Transcript Choices - Widener University

Week 3




Solidarity: Class, Race and Ethnicity…Choices
AFL, IWW…Choices
Union Recognition and Class War
Wagner Act

Choices…AFL, CIO

Lunch

Ellis Island: Immigration and Labor

Website Problems…should be fixed by Monday
http://www2.widener.edu/~spe0001

Scavenger Hunt…whoever gets the most sites wins…must be >3
of them…
Capitalism Takes Different Forms

Free Market Capitalism



Little Government “Interference” in economy as individual workers bring their
labor to market and sell it for whatever price it will fetch
Price of labor set by competition between self interested workers
competing in the labor market
Organized or Regulated Capitalism


Unions organize individual workers to cooperate with other workers to
collectively make demands on management
Wages, hours and working conditions set by negotiation between employer
and union…a contest of
power
Organizing Unions

Decision to organize labor into union brings many, many
questions…

Who should be in the union?
 All workers? Only some races? Native workers and Immigrants?
Only men?
 What
should the union demand?
 Who should they demand it from? Employers or
government?

NOTE: SEIU and other unions are currently fighting
over what the answers should be…
Cooperation requires Solidarity

Solidarity
Community of feelings, purposes, etc.
 Community of responsibilities and interests.




Solidarity is an interesting thing…nothing natural about
it…it is something that gets created…
Think about your life? Who/what groups do you feel the
strongest sense of solidarity with? Pick the top three…
Why?
Cooperation requires Solidarity

Solidarity




Community of feelings, purposes, etc.
Community of responsibilities and interests.
Solidarity is an interesting thing…nothing natural about it…it is
something that gets created…
Think about your life? Who do you feel the strongest sense of solidarity
with? Pick the top three…

Other people from you neighborhood, your borough, your city, your country,
your race or ethnicity, people with the same eye color, your social class,
people you work with, other Yankee or Giants fans, your gender, your
religion, other things?

Why?
More or Less Solidarity


Free Market Capitalism…

Price of labor set by competition between self interested workers competing
in the labor market

No real need for solidarity here: “I got my mine…good luck getting yours!”
Organized or Regulated Capitalism…

Unions organize individual workers to cooperate with other workers to
collectively make demands on management

Cooperation requires solidarity…but what should it be based on?
Choices emerge…


Different unions will disagree about what the
basis of solidarity should be and about the
strategy for unions
Lets explore…
Context: Lot’s of different people competing to
sell their labor in America’s labor market

Old Immigrants/Native Born


New Immigrants


(English, Swedes, Dutch, Irish)
(Italians, Russians, Poles, Mexicans,
Japanese, Chinese)
Descendants of slave labor

African Americans

Protestants, Catholics, Jews

Men and women

Skilled and Unskilled
The Industrial Workers of the
World…led Patterson Silk Strike

Solidarity


Community of
responsibilities and
interests.
Anyone know their
strategy for labor? Their
basis of solidarity
Industrial Workers of the World

Basis of Solidarity: WORKERS OF THE WORLD
UNITE!


IWW did not discriminate based on skills, race or ethnicity, gender
or immigrant status
Strategy
 Syndicalism- direct action on the job to build industrial unions of all
workers until they were strong enough to launch a general strike and
take over business and government.”
p.157 Folks
 Goal
was the abolition of capitalism and the
creation of a new cooperative society without private
ownership and wage labor
The Industrial Workers of the World

Revolutionary future…


“The workers of the world
have nothing to do but fold
their arms and the world will
stop.” – IWW
Iffy here and now…

The IWW had no system for
collecting dues, no strike funds,
rotated leadership to prevent
hierarchy, refused to sign
labor agreements…
(Fantasia & Voos, p.40)
American Federation of Labor..


OK…IWW wants you to
help abolish capitalism…
What, if anything, do you
know about the AFL’s
strategy?

Hint: Who has more
power in the labor
market…an brain
surgeon or a cafeteria
worker? Why?
AFL…

Focus on organizing skilled craft workers because it
was felt they had the most power since they were hard to
replace…



Train engineers, but not porters; skilled weavers but not cloth
carriers; carpenters but not farmworkers
This led to focus on organizing mostly White
Native
Born males…narrow basis of solidarity
Many affiliate unions would not permit women, Blacks or
Asians to join…

Note next few slides
Who should be in the Union?



