new deal for trade unions

new deal

1933-1939

the main thing that benefitted trade unions

wagner act

positives

• Government passed the NIRA in 1933 which set up the
  NRA to improve relations between employers and employees

• NRA aim was to foster cooperation between the different sides of industry; by developing codes of practice about production levels, wage rates, working hour, prices and trade union rights

• Companies who joined the NRA were allowed to display a blue eagle symbol

• By 1934, 557 codes had been agreed by joining companies, covering 23 million workers

• It aimed to bring about cooperating on matters such as production, wage rates and hours

• The National Labor Relations, or Wagner Act, was passed in 1935

• This gave workers the right to elect their own representatives to take part in collective bargaining, and gave workers the right to join unions

• Wagner act recognised the rights of workers to choose representatives to take part in collective bargaining - it was declared constitutional in 1937

• It gave workers the right to join trade unions and to collectively bargain

• IT permitted 'closed shops'

• Employers organising spies on the shop floor and blacklisting alleged 'agitators' was also banned

• A National Labor Relations Board was established which had the power to bargain on the behalf of workers

• It could also re-instate unfairly dismissed workers

• Union membership grew during this period from 3.7
  million in 1933 o 9 million in 1938

• Some major industries which had resisted recognition now recognised unions

• A sit-in strike at GM in 1936 resulted in the recognition

• 
  of the United Automobile Workers Union
  The Steel Workers Organizing Committee as recognised by US Steel in 937

• A minimum weekly wage was created by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 - $25 a week for industrial workers and payment of time and a half four hours worked in excess of 40 hrs per week

• It also prohibited the employment of children under 16

• The CIO was established in 1935 - and changed its name from the Committee to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1937 - this encouraged whole-industry based unions, and encouraged African Americans and other ethnic groups to join, thus bringing some unity into the labour movement

• CIO fathered 3.7 million members

• Henry Ford held out against unions until 1941

• Black workers and other ethnic groups benefited from the opportunity to join the CIO, as did many women's unions

• The CIO's consistent support for equality of labour gave African Americans the confidence to take part in strikes

• FDR's Fair Employment Practices Commission in 1941 was an attempt eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination in war-time industries

• By 1944 - 18.6 million union members in the US (3.5
  million women)

• 1st ND: Public Works Administration (PWA). This created jobs by paying unemployed people to build schools, bridges and dams. This was replaced by the Works Progress Administration in 1935.

• 1st ND: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Similar to the PWA, this department provided jobs to large numbers of young men in conservation schemes in the countryside.

• The numbers out of work fell steadily after Roosevelt took over - from 14 million in 1933 to under 8 million by 1937

• AFL won recognition from coal companies in
  September 1933 - 8-hour day, 5-day week prohibition of the use of child labour

• Textile and garment workers made similar grains

• Workplace militancy and democratic mass movement activism grew sharply under the NRA Social Security Act of 1935 guaranteed federal pension protection for workers through a payroll tax matched equally by employer and employees

• 1937 Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters led by Randolph forced the Pullman Company into recognition

• CIO expressed commitment to equal pay for equal work

• Wartime necessity and the threat of a massive march on Washington planed by Randolph opened up millions of jobs to black workers

• Eleanor Roosevelt used her position as First Lady to gain publicity for groups on the margins of society, such as women, unemployed and black people

negatives

• Many employers, including Henry Ford di not recognise the NIRA or the Wagner Act

• The Supreme Court declared the NIRA

• unconstitutional in 1935

• Employers used those willing to break strikes or strong-arm tactics to intimidate workers

• There was continued violence against workers

• Unskilled workers, particularly domestics did not benefit from the improvements

• Women did not benefit as pay differences were upheld by the NIRA and the Fair
  Labor Standards Act of 1938

• Although welfare reforms helped some of the poorer paid, there were limits to this because of conflict between state and federal reforms

• Employers resisted with every means at their disposal the closed shop that the
  CIO established

• African Americans and Mexican

Americans continued to face discrimination in the workplaces

• This was exacerbated by the agricultural policies of the New Deal which resulted in the eviction of large numbers of Black and Hispanic Americans who had migrated to the cities in search of work

• There were no new employment opportunities for Native Americans

• The position of women in the workplace was not improved

• In 1938 unemployment increased again to more than 10 million after Roosevelt reduced government spending

• Many felt that the new deal was not doing enough: some of the strongest critics were Huey Long (Governor of Louisiana) who launched the Share Our Wealth campaign, Father Charles Coughlin (a Canadian priest) and Dr Francis Townsend who sought pensions for the elderly

• Most new deal programmes were targeted generally at Americans and not minority groups

• Largest single strike in the nation's history in Sept 193 drew attention to issues of textiles workers - depressed wage rates were so low everywhere that children were ragged and shoeless, living conditions terrible - 14 strikers were killed during this strike in Pennsylvania

• United Textile Workers failed to gain the recognition that it sought; strike and union leaders were fired

• Henry Ford's so called 'Service Dept' included men recruited directly from prison cells who brutalized workers - could be beaten simply for talking to each other in the assembly line

• Memorial Day Massacre at republic Steel,
  May 30th 1937 Little Steel's determination to resist the CIO brought on several strikes - left 8 dead in one location and 10 in another

• Little Steel, Ford and a host of other corporate employers remained nonunion until 1941