More from Dick Meister
The Plight Of The Pregnant Worker
(00:04:42)
From: Dick Meister
Despite the anti-discrimination laws, many pregnant workers are being legally fired for being pregnant.
Sit Down, Punk!
(00:04:56)
From: Dick Meister
Labor leader Art Carter was an important but now largely forgotten hero of the anti-Vietnam War movement.
So, What About The State Of The Unions, Mr. President?
(00:04:43)
From: Dick Meister
Although President Obama said nothing about organized labor in his State of the Union address, he won labor plaudits for the pro-worker programs he proposed.
Labor's Honorary Lesbian
(00:04:13)
From: Dick Meister
San Francisco labor leader Walter Johnson was a key supporter of gay rights.
It's Do Or Die For The United Auto Workers
(00:04:26)
From: Dick Meister
The United Auto Workers is in danger of losing its standing as one of the country's most important institutions.
Student Athletes Deserve Pay For Their Play
(00:03:49)
From: Dick Meister
So-called student athletes should be paid for their work in bringing billions of dollars to the nation's colleges and universities.
A Decent Living For All?
(00:06:25)
From: Dick Meister
The minimum wage is increasing in eight states.
Stamp Out Sexual Harrassment!
(00:02:53)
From: Dick Meister
The need to combat sexual harassment on the job is drawing lots of attention.
Unemployment Slamming Public Employees
(00:04:03)
From: Dick Meister
Public employees, many of them African-Americans, are being hit particularly hard by today's high levels of unemployment.
Six Ways To Heal The Economy
(00:03:25)
From: Dick Meister
The AFL-CIO has a very promising plan to heal our very sick economy.
Related Pieces
Piece Description
This commentary, never before broadcast, notes that those who doubt that the current attempts to revitalize the labor movement can succeed should recall the similar attempts in the 1930s by the Congress of Industrial Organizations -- the CIO -- that created the modern labor movement and led to the rise of a true middle class. The CIO showed how and why it should be done, and how it can be done, despite heavy odds against it.
Transcript
Many people, I know, are questioning whether organized labor can succeed in its current drive to revitalize itself. But what I think the doubters are forgetting is that it’s been done before -- and done in the face of obstacles that were at least as great as those confronted by the would-be reformers of today.
It began in 1935 -- 70 years ago -- when eight affiliates of the American Federation of Labor – the AFL – put together what soon became the independent Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO. Their aim was to unionize the racially and ethnically mixed mass of generally unskilled workers in steel, rubber, auto, meat packing and other basic industries.
The AFL had largely ignored the industrial workers in favor of skilled and semi-skilled white craftsmen who were organized into separate unions according to their trade – plumbing, printing, carpentry and so forth –...
Read the full transcript
Bill Palladino
Posted on March 02, 2005 at 06:12 PM | Permalink
Review of Lessons of the CIO
Dick Meister leads us through a veritable micro-history (3:22!)of the US labor movement from the 1950's through today. He does this by focusing on the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and it's fundamental tenets in serving the middle class of America.
Meister laments the obvious downslide of organized labor over the past three decades or so. He craftily ties the early days of the CIO and the great depression, Franklin D. Roosevelts efforts, and the basic assumptions of solidarity itself, slowly bringing us to the conjoining of the two seminal labor groups in the U.S., the AFL and the CIO, in 1955. He brings the key diffences between the two groups without judgement and provides just enough information to keep us tuned in and wanting to hear more.
He is unapologetically a labor/progressive. This is surprisingly relieving to hear in this day of social security "reform," constant downsizing, and the seeming unending bleeding of American jobs overseas.
This is a timely and precise commentary, leaning heavily on historical fact. It is pointed, yet without colorful rhetoric. If Daniel Schorr were a labor leader or a political scientist instead of a journalist, this is what he'd be saying. And he'd sound a lot like Dick Meister.
It's format is perfect for any news program. Drop it in. At just over 3:00 minutes, it'll fit anywhere.