Cigar Makers bylaws: “unless said person is a white practical
cigar maker” he could not be in the union.
Brotherhood of Railway Carmen Qualifications for membership:
“Any white person between the ages of 16 and 65…”
Clerks & Freight Handlers: “All white persons, male or female, of
good more character.”

Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen: “He shall be white born…”

Wire Weavers: “Christian, white, male of the full age 21…”
AFL
AFL…




Basis of solidarity emphasized race & gender
Not interested in abolishing capitalism or creating a new
and different society…
Pursued what is sometimes called “Business Unionism” or
“Pure and Simple Unionism”…
Any ideas what that means…
AFL = Business Unionism

Business unionism
 using
collective bargaining to improve the wages, hours
and working conditions of members who belong to a
particular union.
 Focus
is on bread-and-butter issues for guys in the union
 Limited
political activity and no vision of large scale
social transformation
 Not
interested in abolishing capitalism and creating a new
society
Craft Unions and Collective Bargaining


No goal for transformed future, but very strong unions
for here and now
In contrast to the IWW, the AFL collected dues, created
strike funds, and negotiated labor agreements
Empire State Building Inc.
Painters Local 1
Carpenters Local 1 Electricians Local 1 Machinist Local 1
Pipefitters Local 1
Choices
You are a (skilled White weaver/unskilled woman,
Black,Hispanic or Asian) who works in a Silk factory. You
work constantly, and have trouble making ends meet. You
are approached by different union organizers and
invited to a meeting. You can be fired for just attending
a meeting. If you are unskilled, there are many waiting
to take your job. Every week, the news is full of stories
about workers being killed during strikes.

Organizer 1) Mr. Haywood tells you that the new system of
wage labor is morally wrong & based on exploitation.
People shouldn’t have to sell themselves and toil in degrading,
awful conditions. Mr. Haywood tells you that you should unite
with workers of all races and ethnicities to build a class wide
movement that can create a society without wage labor,
where workers own and control the factories, sharing the
profits for the common good. Join the IWW.
Choices


You are a (skilled White weaver/unskilled woman, Black, Hispanic or
Asian) who works in a Silk factory. You work constantly, and have trouble
making ends meet. You are approached by different union organizers and
invited to a meeting. You can be fired for just attending a meeting. Every
week, the news is full of stories about workers being killed during strikes.
Organizer 2: Mr. Gompers of the AFL tells you that Mr. Haywood is a
dreamer whose goals are not realistic. You should accept the wage system,
and try to force employees to give you a better deal. Throwing your lot in
with all workers will weaken your bargaining position, because unskilled
workers are so easy to replace. He also questions whether you want to be
in a union with women, immigrant riff-raff and Blacks. You should join with
the other skilled weavers, and as a smaller group, you should demand
better wages, hours and working conditions in the short term. To help
strengthen your position, you should work to end the immigration of
undesirable groups like the Chinese who are willing to work for low wages.
Choices
IWW, AFL…forget about it?


If you’re a skilled White Weaver, do you go to a meeting
or stay home? If you go to a meeting, whose meeting do
you go to? Why?
If you’re an unskilled man, a women, Hispanic, Black or
Asian, do you go to a meeting or stay home? Why?
Initially, most White skilled workers who opt
for unions choose the AFL

Ideas that one should find an individual solution to economic
problems rejected


“Yet what force is weaker than the feeble strength of one”- From
the union anthem Solidarity Forever
But so are radical ideas about revolutionary movements to
abolish wage labor & implement collective ownership

“I have come to the conclusion . . . that it is our duty to live our lives as workers in
the society in which we live, and not to work for the downfall or the destruction or
the overthrow of that society, but for the fuller development and evolution of the
society in which we live; to make life the better worth living.- Samuel Gompers (Testimony,
Congress, House Select Committee, 1913)
AFL’s narrow definition of “worker”
leaves many out…

AFL Preferred White Native Born Male Workers

Women


Blacks


ambivalent toward at best, excluded at worst, maybe Jim Crow locals…Not
an organizing focus.
New immigrants (Italians, Jews, Poles, Mexicans)



noble beings, but helpless…not an organizing focus
ambivalent toward at best, ignored at worst…Not an organizing focus…
Founding Document called for a ban on foreign workers
Asians

demonized and excluded…Note next slide…
Racial Solidarity Trumps Union
Solidarity

