Recent Basic Changes in A.F. of L. Policies
Carruth, Oliver E.
Recent Basic Changes in A.F. of L. Policies Gompers' View of Sole Reliance on Economic Weapon Abandoned as Depression Forced Labor to Look Toward Government for Protective Legislative By Oliver...
...Hence its .support of the NRA and its support now of the Wagner labor relations act, which like the celebrated Section 7A of the Recovery Act, seeks to protect the right of the workers to organize snd-bargain collectively...
...Labor didn't work at old age pensions, either...
...j. So also, labor has finally come to support health insurance legislation...
...It has become thoroughly convinced a great deal can be accomplished by legislative action...
...The railroad unions then advocated the Plumb Plan of ownership, designed to give labor, capital and the public representation in the management...
...Labor still places economic action first, but in recent years in in-*creasing measure it has supported and advocated government action to better toe lot of the worker...
...National Recovery Act Labor also supported the NRA because of its supposed guarantee of the right to free organization and collective bargaining, a right that American trade unionists of forty and even twenty years ago thought could only be won by power of union organization...
...The convention decision reversed a policy of taking bo stand on the question which had been continued for years...
...hfreteed on the elftgh of general- walkouts ifi tile last two years...
...With modern industrial technique, plenty is within our grasp, not for the favored few alone but for every man, woman and child in America," the A. F. of L. has said, and again and again it has reiterated this opinion...
...But on the the progress since the war pftgH William Green's eeatentttnisM American labor pursues a lefjjB policy and that it will afiMpM self to any social change thlftneany necessary...
...The 1936 A. F. of L. convention spoke squarely for the enactment "of socially constructeive health insurance legislation through Congress and the states...
...Socialist polky thatygaj once ridiculed is now fuD|%M "Immediate demands" of heitaB labor movement and the SfijjB Party undermine ia»sez-fsir%9B the ruthlessness oi capitaUzn&S prove the conditions of the isRC ers, not in the future but M present...
...Many pitfalls sre before labor in tiw...
...age, unemployment, illness—all to the end of giving the worker a larger share of what he produces and bringing better balance between production and purchasing power...
...This stand was later broadened to include support of Federal unemployment legislation...
...More democracy in industry is a cardinal labor demand...
...In the field of political action and labor organization changes are also in sight, If not actually in progress -A considerable element in the A. F. of I*, led by Francis J. Gorman and others' is walking actively for...
...This act attempted to do by law a number of -things which labor had hitherto sought to do solely by economic action...
...As steps toward providing plenty, the Federation advocates industrial and business planning, constantly increasing wages to keep pace with gains in productive power, employment for all able to work, security against old...
...What has bagnB makes it apparent that labor tjlE more and more to the SeetflS position in ita approach tejfl| problems of the present eeoaaiEr system...
...fllevug organization of the workers and carefully considered legislative programs sre urged to bring this bettor balance...
...In 1929...
...The depression has taught many lessons...
...Thereafter, labor support was thrown strongly for pension legislation...
...Legislation to increase pay, 1 except for women and children, was emphatically opposed...
...It believes, the chief reason why NRA was no* more successful was because of failure to give the workers an adequate part in the act's administration and enforcement...
...It is vigorously demanding that the unemployed be put to work and urging the 30hour week as the best and quickest way to accomplish this...
...Labor, long ago, for instance, set its.face against establishment of minimum wages and maxim am hours by legislation, save for women and minor workers...
...Railway Labor's Program Last year, railroad labor again began an active fight for government ownership and operation of the railroads...
...Everything indicates that labor will press forward with all its power to make the economic system function...
...Labor must be an actual, not a theoretical partner in industry...
...it must have the equal status with management in industry that the NBA sought to give it, labor says...
...There is emphatic call for a scurb oa capitalitrm's profits and growing friendliness to the idea of production for use, not profit...
...We have in America the strange paradox' of an economic system, equipped to produce a comfort living for all but unable to function...
