麻豆影院

CU 麻豆影院 professor鈥檚 recent book highlights how employers organized to fight labor before the New Deal

The opening of the 20th century was a tumultuous time for American employer-labor relations, marked by the emergence of large-scale factory work, giant corporations and sometimes violent clashes between labor and employers over working conditions.

Briefly, it seemed union organization and collective bargaining might offer an avenue to stability. However, both employers and many middle class observers remained wary of unions exercising independent power.

In her recently published book, , Vilja Hulden, a teaching associate professor of history at the 麻豆影院, documents how this tension allowed pro-business organizations to shift public attention away from inequality and sometimes dangerous working conditions toward the idea that unions trampled an individual鈥檚 right to work.

Recently, Hulden spoke with Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine about her book, documenting a tumultuous time in employer-employee relations. Her responses have been lightly edited for style and condensed for space considerations.

Question: At the beginning of your book, you highlight the release of a 1902 report by the U.S. Industrial Commission, which suggested organized labor could have a positive, democratizing effect in the workplace. What was going on in the country at the time?

Hulden: For context, the late 19th century is a time when there are really dramatic labor conflicts. We have the 1877 railroad strike. There鈥檚 the 1886 Haymarket Riot (in Chicago), which is all about anarchists and the Haymarket bombing. And in the early 1890s, there鈥檚 the听听听听听听听 Pullman strike and boycott that involved a quarter of a million workers. So, there鈥檚 a number of these (incidents) that are really violent and that really put the country on edge. People are really worried about the labor-capital conflict.

Both the Congress and the president call for investigations. They appoint the Industrial Commission to investigate solutions.

This is happening at the turn of the 20th century鈥攁t a moment when it鈥檚 clear that factories and wage work are here to stay. It鈥檚 a time of massive factories and massive corporations. This is the new normal. We can鈥檛 go back to a previous time where the production of goods was based on artisans and small workshops. So, we have to have some kind of a new solution.

A lot of mainstream economists and reformers are coming to think it鈥檚 obvious that the corporations are far more powerful than any individual worker. So, there鈥檚 this idea that maybe labor needs a collective voice.

The American Federation of Labor has been around since the 1880s, but it really grows in the last years of the 19th century, and it becomes this flagship of a moderate labor movement that says, 鈥榃e鈥檙e not out to get capitalism 鈥� but we鈥檙e going to find a way to get workers more.鈥� So, it seems like there鈥檚 the potential for labor to be a responsible partner.

That鈥檚 the moment when the Industrial Commission issues this report. And they are serious about the fact that the country is supposed to be democratic, and yet people spend their working lives in workplaces where they have absolutely no influence.

Question: As labor starts advocating for itself, employers tend to coalesce around two groups, the National Civic Federation and the National Association of Manufacturers. How were those two groups similar and how are they different?

Hulden: In my view, that鈥檚 one of the most important things about my book. There鈥檚 been these sorts of academic debates about them (NCF and NAM), and I and I鈥檝e never been very happy with how those debates have worked.

In some ways, you can think of the Civic Federation as the embodiment of this U.S. Industrial Commission鈥檚 idea of: Let鈥檚 have trade agreements; let鈥檚 have rational labor relations; let鈥檚 find a way for everybody to sit at the same table and hash this thing out and come to agreements, instead of this chaotic striking and so on. The Civic Federation is really concerned to find conciliatory solutions.

The man who runs the Civic Federation, Ralph Easley, he鈥檚 the heart and soul of the organization. He鈥檚 not an employer. He started out as a journalist, and then was in various kinds of similar positions, and then becomes the secretary of the National Civic Federation. This is his life's work. He鈥檚 very serious about it.

He鈥檚 a very conservative guy, so he鈥檚 not pro-labor in that sense. For somebody who鈥檚 pushing for trade agreements, you鈥檇 sort of expect him to be progressive, but he鈥檚 actually pretty conservative. For example, he鈥檚 opposed to women鈥檚 suffrage.

But at the same time, he鈥檚 really concerned that the country is going to go under. Essentially, he鈥檚 worried that the socialists are going win, because there鈥檚 so much strife and unhappiness.

So, he works hard to recruit employers. He tries to create the Civic Federation as a tripartite organization, with labor, with employers, and a public category that is kind of weird and amorphous. There are some religious people, and there鈥檚 some various kinds of reformers and professors. But then there鈥檚 also businessmen, so it feels a bit like they鈥檙e kind of double counting of businesses.

But Easley鈥檚 goal is: We鈥檙e going to get everybody at the same table. We鈥檙e going to help labor leaders seem more acceptable to the corporations and we鈥檙e going to get the great capitalists of the day鈥攖he great captains of industry鈥攕itting together with labor at the dinner table. They organize these actual dinners with people like Samuel Gompers (head of the AFL) and (industrialist) Andrew Carnegie, and they鈥檙e all sitting at the same table drinking champagne.

The employers that belong to the Civic Federation are generally bigger employers, like the railroad companies and gas companies or trust companies. Often, they are companies that are very well-known; they are household names. Those companies tend to gravitate toward the Civic Foundation because it makes them look good to the public, and they pay a lot of lip service to the idea of labor鈥檚 right to organize and finding a rational solution to the labor problem.

In contrast, NAM is generally composed of mid-sized manufacturers, generally with a few hundred employees, and they are not in the public鈥檚 eye, so they are less worried about publicity.