Unions work to push Chinese workers out of
the labor market
 Physically
attack them
 Pass laws prohibiting Chinese from working
 Pass laws preventing them from coming to US
Group Mobility via the AFL…




Despite the exclusions, millions of workers opt to
pursue group mobility via the AFL
1897: 447,000 in unions
1904: 2,072,000 in unions
1930: 3,401,000 in unions
Many Workers Want Unions…But Many
Owners don’t…So what happens…

Workers get together and approach employer: “We’d like to
have a union!”

Management has no legal obligation to recognize unions…

Ludlow Colorado as famous example of what this sometimes
led to

Official call to go on strike - September 17, 1913

“All mineworkers are hereby notified that a strike of all the coal miners
and coke oven workers in Colorado will begin on Tuesday, September
23, 1913 … We are striking for improved conditions, better wages,
and union recognition. We are sure to win.”
Not just a strike…a war… class war

Video clip on Ludlow Colorado
Ludlow Massacre


New York Times' account of the massacre - April 21,
1914
The Ludlow camp is a mass of charred debris, and buried
beneath it is a story of horror imparalleled [sic] in the
history of industrial warfare. In the holes which had been
dug for their protection against the rifles' fire the women
and children died like trapped rats when the flames
swept over them. One pit, uncovered [the day after the
massacre] disclosed the bodies of ten children and two
women.
As the AFL struggles to grow, the economy
collapses…

Great Depression

By 1932, ½ of all factories closed down

By, 1933, 15 million people are unemployed

Between 25% and 33% of all workers are out of work

Wages fall by 60%

Approximately 50% of Americans are living below the poverty
level
Conditions are Intolerable

“We cannot endure another winter of hardship such
as we are passing through.”
 Republican
Governor of Washington
Protests Spread Across the Nation

Workers and unemployed organize hunger
marches and demonstrations across the nation
 50,000
march in NYC
 60,000 march in Detroit
 With
banners of Lenin…
 Who was Lenin?
Fears Emerge About Revolution

“Folks are restless. Communism is gaining a
foothold. Right here in Mississippi, some people are
ready to lead a mob. In fact, I’m getting a little pink
myself.”
 Spokesperson
organization
for the American Legion, a conservative
From Business Unionism to something
more “dangerous”?


Teamsters organize truck drivers in Minneapolis
Goal is not revolution, but the recognition of an
AFL union to bargain over wages, hours and
working conditions

Employers refuse to recognize union…

The result…A General Strike?
Revolution as possible…?

General Strike



a strike by all or most workers in a community or
nation.
Entire cities or nations are brought to a halt
General Strikes in 1934:

Minneapolis, San Francisco… note video
Revolution as possible?

“You have seen strikes in Toledo, you have seen
Minneapolis, you have seen San Francisco, and you
seen some of the southern textile strikes…but…you
have not yet seen the gates of hell opened, and
that is what is going to happen from now on.”

Congressmen Conner, testifying before a Senate Committee
More choices…


You are President Roosevelt. You are watching as
intense labor unrest sweeps the nation. A number of
cities have been shut down due to general strikes.
Member of the business community advise you to hold
the line. Workers, many of whom voted for you, are
on the move, demanding changes in society that will
facilitate group mobility for members of their class.
Many worry that things are getting out of hand. Only
18 years ago, workers in Russia helped lead a
revolution that abolished capitalism.
What do you do?
A “new deal” for workers”

New Deal Programs redistribute $$$$$$ in society

Old Age Pensions (Social Security)


Unemployment Insurance



Redistribute money to those out of work
Aid for Dependent Mothers (Welfare)


Redistribute money to old people
Redistribute money to single moms
Fair Labor Standards Act
 Minimum wages; maximum hours (8 hour day); prohibitions on child labor
All very important programs…but people are often less aware of world historic
legislation drafted by Senator Wagner (D-NY)…
Wagner Act

Wagner Act or National Labor
Relations Act(1935)
a
federal law that among other things
guaranteed workers the right to
organize unions, join unions and
collectively bargain.

