Problems of Labor Unity

...Employers will sit down with the same union representatives and discuss the same subjects that have traditionally occupied them...

...The other 138 unions (Michael J. Quill's CIO Transport Workers Union looks at this writing like the only one that will stay out) are likely to feel that their own interests will be best served by pulling together into similarly gargantuan aggregations of strength...

...He is an amiable and scholarly gentleman of integrity and competence...

...However, there is every reason to believe that its pressure will be directed toward a realignment of political forces within the Democratic and Republican parties...

...By the time the merged group celebrates its twentieth anniversary, the total number of unions may have shrunk to something between 20 and 40, with at least a dozen in the million-member class...

...Ten years after the basic merger, there will still be unions that maintain two sets of officers, two organizing staffs and two treasuries to serve workers in the same industry...

...The initial statements of its leaders provide assurance that the public interest will not be forgotten...

...They are much more interested in maintaining the status quo than they are in grasping for new goals...

...The old practice of playing the AFL and CIO against each other will have to be abandoned by politicians of both parties...

...Brown leaves the precise operating plan of the new federation in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America somewhat obscure...

...McDonald's pressure will be directed primarily toward wage guarantees and premium pay for Saturday and Sunday work, both tough objectives...

...It is clear from all that has been said that much of the worth of the new movement depends on the statesmanship of its leaders—and most of all on George Meany...

...If labor has its way, the Dixiecrats will be encouraged to move out of the Democratic party and the liberal wing of the Republican party will be urged to move into their place...

...The old International Fur and Leather Workers Union did manage to get into the AFL through the medium of absorption by the Amalgamated Meat Cutters, but it had to undergo such a blood bath in terms of its old Communist leaders and its capacity for serving as a medium of Red propaganda that few other unions are likely to follow in its steps...

...In two areas of crucial importance to the internal health of organized labor and to its standing in public esteem, unity should bring significant gains...

...AFLCIO’ joins 15 million workers next month PROBLEMS OF LABOR UNITY By A. H. Raskin No couple marching to the wedding altar ever faced a rockier first year together than the new American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations...

...The chances that the recruiting drive will not stop with speeches but will be translated into vigorous action is enhanced by the willingness of John W. Livingston, vice president of the United Auto Workers, CIO, to accept the key post of director of organization in the merged body...

...At the same time, the UAW has been outspoken against efforts by its employers to make the union the goat in foisting price increases on the public...

...At the start, the only mandatory unification involves the headquarters and staffs of the AFL and CIO...

...Now that the voting strength of the CIO will be added to that of the clean-union forces already in the AFL...

...employers have become more sophisticated in persuading workers that they are better off without unions...

...Politically, unity will enable labor to speak with a clearer voice and to gain a more respectful hearing in legislative halls and Government agencies...

...But the complexity of modern government makes these labels so cloudy that it will be hard to get the parties ever to line up on a basis that really affords a satisfactory basis of differentiation...

...The best guarantee that the job will be carried through in the national interest lies in Meany's own personality...

...Since George Meany assumed the AFL Presidency three years ago, he has done much to upset the old notion that the Federation could do nothing to force corrective action by international unions that had fallen into the hands of crooks...

...With the full backing of the top men in both the AFL and CIO, he can be counted on to see that the merger means an intensification of American labor's overseas role, not a slide back into isolation or do-nothingism...

...As a dramatic expression of their determination to make the no-discrimination pledge work, Meany has broached to the AFL high command the idea that one of its seventeen vice presidents in the new organization be a Negro...

...The compromise on Dr...

...Happily, there appears to be a growing realization in labor's upper echelons of the need for identifying unions with the community interest in politics and every other phase of activity...

...The bedrock of unity is the quest for safety embodied in the no-raiding pact between the AFL and CIO...

...Every leader will be seeking to enhance his prestige in labor's councils, and this may be reflected in some measure in his dealings with his industry...

...But the actual total is likely to fall far short of that...

...To avoid disappointment later on, it is important first to recognize the limitations on the kind of unity that is being achieved...

...Indeed, one of the most persuasive reasons for the decision of the AFL and CIO to unify was the common desire of the overwhelming majority of their unions to be protected in holding on to what they had and to be assured that no other union would be allowed to muscle in on their preserves...

...The groups that were expelled from the CIO in 1949 and 1950 on charges of Communist domination have been trying to take advantage of the fast-flagging "Geneva spirit" to worm their way in, but the "keep out" sign has been nailed firmly to the door by the unity charter...

...Workers will continue to vote in line with their own convictions, and the advice of their union chiefs will be controlling only when that advice squares with the workers' own idea of what is best for him and his country...

...Dozens of troublesome problems have been swept under the rug as a reflection of the basic belief of both the AFL and CIO that the paramount task was to merge, no matter how much grief had to be stored away for the cold gray dawn after the marriage...

...Those who foresee a labor octopus grabbing control of government fail to give sufficient weight either to the good sense of labor's leaders or to the independence of labor's rank and file...

