Week 3 Solidarity: Class, Race and Ethnicity…Choices AFL, IWW…Choices Union Recognition and Class War Wagner Act Choices…AFL, CIO Lunch Ellis.

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 Mondayhttp://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 (English, Swedes, Dutch,

Irish)

New Immigrants (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

P a in te rs L oca l 1 C a rpe n te rs L oca l 1 E le c tric ia n s L o ca l 1 M a ch in is t Lo ca l 1 P ip e fit te rs L oca l 1

E m pire S ta te B u ild in g In c.

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 noble beings, but helpless…not an organizing focus

Blacks ambivalent toward at best, excluded at worst, maybe Jim

Crow locals…Not an organizing focus.

New immigrants (Italians, Jews, Poles, Mexicans) 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 for the American Legion, a

conservative organization

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) Redistribute money to old people

Unemployment Insurance Redistribute money to those out of work

Aid for Dependent Mothers (Welfare) 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 No company unions; companies can’t fire union supporters;

no blacklists, no spies

If union won election, management was required to recognize the union

Good-faith collective bargaining became public policy 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 Divide workers

in one car factory into 13 separate craft unions.

Try to bargain separately…

Ignore the unskilled, women, Blacks, immigrants

Ford

Plant A Plant B

Plumbers Union Local 1

PaintersUnion

Local 1

Machinists Union

Local 1

Janitors Union

Local 1

Plumbers Union

Local 2

Painters Union

Local 2

MachinistsUnion

Local 2

JanitorsUnion

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 U A W 1

P lan t A

U A W 2

P lan t B

U A W 3

P la n t C

UAW -Ford

BARGAIN PERTAINSTO

FORD

Ford

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,

mechanicsautoworkeres 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

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1930 1933 1935 1937 1940

Pct. In Union

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

Estimated that $ 1billion transferred from capitalist class to working class in 1937 alone

This a BIG, BIG, BIG deal…

Alters American Society

Improves the standard of living of millions…helps create a middle class

The “Great Compression”

Unions Help Change America…

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…0

5

1015

2025

3035

4045

50

1870 1890 1910 1935 1944

Percent in Poverty

“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.