Turning point in American History
A
conscious effort to strengthen
unionism by Federal Government
 Still
the framework we operate under
Wagner Act (1935)…this is a BIG deal
“It is declared to be the policy of the United States
to eliminate the causes of certain substantial
obstructions… by encouraging the
practice and procedure of
collective bargaining and by protecting
the exercise by workers of full freedom of
association, self organization, and designation of
representatives of their own choosing, for the
purpose of negotiating the terms of and conditions
of their employment or other mutual aid or
protection.”
Wagner Act (National Labor Relations
Act)


Created Election process for union representation
Employers’ responses to unionization limited by employer
unfair labor practices



If union won election, management was required to
recognize the union
Good-faith collective bargaining became public policy


No company unions; companies can’t fire union supporters; no blacklists,
no spies
Companies must bargain if union wins
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Created to enforce provisions of the Act
President Roosevelt as Pro-Union

“If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I’d do
would be TO JOIN A UNION”


Franklin Roosevelt
“The right to bargain collectively is at the bottom of
social justice for the worker, as well as the sensible
conduct of business affairs. The denial or
observance of this right means the difference
between despotism and democracy.”
FDR, 1937
Millis, Harry A., From the Wagner act to Taft-Hartley
Opportunity for AFL


AFL primarily comprised of Craft Unions
representing skilled workers
But economy now comprised of large, mass
production industries full of immigrants and Blacks
 Ford’s
River Rouge plant employed 100,000
 Most of them were unskilled or semi-skilled
 More
Choices…but AFL’s vision is limited
Wagner Act…Opportunity of a
lifetime?
AFL leaders hold negative views of unskilled and immigrant workers

“The scramble for admittance to the union is on. We do not want
to charter the riff-raff or good for nothings, or those for whom
we cannot make wages or conditions



Daniel Tobin, Head of the AFL Teamsters Union
Tobin referred to the “the rubbish that have lately come into
other organizations.”
“My wife can always tell from the smell of my clothes what breed
of foreigners I have been hanging out with.”
-William Collins, AFL organizer
Choices


AFL: You are a (skilled white/unskilled white, Hispanic,
Black, woman, immigrant) worker in a Ford Factory.
Organizers from the AFL have visited your factory,
and told you that your best strategy is to divide the
workforce of 100,000 into 13 different unions, each
of which should bargain with Ford independently. This
will give skilled workers an edge. Unskilled workers,
who are mostly immigrants and people of color, will
be lowest priority.
See next slide
AFL Craft Unions
Ford



Divide workers in
one car factory
into 13 separate
craft unions.
Try to bargain
separately…
Ignore the
unskilled, women,
Blacks, immigrants
Plant A
Plumbers
Union
Local 1
Painters
Union
Local 1
Machinists
Union
Local 1
Plant B
Janitors
Union
Local 1
Plumbers
Union
Local 2
Painters
Union
Local 2
Machinists
Union
Local 2
Janitors
Union
Local 2
Choices


Organizer Lewis: You are a (skilled white/unskilled
white, Black, woman, immigrant) worker in a Ford
Factory. Organizers from the CIO tell you that the
AFL strategy is flawed. Division into separate unions
weakens your power. It is too easy to divide and
conquer. Skilled and unskilled, regardless of race or
ethnicity, should form one industrial union. This will
give workers the power to shut down production, and
will force Ford to deal with you.
See next slide
Congress of Industrial Unions

Organize all workers
along industrial lines (one
company, one union)


Including women, Blacks,
immigrants and others
Demand that Ford
negotiate a deal that
applies to all of its
factories
Ford
BARGAIN PERTAINS
TO
FORD
UAW-Ford
Plant A
Plant B
Plant C
UAW 1
UAW 2
UAW 3
Choices


AFL: You are a skilled white worker in a Ford Factory.
Organizers from the AFL have visited your factory, and told you
that your best strategy is to divide the workforce of 100,000
into 13 different unions, each of which should bargain with Ford
independently. This will give skilled workers an edge. Unskilled
workers, the majority, will be lowest priority.
Organizer Lewis: You are a skilled white worker in a Ford
Factory. Organizers from the CIO tell you that the AFL strategy
is flawed. Division into separate unions weakens your power. It is
too easy to divide and conquer. Skilled and unskilled,
regardless of race or ethnicity, should form one industrial union.
This will give workers the power to shut down production, and
will force Ford to deal with you.
Choices