...Most unions have done no large-scale organizing since before World War II...

...At the collective bargaining table, the merger will bring few noticeable changes...

...George T. Brown, now research assistant to Meany at AFL headquarters...

...the other is the establishment of racial equality and the abolition of discrimination...

...Workers who remember how wrong their leaders were when they forecast millions of workers unemployed after V-J Day or the destruction of union strength under the Taft-Hartley "slave labor" law or the catastrophic effects of a Republican victory in 1952 are likely to pay more attention to political advice that stems from a reasoned evaluation of national and world trends...

...Out of this, more than any other single factor, came unity...

...His auto union has grown to 1.5 million members and has set its bargaining pattern with such industrial titans as General Motors, Ford and Chrysler...

...He will have to fend off attacks from the National Association of Manufacturers and other employer groups that feel the merger makes labor too powerful, and from such union critics as John L. Lewis and Mike Quill who feel it does not do enough for labor...

...A. H. Raskin, chief labor reporter for the New York Times, has written for numerous national periodicals...

...Whatever happens, no monolithic political machine is likely to come out of the merger...

...The new movement will have to devise new slogans and new appeals if it is to sign up substantial numbers of workers...

...Fortunately, that is not the beginning and end of unity...

...There is a genuine determination at all levels to utilize some of the energies and funds that once were focused on inter-union warfare for positive projects of benefit to workers and the community...

...It is a unity that, as part of its charter, perpetuates division...

...Livingston's readiness to serve renewed the faith of top men in both camps that unity could be followed by a forceful organizing effort...

...Communism will find no welcome in the merged body...

...It is only fair to note that both of these problems exist predominantly in the AFL...

...The extent to which the merged movement will be able to count on the solid backing of its members at the polls will depend on how completely it convinces them that the policy-setters in labor's high command are genuinely concerned with their total welfare and not with partisan or special-interest considerations...

...Organizing talents have atrophied...

...No one would have it any other way...

...In this area, Walter P. Reuther will have much to contribute...

...No one ever has doubted Meany's determination to face up to both issues unflinchingly...

...This means a fundamental rethinking of labor's political role and a substitution of positive goals for the essentially negative ones that have guided most of its past political endeavors...

...In the first year or two, unions are likely to press a little harder than usual as a means of "winning their letter" in the merged movement...

...All the big unions in the CIO have pledged themselves to contribute $1 a member toward "organizing the unorganized," and the AFL is hopeful that its principal unions will do the same...

...He will not wait for the district attorney to do the job labor has too long failed to do itself...

...Unfortunately, however, there are indications that labor's machinery for useful international action may be disrupted, at least al the start, as a result of personal hostilities carried over from the days when the AFL and CIO were apart...

...Over the years, the probability is that unity will mean a consolidation of unions...

...How much money will be available for organizing is still not clear...

...But in this field and in combating racial bias, what has been done falls far short of what must be done...

...However, relatively few big contracts will be open in the next couple of years, so the impact along this line should be slight...

...This means more bargaining along industry-wide and even economy-wide lines and less recognition for the special problems of small businesses and individual groups of employes...

...This would be the first time in the history of either the AFL or the CIO that a Negro attained such high rank...

...They want to keep moving forward—but they want to do it along the familiar paths...

...That means its membership, its bargaining rights and the jurisdiction it now exercises, even though that jurisdiction may be identical with that of another union...

...Nor has it kept it from devising an imaginative list of projects for binding the union, its members and the community closer together...

...Care will have to be taken to arrest the trend toward further bureaucratization and cartel-like relationships between unions and employers at the expense of the consumer...

...Under these circumstances, it is likely to be a long time before unions with parallel jurisdictions decide to forget their differences and get together...

...He will have financial problems to overcome: The new federation, with its promise of a job for everybody now on the AFL and CIO payroll, will start heavily in the red...

...He will have to quiet legendary hostilities such as the one between Joseph Curran of the CIO National Maritime Union and Harry Lundeberg of the AFL Seafarers International Union...

...However, it will take more than money and a capable director to put the campaign across...

...Too many unions are content to let higher prices be blamed on higher wages in cases where rapid increase in productive efficiency would enable the employer to absorb the rise in labor costs without depriving himself of an adequate profit...

...One is the rooting out of corruption in union leadership...

...There is another limitation that should be recognized...

...Otherwise, labor would have nothing but stagnation and decay to look forward to...

...Actually, there is every reason for confidence that the basic precepts underlying the merger will prove sound and that both labor and the country will be better off for its accomplishment...

...The first big target will be the chemical and oil industries, with du Pont and Standard Oil as the initial concentration points...

...Only through the effective prosecution of such projects can unity have real meaning...

...Reuther has been clamoring for a Congressional investigation to determine whether the increases won by the Auto and Steel Workers this year provided any justification for the price increases both industries put into effect...

...For a time, it appeared that feuds within the CIO were going to make it impossible for the leaders to persuade any man of stature to take the job...

...Only after two years will the parent organization have the authority to step in and force amalgamation...

