Wolves

2020 ◽  
pp. 139-162
Keyword(s):  
Gilded Age ◽  
National Election ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
Knights Of Labor ◽  
Labor Organizations ◽  
American Federation ◽  
Rural Farmers ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
Union Leaders

Chapter 6 explores the numerous fights between union leaders in the Gilded Age to show that “organized labor” was far from unified. Historians have long noted that these fights, such as those between and within the American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor, weakened unions during this period. This chapter, however, argues that the fights between union leadership in the Gilded Age were part of a large but disorganized effort to “purify” labor organizations of corrupt and complacent leadership. The tumult this created tore unions apart, created rival organizations like the Independent Order of the Knights of Labor, and caused workers to doubt which leaders and organizations were trustworthy. This confusion became even more pronounced during the Populist push in the 1896 national election, when rural farmers and laborers, disillusioned with the organizations and individuals who claimed to help them, could not agree on which candidate would best look after their interests.

Undermined

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-66
Keyword(s):  
Labor Unions ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Profit Motive ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Labor Organizations ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Personal Incomes

This chapter looks at the capitalist endeavors rural workers and farmers pursued in the Gilded Age. Although they condemned their employers for cutting costs to increase their profit, rural workers often pursued capitalist gain in ways similar to their bosses. Farmer and laborers' decisions to work extra jobs, purchase stock shares, or jointly own small companies often caused rural workers to see themselves as businessmen or capitalists. As with corporations, profit motive quickly undermined collective agendas, sometimes even with cooperatives run by labor organizations. Workers took shortcuts, accepted less pay, undercut their coworkers, and broke neighbors’ strikes all because these actions increased their personal incomes. Ultimately, this need to earn greater profit shaped worker relationships with labor unions. In some cases, workers worked lower than union wages. In other instances, union leaders, concerned about the sustainability of their organizations, ordered workers to accept wage reductions rather than strike. This stance frequently angered laborers who cared more about securing their immediate incomes than reaching their union’s long-term goals.

“Judases”

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-92
Keyword(s):  
Gilded Age ◽  
Local Union ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Union Decline ◽  
United Mine Workers ◽  
United Mine ◽  
Mine Workers

Chapter 3 examines the reasons that caused workers to leave or reject unions. Scholars normally associate union decline with workers disillusion with unionism. This chapter, however, argues that workers’ faith in unionism did not waver as much as their faith in union leaders did. As Gilded Age unions like the United Mine Workers implemented a more centralized hierarchy, local union autonomy waned. As a result, workers doubted whether union leaders made decisions with the workers’ interests in mind, and they left the union when it seemed their leaders went astray. Rather than abandoning unionism altogether, however, many of these individuals formed local unions that rivaled the national unions, indicating that workers had more problems with union leadership than they did with unionism itself.

A Labor-Liberal Constellation

2020 ◽  
pp. 168-196
Author(s):  
Emily J. Charnock
Keyword(s):  
Political Education ◽  
National Committee ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
Labor Organizations ◽  
American Federation ◽  
Liberal Democrats ◽  
Congress Of Industrial Organizations ◽  
Industrial Organizations ◽  
Democratic Action

This chapter traces the initial diffusion of the PAC concept from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) to other labor organizations, including the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and liberal ideological groups. Though the AFL had previously opposed the CIO’s partisan electoral strategy and the formation of P.A.C., it came to emulate both following passage of the Taft-Hartley Act by a Republican Congress in 1947, forming Labor’s League for Political Education (LLPE) to engage in elections. That same year, two avowedly “liberal” groups were created to bolster the anti-Communist Left and champion liberal Democrats: the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and the National Committee for an Effective Congress (NCEC). The chapter traces the intertwined electoral efforts and tactical innovations of these liberal and labor organizations through the AFL-CIO merger in 1955, the subsequent creation of their joint PAC, the Committee on Political Education (COPE), and the latter’s activities in the 1956 elections.