...Perhaps most significant of labor's present attitude was its enthusiastic support of the National Industrial Recovery Act...
...Growth of'cowpasMnH and fascist tendencies ef hflffl *i& a' 'iS^yi3ia^M m 4ma, hmT 'the ^^UtorLreesSB that aright lead to rrreanlbn jj disunion plays into the basiCl employers and could deal thThjjS movement a heavy blow...
...In its support of NRA is exemplified labor's change of heart toward the place of governmental action to bring reforms in the in-, dustrial system of benefit to the workers...
...Labor is now daily more insistent that the present system must provide plenty for all or give way to a better system...
...In the field of labor economic action, new militancy and aggressiveness is seen on every hand...
...In these three years, labor has supported" most of the "New Deal" legislation, "paternalistic" and "socialistic" as it may be...
...Labor's changed attitude toward governmental . effort to improve wage and working- conditions is the outstanding- example of basic, change "in labor thinking and policy...
...To study the means ef making it function is one of labor's foremost tasks...
...M. Harrison, progressive head of the Brotherhood of Railway desks and chafaM Of therJU#ak W bor Executives' Aaeoelaxion...
...the formation of a labor party, xPrsaident Green is oa record as saying the time may come when independent political action may be desirable and that whenever the labor movement wants such action, it can have it...
...Perils of the present and the future, both from rapid}*- changing economic and industrial conditions and from growing internal controversy may be - more serious than any of those in the post-war years, many trade «ttionists"think...
...jThe fact that labor was deeply disappointed in the NRA does not mean that labor has lost faith in the act's principles...
...We have had and must continue to have, until democracy finds its way into industry, abases for which all producers and all consumers have had to pay through profiteering and privation," the pronouncement declared, Sharper and sharper criticisms of the profit motive is heard from labor's ranks...
...The convention declared that "the American worker duripg times of illness is not only conf r on ted with a loss of wages, hot is forced to pay exorbitant medical and hospital bills which frequently force Mm into debt end poverty.*' Federal and state action is accessary, it was pointed out, since the social security act "ignored this major problem," despite the fact that "health insurance has been in successful operation in all industrial nations for more than a generation...
...It is, however, becoming more and more ddubtful and crit- icai pf...
...The declaration meant little, as the Federation did nothing to put it into ef- , feet, though railway labor took a position strongiy in favor of government ownership of the carriers daring the depression of 1920 and 1921...
...With little progress being made in ending unemployment, labor is compelled to insist on decisive action in behalf of the idle...
...There is, of course, danger in the controversy but the beet informed opinion in the ranks of labor does not believe there will be any split, as hopefully predicted by many newspaper commentators...
...As long as the profit motive, uncontrolled, dominates business production, we must have booms and depressions,H the Federation said in a recent survey of business...
...at the Toronto convention of the American Federation of Labor, there was a change...
...policy -and action in the seventeen years' since the World War ended...
...Harrison ssys, "sre now, finally and definitely, convinc ™uM^^erFthTriilr^XTSe industry is to survive and to serve the pestie as it should...
...The "definite stand of the railroad workers presages a similar stand by all labor, forecast in a speech by President William Green of the A. F. of L. at the Federation's Atlantic City convention last October...
...of L. Policies Gompers' View of Sole Reliance on Economic Weapon Abandoned as Depression Forced Labor to Look Toward Government for Protective Legislative By Oliver E. Carruth AMERICAN* labor^a^rnade "fundamental changes in thinking...
...Planks in the Socialist platfshonce opposed or ignored, ara-jgal endorsed...
...Failure of wages to keep pace with gains in production might easily force another and worse eojrapse than that ef 1988...
...jn*Vi4C...
...era of industrial and business improvement that seems to havs begun...
...In 1920, st the Montreal convention, a declaration for government railread ownership was approved, though President Gompers was hostile to the move...
...icy and action are far dSemjg than they were at the end world conflict...
...Steadily increasing displacement of LnSsnsf nSkaisTtl^aLt* ^ lliu...
