Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Lessons of the CIO

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 – rather than organized by industry.

That kept most workers isolated from each other and enabled the industrial corporations that dominated the economy to unilaterally set pay and working conditions at the lowest possible levels.

The CIO leaders believed that workers would not make a decent living and that the labor movement could not grow, and possibly not even survive , if workers were not brought together in tight solidarity through industrial as opposed to craft unionism.

The issues today are different. But the basic need for solidarity remains, as does the need to organize workers wherever they are and whatever their occupations

That won’t be easy, with less than 15 percent of today’s workforce belonging to unions. But when the CIO began in 1935, less than 10 percent of the country’s workers were in unions.

THE labor movement had grown considerably during World War I, but had declined steadily afterward, hitting rock bottom during the Great Depression of the 1930s. But finally unemployment became so widespread and pay and working conditions so bad that large numbers of workers rebelled – most under the banners of the new CIO.

President Franklin Roosevelt, fearing revolution, quickly pushed through Congress bills that in effect put the government behind the workers attempts to organize. They were granted the legal right to organize and to strike, and to choose by majority votes unions to represent them in collective bargaining with their employers.

Millions of workers flocked to unions, CIO and AFL alike. Millions engaged in strikes and other militant actions to press their bargaining demands. Pay rose substantially. Workers won unheard of fringe benefits. Working hours were reduced without reductions in pay. Grievance procedures were instituted. Job security was greatly enhanced.

Most important, the living standards of ordinary Americans were raised. And the United States at last had a true middle class.
As the CIO grew, so did the AFL. By the time the competing organizations merged in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO, one of every three U.S. workers belonged to a union.

Unions have declined steadily since then. And with their decline has come a steady shrinking of the middle class. The vital, demanding and essential task of today’s labor leaders is nothing less than to do what was done by their predecessors when they formed the CIO seven decades ago.

This is Dick Meister.

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