LABOR'S MIGHTIEST MYTH
Revell, Aldric
Labor's Mightiest Myth By Aldric Revell •TIRADE UNIONISM in the Unit-* ed States has made giant strides in the past decade and a half in building membership and strengthening labor's voice at the...
...For instance, of 400 AFL members of a large building trade union, only 80 had voted in 1950...
...The 18th ward, on Madison's East Side, is the largest labor ward in the city, with 1,003 union men living there...
...Capital Times, has been active in the labor movement, both in his own union, the American Newspaper Guild, and in the Wisconsin CIO, for more than a decade and a half...
...Even the overall 52% of labor canvassed does not mean that a majority of the workers vote, for the following reasons: 1. In the vast majority of cases where the worker is registered, neither his wife nor his children are registered...
...A two-year drive was conducted among all unions and special registration booths set up in fire stations close to the workers' homes to facilitate registration...
...The major mistake these leaders have made and continue to make is their insistence that individual unions—working under the guidance of international representatives—do their own registration...
...But their creative approach has not been shared by most of the other great unions...
...The failure of union education to hammer home the importance of isALDRIC REVELL, political writer and columnist for the Madison (Wis...
...Any accurate assessment of labor's participation in the political life of the nation must show failure on two major levels: On the educational level, because not nearly enough members are being reached effectively with lucid, helpful material on issues, parties, and candidates...
...His union falls down on the job of educating him to his obligations as a citizen and a union member...
...If labor continues to match the stereotypes and platitudes of reactionary politicians with stereotypes and platitudes of its own, the result can only be disastrous...
...This is a time - consuming, repetitious, and abortive way of tackling the problem...
...It is much easier to get workers enthusiastic about a project if they know that all other unions are participating...
...Some unions have seen and seized the opportunity to expand their educational programs in an effort to make better citizens of their members...
...Perhaps the most spectacular area of failure for the American labor movement has been on the very front where it seemed to be concentrating its non-bargaining operations—political action...
...I believe that it has been propagated by the union pork-choppers whose job it is to get labor registered and who have failed miserably in their job...
...It is a direct consequence of successful educational policies...
...2. A sizable number of registered workers didn't vote...
...A striking example of the interaction of union education and political responsiveness was on display at a recent labor institute at the University of Wisconsin's Summer School for Workers...
...In the case of the United Mine Workers, they voted for him despite John L. Lewis and the union bureaucracy...
...He is a special correspondent for Time and Life...
...Not included in these statistics are members of the AFL building trades, but their registration record, on the basis of a study made, is infinitely worse...
...The act of registration is a positive one and an important one for the rank and file...
...Letters were sent to the individual unionists, telephone committees kept after them, and announcements were made at union meetings about the registration drive...
...In this...
...What has been less clearly defined has been the responsibility of union leadership to educate its members to the economic and political facts of life, including issues of civil rights and liberties and foreign policy...
...On the organizational level, because countless union members are not being registered, and many more are not voting...
...Unionism has not been made a social, economic, and political part of a worker's life...
...The project then becomes a community affair with a better chance of success...
...One of the effective ways of getting to him is to plan better meetings, get him interested in politics, and get him registered...
...ward 115 CIO members are registered and 67 not, while 386 AFL members are registered and 435 not...
...Of the 1,033 CIO members, only 626, or 60%, are registered...
...In 1949-1950 Revell studied labor economics at Harvard where he served a one-year appointment as Nieman Fellow...
...To be effective a registration drive must have the support of all the unions in a community and must be conducted as one drive...
...There must be a concentrated effort by the educational branches of the unions to get to the man who does not attend his union meetings...
...On the basis of the record in Madison—certainly a more politically conscious city than many others —the labor vote is a myth...
...5. The average worker, when he leaves the factory, closes his mind to union affairs because he does not relate unionism to life outside the shop...
...There has been some progress, to be sure, but it has been scattered, fitful, and often feeble...
...For too many union leaders and members there are not comparable opportunities at present to study the far-reaching significance of national and international problems...
...Even more glaring is the organizational failure of the unions to get their members to register as voters...
...2. Union meetings are so invariably routine that only about 10% attend...
...While labor was activated for Roosevelt — especially by the CIO-PAC—too many labor leaders complacently ascribed Roosevelt's victories to the labor vote...
...For the past two years, as vice-president of the Wisconsin CIO, president of the Dane County (Madison) CIO Council, and chairman of the registration committee of the Dane County Political Education Committee, I have made a study of the voting records of about 85% of union members in Madison...
...Roosevelt has been dead for six years, but Jack Kroll of the CIO-PAC and Joseph Keenan of the AFL political arm still make noises as though labor is registered and ready to storm the polls on their say-so...
...At present, major unions are closer together than ever before because of work of the Wage Stabilization Board...
...Of the 269 machinists, only 128, or 47%, are registered...