AFL: You are an (unskilled White worker/Black/new
immigrant/woman) worker in a Ford Factory. Organizers from
the AFL have visited your factory, and told you that your best
strategy is to divide the workforce of 100,000 into 13 different
unions, each of which should bargain with Ford independently.
This will give skilled workers an edge. Unskilled workers, the
majority, will be lowest priority.
Organizer Lewis: You are an (unskilled White
worker/Black/new immigrant/woman) Organizers from the new
group tell you that the AFL strategy is flawed. Division into
separate unions weakens your power. It is too easy to divide
and conquer. Skilled and unskilled, regardless of race, should
form one industrial union. This will give workers the power to
shut down production, and will force Ford to deal with you.
CIO Challenge to the AFL


Debate over craft or industrial organizing came
to a head at the 1935 AFL convention in Atlantic
City.
United Mine Workers President John Lewis lost a
crucial vote to organize the auto and rubber
industries along industrial lines…
 Punches
Out President of Carpenters and leads
walk out of several unions
 Lewis
formed the more militant rival Congress of
Industrial Organizations (CIO)
Lewis, President of the CIO

CIO
 created
in 1935 as a federation of industrial unions
dominated by unskilled workers

Industrial Union
 membership
composed primarily of semi-skilled or
unskilled workers who are organized on the basis of the
product they produce
 Instead
of painters, welders, mechanicsautoworkeres
 Instead of plumbers, electricians, carpenters construction
workers
 Takes
root in mass production industries
The Rise of the CIO…

Basis of solidarity


Class or industry
Official Position

Solidarity between workers
should trump other concerns

Racial, ethnic & gender
differences inconsequential

“Black and White Unite and
Fight”
Only really got to here…


Was unable to show sit
down…should
probably move
everything else over…
Ended at 11:45 to get
to insure we got back
on time for boat to
ellis…
The Rise of the CIO


From Poverty Level
Wages to Middle
Class Wages
The CIO, the United
Autoworkers (UAW)
and General Motors

Note Video on Sit
Down Strikes
CIO like a “crusade”


Pushes AFL to organize too
Union Density increases rapidly…By 1950s…1 out
of 3 workers is in a union
30
25
20
15
Pct. In Union
10
5
0
1930
1933
1935
1937
1940
Unions Concentrated in Key Industries

By 1946, Core of Economy almost completely union

80-100% unionized


Aircraft, Aluminum, Auto, Breweries, Clothing, Electrical
Machinery, Meat packing, Rubber, Shipbuilding Steel, Coal,
Construction, Long shoring, Trucking
Will have spill over effect to non-union sector

Fear of unionization will prompt better wages, hours, and
working conditions
Unions Force Re-slicing of Economic Pie

$ 1billion
Estimated that
transferred from
capitalist class to working class in 1937 alone
 This
a
 Alters
BIG, BIG, BIG
deal…
American Society
 Improves
the standard of living of millions…helps create a
middle class
The “Great Compression”
Unions Help Change America…

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Percent in Poverty
1870 1890 1910 1935 1944
Unions help
redistribute income,
improve working
conditions, reduce
working hours, and
gain fringe benefits
from employers
America becomes a
more equal society…A
middle class emerges,
poverty is reduced…
“Golden Age” of American
Capitalism…

In less than 30 years
Real income for typical family
doubled
 Consumption per capita doubled


Still economic inequality, as well
as inequality based on racial &
gender segregation, but US
made significant strides toward
greater fairness and economic
justice
An alternative way to improve one’s
standard of living…


Individual Strategy

Compete with others.
Quit bad jobs, get
more education,
acquire new skills,
kiss up to boss, work
more hours, start
your own business…

Group Strategy
Cooperate with other
workers & Collectively
demand that wages,
hours and working
conditions be improved
Organizing labor

OK…so now we have unions…and we also
have more questions.
 What
should unions demand?
 Better
wages hours and working conditions for their members?
 Affordable housing? An end to discrimination? Minimum wage
hikes?
 Who
should they demand it from? Employers?
Government?
Lunch


Please return in 1 hour
sharp…
The boat leaves at 2pm,
and we need to be on
line by 1:30 or so…If
we miss the boat, we’re
in trouble.