National Committee for Organizing the Iron and Steel Workers

Examples of National Committee for Organizing the Iron and Steel Workers in the following topics:

• The Great Steel Strike

  • The Steel Strike of 1919 was an attempt by the weakened Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers (the AA) to organize the United States steel industry in the wake of World War I.
  • It was a union of skilled iron and steel workers which was deeply committed to craft unionism.
  • The American Federation of Labor (AFL) began organizing unskilled iron and steel workers into federal unions in 1901.
  • To encourage more organizing, the AFL formed a National Committee for Organizing the Iron and Steel Workers.
  • By the end of November, most workers were back at their jobs and the National Committee had ceased operating.

• Workers Organize

  • The mill strikes of 1834 and 1836, while largely unsuccessful, involved upwards of 2,000 workers and represented a substantial organizational effort.
  • Within a year, they added 500,000 workers to their rolls, far more than the thin leadership structure of the Knights were prepared for.
  • Non-skilled workers' goals—and the unwillingness of business owners to grant them—resulted in some of the most violent labor conflicts in the nation's history.
  • In the riots of 1892 at Carnegie's steel works in Homestead, Pennsylvania , a group of 300 Pinkerton detectives , whom the company had hired to break a bitter strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, were fired upon by strikers and 10 were killed.
  • As a result, the National Guard was called in to guard the plant; non-union workers were hired and the strike broken.

• Depression and Post-War Victories

  • One of these, the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (also known as the Wagner Act) gave workers the right to join unions and to bargain collectively through union representatives.
  • The act established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to punish unfair labor practices and to organize elections when employees wanted to form unions.
  • In 1935, eight unions within the AFL created the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) to organize workers in such mass-production industries as automobiles and steel.
  • The craft unions that controlled the AFL opposed efforts to unionize unskilled and semiskilled workers, preferring that workers remain organized by craft across industries.
  • It banned "closed shops," which required workers to join unions before starting work; it permitted employers to sue unions for damages inflicted during strikes; it required unions to abide by a 60-day "cooling-off" period before striking; and it created other special rules for handling strikes that endangered the nation's health or safety.

• The Homestead Lockout

  • The strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) at the Homestead steel mill in 1892 was different from previous large-scale strikes in American history, such as the Great railroad strike of 1877 or the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886.
  • With the steel industry doing well and prices higher, the AA asked for a wage increase; Frick immediately countered with a 22% wage decrease that would affect nearly half the union's membership and remove a number of positions from the bargaining unit.
  • The Knights of Labor, which had organized the mechanics and transportation workers at Homestead, agreed to walk out alongside the skilled workers of the AA.
  • Frick placed ads for replacement workers in newspapers as far away as Boston, St.
  • The Berkman assassination attempt undermined public support for the union and prompted the final collapse of the strike.

• The New Immigrants on Strike

  • Led by Clara Lemlich and supported by the National Women's Trade Union League of America (NWTUL), the strike began in November 1909.
  • At some work sites, steel doors were used to lock in workers so as to prevent workers from taking breaks.
  • As a result of this negotiation, the shirtwaist work week was limited to 52 hours, workers were given four holidays with pay, employers were required to supply all tools necessary for the job, and a grievance committee was established to deal with individual issues that came up.
  • The committee, which arranged for its strike meetings to be translated into 25 different languages, put forward a set of demands that included a 15% increase in wages for a 54-hour work week, double time for overtime work, and no discrimination against workers for their strike activity.
  • The court sentenced 36 workers to a year in jail for throwing ice.

• Introduction to Labor in America: The Worker's Role

  • The American labor force has changed profoundly during the nation's evolution from an agrarian society into a modern industrial state.
  • The United States remained a largely agricultural nation until late in the 19th century.
  • Organized labor continues to be an important political and economic force today, but its influence has waned markedly.
  • Organized labor, rooted in industries such as steel and heavy machinery, has had trouble responding to these changes.
  • The 1980s and 1990s saw a growing gap in the wages paid to skilled and unskilled workers.

• The Rise of Unions

  • The original citywide labor federations grew into many national-scale labor organizations that fought for workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws, and other working conditions.
  • The mill strikes of 1834 and 1836, while largely unsuccessful, involved upwards of 2,000 workers and represented a substantial organizational effort.
  • Gompers, notably, opened the AFL to radical and socialist workers and to some semiskilled and unskilled workers.
  • In the Great Railroad Strike in 1877, railroad workers across the nation went on strike in response to a 10 percent pay cut.
  • Carnegie's steel works in Homestead, Pennsylvania hired a group of three hundred Pinkerton detectives to break a bitter strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers.

• Resistance to Business Reform

  • The so-called Roosevelt Recession that began in 1937 provided fresh fuel for business and political opponents of the New Deal.
  • Business leaders and conservative politicians were also critical of the power that NIRA invested in the organized labor and workers generally.
  • The increasing power of labor unions and the rights of all workers, both unionized and non-unionized, to negotiate their terms of employment caused rather expected anxiety among employers.
  • Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation (1937).
  • CIO, created in 1935 as the Committee of Industrial Organizations by unions belonging to AFL, gathered industrial workers and it eventually broke away from AFL in 1938.

• Setbacks for Unions

  • The larger unions made an aggressive move for expansion in 1919 by calling for major strikes in clothing, meatpacking, steel, coal, and railroads.
  • A second major labor dispute broke out on July 1, 1922, when 400,000 railroad workers and shop men went on a national strike over hourly wages and the length of the work week.
  • Strike busters were brought in to fill the positions and Harding proposed a settlement giving shop workers concessions, but railroad owners objected and Harding had to deploy the National Guard and 2,200 U.S. marshals to keep the peace.
  • Unions weakened in heavy industries, such as automobiles and steel, but remained strong in construction, printing, railroads, and crafts.
  • Organized labor leadership weakened in the 1920s.

• The Transformed National Economy

  • Large iron ore mines opened in the Lake Superior region of the upper Midwest.
  • Steel mills thrived in places where these coal and iron ore could be brought together to produce steel.
  • Taylor pioneered the field of scientific management in the late 19th century, carefully plotting the functions of various workers and then devising new, more efficient ways for them to do their jobs.
  • Pierpont Morgan in banking, and Andrew Carnegie in steel.
  • Instead, the 1896 election committed the nation to the gold standard and a program of sustained industrialization.