainers
organized in 1794 to demand the same rate for
all shoes they made.
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The court in Commonwealth v. Pullis concluded
that the Philadelphia cordwainers conspired and
unlawfully agreed together that they would not
work but at certain large prices and rates.
The criminal conspiracy doctrine emerged merely forming or joining a union was a criminal
activity.
Pre-Civil War Unionism
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Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)
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Boston bootmakers had conviction for criminal
conspiracy overturned, stating that it was the
concerted activity that was in question, not the
employees’ association.
Unions, by themselves, were no longer
considered to be criminal conspiracies .
This effectively overturned the criminal
conspiracy doctrine
The National Labor Union 1866-1872
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Founder: William Sylvis (1866-1872)
Type: Uplift
Goals : Ideological and Political
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Eight-hour workday.
Paper currency (ties to the Greenback Party).
Replace factories with worker co-operatives.
Knights of Labor
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1869-1892
Founder: Uriah Stephens (1869-1879)
Terrence Powderly (1879-1892).
Type: Uplift
Goals: Ideological and political.
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Educate government and public to
ignore self-interest and work for the
benefit of all (utopian).
Consumer-producer cooperatives.
Pushed for labor arbitration.
Knights of Labor
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1869-1892
Locals:
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Mirrored Masonic organizations.
Open to virtually all professions except:
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Lawyers
Gamblers
Bankers
Stockbrokers
Bootleggers & Saloonkeepers
Mixed craft and industrial workers
Policy to refrain from strikes and violence.
Knights of Labor
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Major Event: Wabash RR Strike (1885)
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1869-1892
Jay Gould's Wabash RR refused to recognize the
Knights.
Gould met with Powderly and agreed to call off
his campaign against the Knights of Labor
Failed because they valued reform over
worker self-interest.
American Federation of Labor
1886-1955
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Founder: Samuel Gompers (1886-1924)
Type: Business
Goals: Economic.
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Improving member’s working condition
Collective bargaining.
Early PACs (Reward your friends, punish your
enemies).
Avoided aligning with socialists or forming a
Labor Party (the European model).
American Federation of Labor
1886-1955
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Members: Skilled workers only.
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Completely turned their backs on industrial
workers.
Became known as the “Aristocrats of Labor.”
Attained a modicum of respectability.
Industrial Workers of the World
1905-Present
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Founders: Eugene V. Debs (1905-1926) & Big
Bill Hayward (1905-1918)
Type: Revolutionary
Goals: Political.
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Replacing capitalism with socialism.
Workers would control the means of
production.
The wage and class system should
be abolished.
Industrial Workers of the World
1905-Present
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Members: Anyone
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Mary Harris Jones “Mother Jones” (organizer of
the “Children’s Crusade”)
Early 2000s the IWW organized Stonemountain
and Daughter Fabrics, a fabric/seamstress shop in
Berkeley.
In 2004, an IWW union was organized in a New
York City Starbucks.
In 2006, the IWW continued efforts at Starbucks
by organizing several Chicago area shops.
Industrial Workers of the World
1905-Present
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Major Events:
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1903 "Children's Crusade", a march to the home of
President Theodore Roosevelt with banners demanding
"We want time to play!" and "We want to go to school!"
Lawrence, MA strike 1912, the "Bread and Roses" strike.
Most of the leadership jailed during WWI.
“Red Scare” following WWI caused membership to
decline. Haywood actually died in Moscow in 1928.
Always financially insolvent.
Down to roughly 2000 members by 2007.
Congress of Industrial Organizations
1935-1955
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Founder: John L. Lewis (UMW)
Type: Business
Goals: Economic
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Better working conditions for members
Eight-hour day
Forty-hour week
Members: Industrial (unskilled ) workers
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Began as Committee for Industrial Organization in AFL
(1935)
Congress of Industrial Organizations
1935-1955
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Events:
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First sit-down strike, GM (1936).
Merged with AFL in 1955.
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George Meany of the AFL became the first president
of the AFL-CIO
McClellan Committee began investigating IBT for
labor racketeering
AFL-CIO expels IBT in 1957
The American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations
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AFL-CIO is a voluntary
federation of 56 national
and international labor unions.
Members: 8.5 million.
Current president: John J. Sweeney
Working America an advocacy/
lobbying group affliated with the
CIO—2 million members.
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AFL-
“We work against wrong-headed priorities favoring the rich
and corporate special interests over America's well-being.”
Change to Win Coalition
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Group of seven unions who in 2005 broke away
group from AFL-CIO
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International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA)
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)/
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
(UBC)
United Farm Workers of America (UFW)/
United Food and Commercial Workers International
Union (UFCW)
UNITE HERE
Members: 6 million
Management Labor Relations in PreWagner Act America
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The Era of Labor Unrest
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The Molly Maguires (1866-1877)
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Pinkerton’s first major labor job.
James McParlan
National Railway Strike (1877)
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Baltimore & Ohio line cut the wages of all employees
making more than a dollar a day by 10 percent.