...Rail labor's decision waa made after long consideration, says Geo...
...In 19%, following the death of Glenn E. P.lnmb, author of the plan, the rail workers discontinued active support...
...Undoubtedly, -this has brought labor closer to Socialist theory and ^Under the forty years' leadership , of Samuel Gompers, American la- ] nor stood firmly for economic action as the best way to improve workers' wages and working con- 1 ditions...
...We are near now, in airy opinion, to government ownership and operation of the railroads," he add...
...things as they are...
...Over the pretest of the Gompers school of labor philosophy, the Federation declared for active work in behalf of old age pensions...
...In the Cincinnati convention of that year, the Federation, confronted by the, growing millions of unemployed/ for whom no provision bad been made by industry or government in better times, reversed its stand' and came out flatly for state unemployment systems...
...Aa far back as 1896, the A. F. of L. advocated public ownership of railroads...
...Labor stressed economic action above all ' else to better the wage earners' condition...
...The Depression »eriod The two changes in labor thinking just cited on old age pensions and government railroad ownership —began before the Stock Market crash of 1988 sounded the knell of "prosperity" hut were given impetus by the depression...
...The railroad unions are pressing vigorously far the application of that sound financial and economic principle...
...1* Many additional columns sskfl be written on lahor in the peev?V period but enough has bseajB to indicate that labor thinking, a«y...
...If it did not see Treariy the evils of capitalism in the days of "prosperity," it sees them now...
...Sight international unions are working for industrial organisation of workers in the mass production industries and this has led to very strong feeling between the advocates of organization along craft lines and the champions of industrial unionism...
...The strike weapon to win better wages, fewer hours, recognition of the right to organize, is more and more to the fore, The -general 1 1 cSes'wherf thl JorSr...
...It no longer sees union organization as virtually the only force to improve the worker's lot...
...Paternalistic'' action 1 of government was severely frown- ¦ ed upon, as tending to break down 'toe workers' independence, self-reliance and *m±*±*g spirit...
...It supports legislation such as the NRA, the Guffey coal regulation act, the social security act and other laws which seek to help the worker...
...During these seventeen years, the labor movement has weathered the dangers a{ two depressions, a period ot so-called prosperify' and * is - now encountering the perils 'oU a business upturn that mav usher in another period of "good time...
...The Railway Labor Executives' Association, representing the standard railroad unions, most of which ars members of the A. F. of L. with the exception of the four Brotherhoods of train service workers, announced they were higjrming a campaign for legislation for government ownership of railroads...
...V'-ilH Labor's progress in crutnghahsn thinking with the tiroes iirag'Bji slow to many...
...Yet the National Recovery Administration fixed minimum wagep and maximum hours for men and labor made no objection, except where it was sought to include strongiy organized workers...
...These unions and the men they represent," Mr...
...Industry must organise for service," the 1923 A. F. of U convention at Portland, said in its pronouncment called 'Industry's Manifest Doty...
...Ckaaahsa Policies Particularly has this been true ' in the three years since the Roose- ' velt administration came into power, although the tendency was apparent long before Franklin D. Roosevelt took office...
...Labor still believes its economic strength is the heat guarantee of its right to organize, but it also has come to believe in the last few years that recognition and protection of this right by law is of much value...
...Greatest innovations in' labor thinking and policy in the postwar period have undoubtedly come during the three years of the Roosevelt administration...
...Another significant change, strictly depression-bora, was on unemployment insurance, to which the A. F. of L. was opposed prior to 1988...
...Labor, for example, had for years been nominally in favor of old age pensions, but its advocacy of this reform was ' much like the case of the man whose small boy, when asked if his father was a Christian, replied: "Tea, but he doesn't.week at it...
...Labor still believes in the capitalistic system, as it did in Gompers' day...
...President Green said that events that have occurred in the transportation industery have thoroughly vindicated the position taken by the Montreal convention...
...Another example of labor's change in thinking and policy came on the question of government railroad ownership...
Vol. 19 • March 1936 • No. 11