Easley really wants his model to work, but the argument that I make in the book is: The employers who join the Civic Federation really don鈥檛 want unions any more than the National Association of Manufacturers do. Because they are bigger employers, they have a bit more room to maneuver, so they might deal with a union for a couple of years, and then they can choose not to, or whatever their internal strategy might be.

In many cases where the Civic Federation manages to broker a trade agreement, it only lasts for a couple of years. A lot of times, they don鈥檛 manage to broker a trade agreement, but they organize some kind of deal and essentially force labor to accept it and then they are portraying it as a victory for rational labor relations.

In practice, the Civic Federation project was never viable because it can鈥檛 force anybody to do anything. It鈥檚 just a voluntary organization.

Question: In contrast with the Civic Federation, the National Association of Manufacturers takes a very different strategy, correct?

Hulden: Their argument is that unions are irrelevant and they are just intruding on the work relationship. They argue that the normal, natural way to deal with things in the workplace is between the employer and 鈥榟is men鈥欌�攁nd that unions are an external group that doesn鈥檛 have the workers鈥� best interests at heart.

The employers鈥� argument is that the unions are coercing workers to join鈥攖hey鈥檙e scaring workers into joining the union, and the workers aren鈥檛 getting anything valuable in return. They (NAM) do use very harsh language about labor unions, and they portray them as sort of meddling in politics and trying to get workers to join a union in ways that they argue are illegitimate.

Question: To counter labor鈥檚 arguments for greater say in the workplace, at some point manufacturers adopted a campaign advocating for an 鈥渙pen shop鈥� vs. a 鈥渃losed shop鈥� where all employees had to belong to a union to work there, correct?

Hulden: Absolutely. And they (NAM) invent the term 鈥榗losed shop鈥� out of whole cloth, as far as I could tell. I did a lot of digging in digital archives and old newspaper archives trying to find if the term 鈥榗losed shop鈥� was ever used before the National Association of Manufacturers started using it, and I couldn鈥檛 find anything pre-dating NAM.

And not only that, but I couldn鈥檛 find any references to 鈥榦pen shop鈥� or 鈥榰nion shop,鈥� either.

So, NAM essentially invents the idea of 鈥榦pen shops鈥� vs. 鈥榗losed shops.鈥� They catch on, which lets the NAM basically define the terms of the debate. And employers make the case to lawmakers and the public: 鈥榃e need a shop that鈥檚 open to everybody鈥欌�攅xcept that, in practice, a lot of times employers actually have a blacklist and refuse to hire union members. So, it鈥檚 not really an open shop, but they are pretending.

Question: In doing research for the book, did you discover anything that maybe you weren鈥檛 expecting?

Hulden: That鈥檚 a great question. A lot of times, the research just confirmed what I knew. 鈥�

The one thing I found in doing research for this book is that my appreciation for the American Federation of Labor really grew. They are a problematic group in a lot of ways鈥攖here are a lot of racists in the AFL; there鈥檚 exclusions of different immigrant groups in the organization; and they鈥檙e not always appreciative of women workers.

On the other hand, I think there鈥檚 a certain consistency to their positions. They realize (society) is not going to return to some idealized version of the past where everyone is working in artisan workshops where they have control over their work. They realize these are the times of big corporations and big factories.

Gompers (the AFL president), in particular, has a real rhetorical gift in talking about this, and he makes a number of good points when he鈥檚 debating the socialists, for example. He gets a lot of complaints from socialists about working with capitalists in organizations like the Civic Federation.

I quote him in parts of the book where he鈥檚 explaining his position. He asks them, (and I鈥檓 paraphrasing here), 鈥榃hy would you complain that I talk with these capitalists? The whole damn point of labor is to talk to capitalists. What am I supposed to do? I鈥檓 not going to lose my principles just because I talk to this guy.鈥�

Especially given our current political moment, that seems to me to be unexpectedly wise thinking.

Question: In the time period after the book ends, was organized labor able to make progress on its objectives, or did the momentum shift back to employers?

Hulden: Labor definitely has momentum in the 1930s and 鈥�40s. They鈥檙e making huge gains, but there鈥檚 debates among labor historians about how significant the New Deal gains are and how much they鈥檙e about co-opting the labor movement and pacifying it. I think they are really significant gains. The world is transformed for a lot of workers.

And the employers don鈥檛 give up. They use the exact same rhetoric, and they push hard against the New Deal changes, and in the late 鈥�40s they get through the Taft-Hartley Act, which 鈥� 听forms the basis for the modern Right to Work movement鈥攖he modern anti-closed shop movement.

The employers keep building on that in the 鈥�50s and 鈥�60s. The union (movement) hits its peak sometime in 1953 or 1954 and starts going down from there. And in the 鈥�50s, unions have to purge themselves of communists in the early Cold War era鈥攁nd communists were effective organizers, so that does hurt the unions in a lot of ways. There鈥檚 also investigations into union corruption, which is real, but which makes the unions look a lot worse than they actually were.

So, the employers don鈥檛 give up. And they do manage to really undermine unionism. By the time we get to the 鈥�80s and the Reagan era and the breaking of the PATCO (Professional Air Traffic Controller Association) strike, unions are really in the doldrums.

Now, recently, there鈥檚 been some indications of a comeback in the union movement, but I think it鈥檚 way too early to predict the new rise of labor.

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