Rutherford B. Hayes sent federal troops to end the
strike.
Management Labor Relations in PreWagner Act America
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Haymarket Massacre (May 4, 1886)
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Chicago’s Haymarket Square.
Seven police killed.
Fueled anti-labor public sentiment (AFL will distance itself from
industrial unions)
Seven German-born anarchists convicted (four hung).
Homestead Strike (1892)
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Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers.
Carnegie Steel Co. (Henry Clay Frick) Locks out workers.
PA militia breaks strike by escorting nonunion labor.
Fighting ensued involving a 20-pounder brass cannon Three
Pinkertons and seven workers died. 6,000 PA Militia sent in.
Management Labor Relations in PreWagner Act America
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Pullman Strike (1894)
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Workers in Pullman’s "company town" (where everything was
owned by the corporation, including their housing and local
store) were given pay cuts as a result of the depression, but rents
remained the same.
American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs.
Grover Cleveland sends in 12,000 U.S Army troops.
Anthracite Coal Strike (1902)
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United Mine Workers called a strike among its membership in
the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania. demanding
safer working conditions, higher pay and recognition of their
union.
T. Roosevelt instead of sending federal troops had secured the
services of J. P. Morgan as a mediator.
The strike was ended in March 1903 and the miners received a
wage increase. However, recognition of the union was not
achieved.
Management Labor Relations in PreWagner Act America
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Danbury Hatters Strike (1902)
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United Hatters Union v. D.E. Loewe Co.
Culminates with Loewe v. Lawler, 208 U.S. 274
(1908)
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US Supreme Court holds that the boycott by the United
Hatters Union against a manufacturer to be a conspiracy in
restraint of trade under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Management Labor Relations in PreWagner Act America
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Lawrence, MA Strike (1912)
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Bread & Roses Strike (1911 poem by James
Oppenheim). The slogan appeals for both fair wages
and dignified conditions.
IWW struck for 2 months and American Woolen Co.
caved.
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Militia and police assault on the children and their mothers
sparked a national outrage. [A PR coup]
Ludlow Strike (April 20, 1914)
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Colorado Fuel & Iron Co.
Colorado Militia breaks strike killing 13 women and
children.
Swung public opinion toward the industrial unions
Management Labor Relations in PreWagner Act America
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National Steel Strike (1919)
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Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin
Workers began a strike that would involve 370,000
workers.
The specter of bolshevism (the Red Scare) was fanned
by sensational headlines.
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Samuel Gompers refused to send strike funds.
Complete defeat for the union..
Anti-Union Tactics before NLRA
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The American Plan (1920s)
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Blacklisting
Industrial spies
Strikebreaking
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Replacement workers
Company police
Injunctions
Sweetheart arrangements
Anti-Union Tactics before NLRA
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Yellow dog contracts
Company (sham) unions
Antiunion propaganda (Mohawk Valley formula)
Sherman Act (antitrust)
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Loewe v. Lawler
Clayton Act of 1914 (§§ 6 and 20)
Paternalism
Physical violence
Pre-NLRA Labor Legislation
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Clayton Act of 1914 (§§ 6 & 20)
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Overrode Loewe v. Lawler.
Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926
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Applied only to railways, steamships, and later
airlines.
Gave covered workers the right to organize
without interference and to bargain collectively.
Pre-NLRA Labor Legislation
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Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926 cont’d
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Objectives
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Avoid service interruptions
Eliminate restrictions on joining a union
Guarantee workers right to self-organize
Provide for prompt grievance resolution
Enable prompt grievance settlement
Pre-NLRA Labor Legislation
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Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926 cont’d
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Two agencies
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National Railroad Adjustment Board (NRAB)addresses grievances
National Mediation Board (NMB) - mediates
impasses during negotiations
Norris LaGuardia Act of 1932
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Yellow dog contracts unenforceable in federal
courts
More difficult to get federal injunctions
Pre-NLRA Labor Legislation
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National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
of 1933
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“Employees shall have the right to organize and
to bargain collectively through representatives of
their own choosing, and shall be free from
interference, restraint , or coercion of
employers...”
Declared unconstitutional in Schechter Poultry
Corp. v. U.S., 295 U.S. 495 (1935).
Schechter Poultry Corp. v. U.S.
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It is not the province of the Court to consider the economic
advantages or disadvantages of such a centralized system. It
is sufficient to say that the Federal Constitution does not
provide for it. Our growth and development have called for
wide use of the commerce power of the federal government in
its control over the expanded activities of interstate
commerce, and in protecting that commerce from burdens,
interferences, and conspiracies to restrain and monopolize it.
But the authority of the federal government may not be
pushed to such an extreme as to destroy the distinction,
which the commerce clause itself establishes, between
commerce "among the several States" and the internal
concerns of a State. 295 U.S. 495, 540-550.
Schechter Poultry Corp. v. U.S.
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The actions of the federal government had
exceeded the powers granted to it by the
Constitution.
However, in two short years the federal
government would exceed these powers in
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., 301
U.S. 1 (1937).