Protecting the High-Minded Actor and the High-Minded Manager in Equal Part

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean P. Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Occupational Identity ◽  
Equal Part ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
Union Power ◽  
Restricted Access ◽  
American Federation

This chapter examines the long-term implications of the unionization of the legitimate theater. It begins with an analysis of the debate that took place within the Actors' Equity Association (AEA) in the early 1920s over where in labor's many-mansioned house its members should reside. Equity leaders distanced themselves not only from the radicalism of the left but also from the “pure-and-simple” craft unionism that was the bedrock of the American Federation of Labor, equating it with wage scales that were set without regard for merit and a closed-shop tradition that restricted access to unionized trades. What they embraced as an alternative was a peculiarly theatrical brand of occupational unionism that emphasized the occupational identity of the actor, as opposed to bread-and-butter issues like wages and hours, and tied union power to control over those within the occupation. The chapter then explains how the AEA secured its position as a permanent feature of the theatrical landscape at a time when, in all but a handful of industries, organized labor was in retreat. It locates the explanation in the dynamics of the theatrical economy, arguing that the industry's increasing reliance on outside capital meant the big producers could ill afford interruptions to production and had much to gain from cooperating with a union that had promised to deliver a compliant theatrical workforce. The final section documents the efforts of the AEA to deliver on its founders' pledge that it would “protect the high-minded actor and the high-minded manager in equal part.”

The Educational Front

Bad Faith ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 108-128
Author(s):  
Andrew Feffer
Keyword(s):  
Educational Reform ◽  
Community Mobilization ◽  
Mass Action ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Teachers Union ◽  
American Federation ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
History Of

This chapter recounts the history of conflicts between communist teachers and liberal educators, inside the teachers union and in the educational reform movement generally. It focuses on communist teacher-activists Alice Citron, Isidor Begun, and Williana Burroughs, who came into conflict with liberal union leaders over their emphases on the use of “mass action” and community mobilization to achieve higher salaries, better schools, and racial equality, as well as to promote the Popular Front against fascism. In reaction to their confrontational activism, perceived as a challenge to his authority, Linville and other liberals and social democrats tried once more to oust the communist “factions” from the union in 1935, supported by liberals, social democrats, and conservatives in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Failing, the liberals walked out of Local 5 to form an explicitly anti-communist organization, the Teachers Guild.

Deceived

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-42
Keyword(s):  
Gilded Age ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Knights Of Labor ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Rural Farmers ◽  
Stock Investment ◽  
National Federation

Chapter 1 examines the grievances many rural farmers and laborers faced, including exploitation, workplace dishonesty, and questionable stock investment procedures in the Gilded Age. Workers cast a wary eye at their bosses, bankers, stockbrokers, lawyers, and government officials, who rural workers viewed as dishonest individuals looking to take advantage of hardworking farmers and laborers. This mistrust at times extended to union organizers and officers of organizations like the Knights of Labor and the National Federation of Miners. When the leaders of these two groups tried to merge to create one large miners’ union, workers wondered whether the union representatives truly cared about the workers’ interests.

The Evolution of a Fighting Union

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon McConnell-Sidorick
Keyword(s):  
Labor Movement ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
The South ◽  
American Federation ◽  
Union Leaders

This chapter discusses the early hosiery union and the major strikes of 1919 and 1921 that served to bring two factions of the union together into a united organization within the American Federation of Labor. It looks at the product, the industry expansion, the establishment of a "fighting" treasury and examples of the union's efforts to support the broader labor movement. The chapter also introduces some important union leaders and the organizing campaigns in the South and Midwest, as part of the "follow the shops" movement.

Union Renegades

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana M. Caldemeyer
Keyword(s):  
Coal Mining ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Labor Organizations ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Economic Needs ◽  
Workplace Leaders ◽  
Wage Earners ◽  
Rural Industries

Union Renegades follows the individuals who did not see the value of following union orders in the Gilded Age. As unions grew more centralized to combat worker grievances in the workplace, leaders were shocked to find that workers were often reluctant to fully follow labor organizations. Although union leaders were quick to cast these individuals as nonunion workers who were “indifferent to their own interests,” this book argues that workers’ decisions to follow or reject unions was based on their own assessment of what course would be most beneficial to them and their families. As corporations sought to increase capitalist gain, rural workers applied these same capitalist mindsets to their own economic needs. It looks closely at the seasonal work patters of rural industries like farming and coal mining to show how workers moved between occupations, causing many to see themselves as business-minded investors rather than as wage earners. This continuous effort to increase income caused farmers and laborers to form their own understandings of unionism that did not always fit with what union leaders envisioned. Workers’ decisions to break away from formal unions, then, did not come from an inability to look after their own interests as some union leaders claimed. Instead, it came from the belief that the union did not offer the surest means to secure their economic, social, and political needs.

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