DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT

1. DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT Early Labor Issues Dependence vs Independence Ownership of the Tools of Labor Divergence of Interests

2. DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT Alternative Options Seek to Reclaim Ownership of their Tools Bargain for Better Terms

3. DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT Principle Obstacles Too Poor, Too Powerless, and Too Dispersed The Growing Impact of the Industrial Revolution

4. DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT Practical Remedy Collective Action

5. DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT The Perspectives Through Which Workers Perceive Their Issues Through Their Class and, Through Their Jobs ? Are These Approaches Compatible, Contradictory, or Mutually Exclusive

6. DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT Four Approaches of Unionism Job Oriented Bargaining Class Oriented Bargaining Job Oriented Ownership Class Oriented Ownership

7. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT Unions Where Slow to Develop in the United States Labor and Capital were Scarce Individual Bargaining Power Cheap Land and an Open Frontier

8. Four Rounds of Historical Development First Round - 1790 to 1815 Local job-oriented bargaining Ended with economic depression

9. Four Rounds of Historical Development Second Round - 1820 to 1830’s Local job-oriented bargaining Modest formation of job wide craft bargaining around class issues

10. Four Rounds of Historical Development Second Round - 1820 to 1830’s Era of the “Common Man” Class-oriented political movements Significant public policy developments Ended with economic depression

11. Four Rounds of Historical Development Third Round - 1834 to 1837 Job-oriented bargaining Rapid growth in craft union membership (300,000)

12. Four Rounds of Historical Development Third Round - 1834 to 1837 Extensive development of roads, railroads, and canals Increased wage competition Beginning of national craft unions Ended with severe depression

13. The Ownership Approach The 1837 depression induced widespread social and economic dissatisfaction Spurred intellectual curiosity in alternative economic approaches Producer and consumer cooperatives Cooperative communities (communes)

14. Critical Lesson Learned Job-oriented bargaining works best Class wide objectives are best addressed in the political arena Ownership approaches are both impractical and too expensive Economic schemes that threaten property rights are unacceptable

15. Four Rounds of Historical Development Fourth Round 1850 - Present The Industrial Revolution was well underway in America

16. Four Rounds of Historical Development Fourth Round 1850 - Present The United States had become a major industrial power Unions came back and stayed - and grew with the economy

17. Arrival of the Federations 1866 - National Labor Union 1869 - Knights of Labor (strong class orientation) 1881 - American Federation of Labor (strong job orientation)

18. American Federation of Labor Strong emphasis on “Job- Oriented” bargaining Function as a coordinating body for member unions Establish a labor voice in the political arena

19. American Federation of Labor Established the unit of union membership as “people having closely similar interests” • Belong to the same craft • Avoid ownership ideas • Make contracts with employers and scrupulously abide by them

20. Turn of the Century • Frontier closed • Rapid urban and industrial growth • Wages became primary source of income • Union membership grew from 250,000 in 1897 to more than 2 million in 1914 (primarily skilledworkers)

21. Left-Wing Unionism • Class-Oriented Ownership • Marxist Socialism - 1876 • Promoted Violence and Rebellion • Industrial Workers of the World

22. World War I • Organized labor received official recognition as agents for workers • War Labor Board established to settle labor disputes

23. World War I • Labor-Management cooperation mandated by War Production Board • Union representatives included on several government boards

24. Employer Opposition • 1903 - NAM’s Initiated an Aggressive Anti-Union Campaign • Promoted the avoidance and elimination of union members in their workforces • Company unions were introduced • Growth rate of union membership declined after 1903

25. Employer Opposition A combination of events carried union membership steadily downward from five million in 1920 to less than three million in 1933 Company Unions - Union Radicalism Economic Stability - Poor Leadership

26. Unions Take on Their Present Dimension • The Great Depression • Public policy support • Lessons learned • Focused on job-oriented collective bargaining

27. CIO and a Split Labor Movement Philosophical dispute arose within the hierarchy of the AFL over organizing strategies for mass production industries

28. CIO and a Split Labor Movement In the mid 30’s there were large concentrations of unorganized semi-skilled and unskilled workers in the steel, auto, rubber, chemical, and petroleum industries.

29. CIO and a Split Labor Movement In 1935 a Committee for Industrial Organization was formed under the leadership of John L. Lewis (UMW) to undertake an organizing effort in these large industrial organizations with the intent of bringing them into the industrial union camp. They left the AFL in 1936 and formed the CIO

30. Unions Come to Steel and Autos • CIO Won the organizational battle with the AFL • US Steel gave up without a fight and brought all of the large steel firms with them

31. Unions Come to Steel and Autos • Little steel held-out longer but eventually capitulated The auto industry was more resistant • GM was targeted first, Chrysler was next, and Ford came in a very tough third.

32. Unions Come to Steel and Autos By 1939 union membership in the U. S. was at 9 million and by 1955 it was in the neighborhood of 17 million workers.

33. Reunification of Organized Labor • The AFL and CIO where rejoined in 1955 - but not all of the family came home right away • The IBT and UMW remained out until 1987 and 1989 respectively. • The UAW came back, left again in 1968, and returned again in 1981.