Mike Quill

Michael J. Quill was one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), a union founded by subway workers in New York City that expanded to represent employees in other forms of transit, and the President of the TWU for most of the first thirty years of its existence. A close ally of the Communist Party USA for the first twelve years of his leadership of the union, he broke with it in 1948 and drove his former allies out of the union. At odds with the mayors of New York City for most of his career, he led a twelve day transit strike in 1966 that landed him in jail and won significant wage increases for his members. He died a few days after the end of the strike.

Leadership of the TWU

The TWU had joined the International Association of Machinists in 1936 in order to link itself to the AFL in 1936. The union severed its relations with the Machinists and joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations as a national union on May 10, 1937. Quill had already replaced O'Shea as President of the union, while Santo became its Secretary-Treasurer.

Related Topics:
International Association of Machinists - 1936 - Congress of Industrial Organizations - May 10

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The union soon faced challenges within, as dissidents within the union and the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists outside it challenged the CPUSA's dominant position within its officialdom and staff. The CP at that time had almost complete control over the union's administration and CP membership was necessary both to get a job with the union and to rise through its ranks. Former allies such as O'Shea attacked Quill and the CP, both in the publications of rival unions, such as the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees, and in testimony before the Dies Committee.

Related Topics:
Association of Catholic Trade Unionists - Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees - Dies Committee

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Quill and the union leadership gave their opponents all the ammunition they needed by following the changes in the CPUSA's foreign policy, moving to a militant policy after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939, then coming out against strikes after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Quill shrugged off most of this criticism from outside, haranguing the Dies Committee when it attempted to question him, and disposed of his internal critics by bringing union charges against more than a hundred opponents.

Related Topics:
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact - 1939 - Soviet Union - 1941

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The union faced more serious challenges at home as Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia threatened to revoke the union's status as representative of the employees of the IRT and BMT when the City bought those lines in 1940. Quill had cooperated with LaGuardia when Quill ran successfully for City Council in 1937 as a candidate of the American Labor Party. In 1940, however, both LaGuardia and Quill became bellicose opponents of each other, with Quill calling a bus drivers' strike that served to demonstrate the union's power if challenged while LaGuardia came out in opposition to collective bargaining, the closed shop and the right to strike for public employees.

Related Topics:
Fiorello LaGuardia - 1940 - 1937 - American Labor Party

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The invasion of the Soviet Union changed the Party's opinion of strikes. It is simplistic, on the other hand, to treat this change in strategy as solely the result in the change in Comintern policy. Throughout his career Quill preferred to threaten strikes as leverage to calling them and provoking a decisive test of strength. In addition, the union leadership had reservations in 1941 about the depth of its support among the general public and the employees of the IRT and BMT, many of whom believed that civil service protections gained as employees of the City made union representation less critical. National leaders of the CIO and the Roosevelt administration intervened in 1941 to avert a subway strike with an ambiguous agreement that preserved TWU's right to represent its members, even though the City continued to deny it exclusive representation.

Related Topics:
Soviet Union - Comintern - Roosevelt - 1941

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