Congress of Industrial Organizations

The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, was a federation of unions that organized industrial workers in the United States and Canada in the 1930s through the 1950s. Originally known as the Committee for Industrial Organization, it was founded in 1935 by eight international unions within the American Federation of Labor to pressure the AFL, which had either opposed or given only lukewarm support to organizing mass production industries, to change its policies. After failing to change AFL policy from within, five of these eight unions split from the AFL to found the Congress of Industrial Organizations as a rival federation in 1938. The CIO rejoined the AFL, forming the new entity known as the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), in 1955.

Early Setbacks and Successes

The UAW was able to capitalize on its stunning victory over GM by winning recognition at Chrysler and smaller manufacturers. It then focused its organizing efforts on Ford Motor Company, which turned out to be a much more difficult adversary. Ford was not only as anti-union as GM, but even more prone to use thugs, particularly the collection of ex-convicts and gangsters in Harry Bennett's Service Department, to rough up workers interested in joining the Union. The UAW?s organizing drive in Ford produced a good deal of sympathy from the press and public, particularly after the Battle of the Overpass on May 26, 1937, but no concrete organizing successes.

Related Topics:
Chrysler - Ford Motor Company - Harry Bennett - Battle of the Overpass - May 26 - 1937

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At the same time, the UAW was in danger of being torn apart by internal political rivalries. Homer Martin, the first president of the UAW and a former Baptist preacher, expelled a number of the union organizers who had led the Flint sit-down strike and other early drives on charges that they were communists. In some cases, such as Wyndham Mortimer. Bob Travis and Henry Kraus. those charges may have been true; in other cases, such as Victor Reuther and Roy Reuther, they were not. Those expulsions were reversed at the next convention of the UAW in 1939, which expelled Martin instead. He took approximately 20,000 UAW members with him to form a rival union, known for a time as the UAW-AFL, later renamed the Allied Industrial Workers of America.

Related Topics:
Homer Martin - Communist - Wyndham Mortimer - Bob Travis - Henry Kraus - Victor Reuther - Roy Reuther - 1939 - Allied Industrial Workers of America

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The SWOC encountered equally serious problems: after winning union recognition after a strike against Jones & Laughlin Steel, SWOC's strikes against the rest of "Little Steel," i.e., Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, National Steel, Inland Steel American Rolling Mills and Republic Steel failed. The steelmakers offered workers the same wage increases that U.S. Steel had offered, In the Memorial Day Massacre on May 30 1937, Chicago police opened fire on a group of strikers who had attempted to picket at Republic Steel, killing ten and seriously wounding dozens. A month and a half later police in Massillon, Ohio used machine guns and shotguns on a crowd of unionists, resulting in three deaths, when one union supporter failed to dim his headlights. The strike collapsed shortly thereafter.

Related Topics:
Jones & Laughlin Steel - Bethlehem Steel Corporation - Youngstown Sheet and Tube - National Steel - Inland Steel - American Rolling Mills - Republic Steel - Memorial Day Massacre - May 30 - 1937 - Chicago - Massillon, Ohio

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The CIO found organizing textile workers in the South even harder. As in steel, these workers had abundant recent first-hand experience of failed organizing drives and defeated strikes, which resulted in unionists being blacklisted or worse. In addition, the intense antagonism of white workers toward black workers and the conservative political and religious milieu made organizing even harder. On the other hand, some independent left-wing unions, such as Mine, Mill and the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union of America, that aggressively organized both black and white workers had more success than the more cautious Textile Workers Organizing Committee founded by the CIO.

Related Topics:
South - Blacklist - Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union of America

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Adding to the uncertainties for the CIO was its own internal disarray. When the CIO formally established itself as a rival to the AFL in 1938, renaming itself as the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the ILGWU and the Millinery Workers left the CIO to return to the AFL. Lewis feuded with Hillman and Philip Murray, his long-time assistant and head of the SWOC, over both the CIO's own activities and its relations with the FDR administration. Lewis finally resigned as President of the CIO in 1941, after endorsing Wendell Willkie for President in 1940, choosing his protégé Murray to succeed him.

Related Topics:
1938 - Philip Murray - FDR - Wendell Willkie - 1940

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The doldrums did not last forever, however. The UAW finally organized Ford in 1941. The SWOC, now known as the United Steel Workers of America, won recognition in Little Steel in 1941 through a combination of strikes and National Labor Relations Board elections in the same year. Other CIO affiliates made progress during these years in organizing workers in mass transit, packinghouses, tire factories, shipyards and electrical manufacturers while the UAW successfully organized aircraft workers.

Related Topics:
1941 - United Steel Workers of America - National Labor Relations Board

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In addition, after the west coast longshoremen organized in the strike led by Harry Bridges in 1934 split from the International Longshoremen's Association in 1937 to form the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, the ILWU joined the CIO. Bridges became the most powerful force within the CIO in California and the west. The Transport Workers Union of America, originally representing the subway workers in New York, also joined, as did the National Maritime Union, made up of sailors based on the east coast, and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, which represented workers in a range of electrical manufacturing facilities.

Related Topics:
Strike - Harry Bridges - 1934 - International Longshoremen's Association - 1937 - International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union - Transport Workers Union of America - National Maritime Union - United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers

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The AFL continued to fight the CIO, forcing the NLRB to allow skilled trades employees in large industrial facilities the option to choose, in what came to be called "Globe elections," between representation by the CIO or separate representation by AFL craft unions. The CIO now also faced competition, moreover, from a number of AFL affiliates who now sought to organize industrial workers. The competition was particularly sharp in the aircraft industry, where the UAW went head-to-head against the International Association of Machinists, originally a craft union of railroad workers and skilled trade employees.

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The Dies Committee determined in 1938 that 280 salaried CIO organizers, were members of the CPUSA.

Related Topics:
Dies Committee - CPUSA

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