...That could mean a "kitty" of as much as $10 million—or even $15 million if every union contributed...

...Even at the start, a half-dozen unions—the CIO Auto and Steel Workers and the AFL Teamsters, Carpenters, Machinists and Electrical Workers—will have one-third of all the federation's membership...

...There is no likelihood that the unified movement will strike out in the separatist direction represented by formation of an independent labor party on the European model...

...It makes little sense to keep telling workers what dire danger they are in at a time when 65 million Americans have jobs, wages are at record levels, unions are growing stronger, and new advances are being made in such previously untraveled paths of privately-financed social security as the guaranteed annual wage...

...Meany will be able to grapple effectively with the vested power of the underworld...

...many nonunion workers have developed firmly-fixed thought patterns of resistance to unionization...

...The South will be another focus of attention, but the new federation will eschew the "Operation Dixie" approach that makes all the heirs of the Confederacy feel it is obligatory on them to take up arms to repel a new carpetbag invasion...

...His success in steering the merger compact through all the shoals that threatened to wreck it in the last year provides solid basis for optimism that he can make it work...

...In the field, the state and local central bodies will have two years in which to work out their own merger arrangements or to carry on divergent political and legislative activities...

...Ultimately, such a move might make possible a greater clarity in what each party stands for so that voters could exercise a clear-cut choice between "liberal" and "conservative" policies...

...He has the vision and the determination to meet the challenging problems that lie ahead...

...Every crook in the AFL, including those buttressed in such sacrosanct power centers as the 1.3-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, knows that Meany is his implacable enemy...

...White-collar workers—in banks, insurance companies and offices across the country—are also on the list...

...Many unions already have grown too remote from their rank and file...

...The international department of the unified federation will be under the direction of Dr...

...He will have to eliminate the thought patterns that will cause the AFL and CIO to think in "we" and "they" terms at the outset—a tendency that will be accentuated by the retention of both names and the initial partitioning off of most of the CIO bloc into a separate industrial department...

...This is a virtuous idea, but it is hardly an accurate picture of what unity entails...

...In its two decades of life, the CIO was constantly on guard against any penetration by either of these cancers...

...There will be a great deal of oratory at the founding convention in New York during the week of December 5, intended to convince the world that unity is the expression of a dynamic labor movement reaching out for new worlds to conquer...

...This will necessitate more realism in assessing political issues and candidates than labor has demonstrated in the past...

...Among the 145 international unions now affiliated with the AFL and CIO, overlapping and conflicting jurisdictions will be frozen under the terms of the merger agreement...

...converting these assurances into day-to-day action will be the problem...

...And they do not yearn for adventures that might shake their present grip on their own organizations and membership...

...On the international scene, the end of the civil war in American labor will bring encouragement to unions struggling to build higher living standards and combat Communism abroad...

...However, Meany has no intention of letting slip the victories over neutralism which the American bloc won at the convention of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Vienna...

...Every union will enter with a guarantee that its integrity will be protected...

...Similarly, in the field of racial equality Meany and his associates in the Executive Council of the new "AFLCIO" will be operating under a constitutional mandate to bring labor's record into full conformity with democratic practice...

...The new labor movement will have to recognize that concern for the consumer is no less important than concern for the mutual prosperity of industry and workers...

...The United Steelworkers of America, under the leadership of David J. McDonald, will be the only first-line national union with a full contract open in 1956...

...But it will not bring into being an army of 15 million trade unionists and their families, marching in disciplined ranks toward the polls...

...On the organizational front, the new federation will try to rekindle the missionary spirit that brought millions of unorganized workers into union ranks in the early years of the New Deal...

...Unity will mean a more effective marshaling of union political forces and perhaps a modest increase in the funds available to labor on the political front...

...This is a limitation in motivating concept, rather than in constitution or structure...

...Learning to live under one roof will be as severe a test for the leaders of both old organizations as any of the trials they underwent in the twenty years in which they were trying to knock one another's block off...

...The new federation will have no power to compel such duplicating unions to join forces...

...This has not prevented the United Auto Workers from maintaining a high degree of contact with the men and women on the assembly line...

...The idea that union members can be stampeded into political action through the use of juvenile appeals to fear that fly in the face of their day-to-day experience is a fatuous one...

...No time limit of any kind is fixed to end this kind of division—only the moral pressure that may stem from the successful operation of unity at the federation level...

...The danger in the months ahead is that the eruption of countless petty irritations will cause many inside and outside the labor movement to conclude that unity is a failure...

...However, his chief qualification for becoming "Secretary of State" of the AFLCIO appears to have been the fact that nobody had anything against him in a situation in which the men most prominently identified with world affairs before the merger were all the objects of fierce controversy...

...However, it would be fanciful to expect that the leaders of all unions will always see eye to eye on all major issues and even more ridiculous to expect that such unanimity will carry over among the rank and file...

...The union leaders who will be meeting in New York are, on the whole, well-satisfied with the unions they have fashioned...