...Labor's Mightiest Myth By Aldric Revell •TIRADE UNIONISM in the Unit-* ed States has made giant strides in the past decade and a half in building membership and strengthening labor's voice at the bargaining table, but its power as a political force, its effectiveness in community affairs, and its value as an educational instrument have failed up to now to measure up to the bright promise of its early youth...
...The fact that election after election sees labor's enemies winning in strong labor districts doesn't seem to affect the spread of this myth...
...This is a bleak picture for organized labor...
...Any registration drive must be preceded by full discussion among leaders of various unions because there are scores of techniques, all of which must be used, if a preponderant number of union men are to be registered, to say nothing of their families...
...Here are a few reasons: 1. The average worker is interested in his union only in a bread-and-butter sense...
...3. It is impossible to tell how many union voters follow the recommendation of their leadership in choosing candidates...
...Election results in industrial areas in 1946 and in Wisconsin, Ohio, California, and Pennsylvania in 1950 —where conservatives defeated labor candidates — should at least awaken labor leadership to the need for a reassessment of past policies and practices...
...Because workers change addresses so often, registration is a continuous process...
...What they conveniently forget is that Roosevelt was a symbol for the working man, and working men voted for him apart from any effort by union leadership...
...Organized labor's responsibility to play a more active role in the life of the community and the country is clear enough...
...While individual unions might be able to do an excellent job, few unions, especially those in the AFL, are equipped to do this vital job by themselves...
...They have been seeking to show their members that citizenship and union membership carry responsibilities with them—to their country and their unions...
...The business of flitting from city to city saying what must be done but failing to set up machinery to do the work has become an occupational disease among political actionists in the union hierarchy...
...II Here are the results as of today: Of the 3,434 AFL members in the city, only 1,608, or 46%, are registered...
...4. Workers do not read their unions' papers because the publications are dull, or because they have not developed reading habits outside of the sports and funnies of the local daily...
...The myth goes back into Gomper-ian antiquity and reached robust proportions under President Roosevelt...
...Of this total, 501 are registered and 502 are not...
...It is up to union leadership to question this myth of the labor vote, and to make registration its Number One project...
...Only if accurate statistics of labor voting are compiled in every community will labor be in a position to do something about it and make the labor vote a truly effective one, rather than what it is today—labor's mightiest myth...
...A central agency is better equipped to do a thorough job—and to keep at it—than individual unions which depend upon voluntary help...
...There must be a change in the emphasis, educationally, from the problems of the shop to the larger problems of society...
...Of the 45 members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, only 26, or 57%, are registered...
...Since Madison probably has a better record than cities with less intense political feelings, the national picture is even more depressing...
...It is like giving transfusions, one to the other...
...My own experience has convinced me that some of the imperatives to union registration are these: • There must be a paid, full-time staff assigned to getting all union workers registered...
...This is the only effective way in which the workers could be registered and encouraged to vote...
...On their first day 75 local leaders of a great international were asked to list union goals and objectives...
...Thus, only 52% of organized labor in the city of Madison is registered...
...3. Many workers, having access only to reactionary daily newspapers, take a "to-hell-with-it" attitude towards politics and politicians...
...Not a single unionist included a sound foreign policy on his list, but after a week of listening to round-table discussions of foreign affairs and chewing over specific issues, many of the men owned up to a new awareness of the importance of issues not readily associated with wages, hours, and working conditions...
...A central agency is equipped to do the work more effectively and more cheaply than are individual unions...
...He was formerly president of his Guild local and is today vice chairman of the Wisconsin CIO...
...In their concentration on the weekly pay check and plant conditions, too many unions have failed to recognize that what happens in Seoul and Singapore and Teheran and Paris and Lake Success has as vital a bearing on their lives as what happens across the bargaining table...
...sues beyond bread-and-butter unionism is reflected in labor's general apathy on the political front...
...Where did the myth of the potent labor vote develop...
...After a while the blood runs thin...
...Unions like the UAW-CIO and UAW-AFL, the International Ladies Garment Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the American Newspaper Guild, and a few others have fought valiantly to raise the level of thinking and community responsibility among their members...
...If a man isn't interested enough to register and vote, he certainly won't be interested in pamphlets about economics and foreign affairs...
...In many instances he holds a card because he works in a union shop...
...It hasn't worked and it won't work...
...My studies convince me that the "labor vote" is a mighty myth—and the statistics in at least the one area I know intimately bear me out...
...If the leadership were really interested in getting their members registered, the job could be done by setting up a central registration agency in every community to handle registration of all union members, regardless of affiliation...
...Why is it that so few workers are registered even after sustained registration drives...
...The international representatives of the various unions must get to work for a change, rather than confine themselves to lecturing to union leaders about political action without themselves doing anything practical...
Vol. 15 • September 1951 • No. 9
