Union Organization during the Middle of the 20th Century

All of this activity quieted down as a postwar depression increased unemployment in 1921 and industry developed new scientific methods of controlling factory environment, including company "unions." The conservative leadership of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) sought to preserve the influence it had gained in the government during the war by silencing the radicals within the unions and preaching anti-communism; the AFL had feared that the end of the war would bring government control into the arena in the form of support for industry. Productivity increased during this period, but wages did not keep pace with the cost of living. As a result, worker resentment grew just below the surface, occasionally erupting in sporadic strikes. The organizers of the massive strikes of 1919 remained near the workers, ready to exploit this resentment when the right moment came.

The stock market crash of the Fall, 1929, and the resulting Depression shocked the American system. Unemployment had begun to rise to the 10% level in the year before the crash, but within weeks after the crash it skyrocketed to levels which have never been accurately figured.

As American industries expanded, John L. Lewis created further rifts in the CIO as he expounded isolationist views. Although his disputes with Roosevelt grew, most were shocked when Lewis announced his support of the Republican candidate in the 1940 Presidential election, a move which forced him to relinquish the presidency of the CIO. Lewis continued to play a major role in the CIO and publicly took on Roosevelt in a dispute involving the UMW and mines owned by U.S. Steel. Lewis was victorious in getting a "closed shop" in the mines, and expected enormous public attention over the victory. Few, however, noticed Lewis' victory when it was announced on December 7, 1941.

Throughout 1934, strikes by unions in the auto industry and longshoreman along the West Coast ignored direction from the AFL, often forming unions led by members of the Communist Party. Members of these unions were frustrated by the conservative leadership of the AFL, which had affirmed its dedication to exclusionary craft unionism in its 1934 convention, and the NIRA, which tended to promote company unions and long hearings. The conflict within the ranks of the AFL would escalate until 1935, when many of the unions would formally break with the AFL and form their own organization of unions.

However, the CIO failed to organize Ford and the Little Steel companies. In fact, the attempts to organize these two entities resulted in some of the worst labor violence in American history. In May of 1937, UAW organizers were beaten by Ford's private police at facilities around the country. That same month, the SWOC struck Little Steel companies. The companies hired strikebreakers and instigated violence between the strikers and the strikebreakers. On May 30, Memorial Day, Chicago police fired on SWOC members and their families gathered outside the Republic Steel plant; ten were killed and 58 wounded. Both the Ford and Little Steel strikes ultimately failed.

 

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