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Mass Unionism

Mass Unionism. I. The Problem of Unorganized Workers A. Extent B. Reasons II. The Birth of the CIO A. History B. Strategy III. Union explosion A. Radical nation B. The CIO organizes industry C. Sit-down strikes D. New Unionists E. Craftsmen under pressure

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Mass Unionism

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  1. Mass Unionism I. The Problem of Unorganized Workers A. Extent B. Reasons II. The Birth of the CIO A. History B. Strategy III. Union explosion A. Radical nation B. The CIO organizes industry C. Sit-down strikes D. New Unionists E. Craftsmen under pressure IV. Reaction

  2. Unorganized Workers • In 1932, only 3 million out of 49M gainfully employed Americans belong to unions Ford assembly line, 1928

  3. Reasons for the Problem • AFL ideology • Skill • Craft jurisdiction • Homogeneity & exclusivity • Racism & racial antagonism • 85,000 black steelworkers • Sexism and gender roles • Journeymen Barbers’ IU • “Blithering liability” • Nativism and ethnic division • Tobin (Teamsters) • “Rubbish” Nativist union badge

  4. The Congress of Industrial Organizations • Amalgamated Clothing Workers • United Mine Workers • ILGWU • Textile workers • Mine, Mill and Smelting Workers CIO leaders Sidney Hillman (garment), Francis Gorman (textile), and John L. Lewis (mining)

  5. CIO strategy • Organizing Committees • Not unions • Centralized • Control • Grass Roots • Build on ethnicity • Communists • Politics • Lewis and UMW give $600K to Roosevelt New York City garment workers’ protest, 1936

  6. Radical Nation • 1936 election • FDR polls 60.8% of vote • Landon gets only 36.5% • Inaugural, 1937 • “One-third of a nation…” FDR meets farmer impoverished by drought Campaign trail, August, 1936

  7. Organizing Industry • 4.7M workers strike in 1937 • Electric • Steel • Rubber Jones & Laughlin Steel, 1937

  8. Sit-down Strikes • 400,000 workers stage sit down strikes in 1937 • 130,000 in March alone • In one year, UAW membership rises from 30,000 to 400,000 General Motors, 1937

  9. New Unionists • Textile Workers’ gains 100,000 • ACW gains 240,000 • ILGWU gains 140,000 • UE gains 90,000 • Sit down strikes among workers at Woolworth’s ILGWU basketball team New Haven, 1937

  10. Craftsmen under Pressure • Competition forces AFL to be aggressive • Uses Wagner Act to gain over 1M new members Striking cabbies, 1939

  11. Reaction • South resists organization • Little Steel strike fails • Chicago, Youngstown • Memorial Day Massacre, 1937 • Police kill ten strikers, disable nine, injure thirty • Shift in political winds • Americans are tired, frustrated • FDR: “A pox on both your houses.” • Dems lose 1938 midterm elections ILGWU organizer tarred-and-feathered by Ford goon squad Dallas, Texas—1937

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