|
INTRODUCTION
By
Rudolph Lewis
With the exception of several summaries, an address
by Thurgood Marshall to the AFL-CIO Convention, an article from the
New York Times Magazine, and Section 6, the materials contained in this manuscript can
be found in the AFL-CIO Department of Organization Collection
(1955-1973), housed at the George Meany Memorial Archives (GMMA). While
a Fellow at GMMA, I participated in processing this collection. These
records contain a number of series, including Directors' Files, Activity
and Monthly Round-Up Reports, Correspondence, and Subject Files. What
presented here is a mere snapshot of the nearly seventy cubic feet of
historical documents.
This work intended as a teaching instrument for
future organizers and leaders of the AFL-CIO unions provides documents
relevant to today's issues in the so-called union movement. This
compilation of documents brings attention to the wealth of material
contained in the GMMA that would be of interest to the staff of locals
who often do not have the opportunity or freedom to search the records
of their Union.
Though forty years old or more, these documents speak to
today's difficulties the AFL-CIO unions have to keep a respectable share
of the labor force organized. Many problems faced in the first twenty
years of the AFL-CIO are still being dealt with in our contemporary
world (or as Reuther called it, "the third phase of the industrial
revolution"), namely, the changing labor force, the development of
new technologies, and a younger more diverse work force.
Other issues also have relevance still at the end of
the twentieth-century: a hostile government that supports or spawns
unfavorable legislation, the lack of cooperation between internationals,
the lack of effective local and central bodies, the stress of the life
of the organizers, the inhibitions of organizing in the South and
organizing among minorities, the difficulty of establishing a minimum
wage, the expansion of service and white collar workers. So, in a sense,
these documents -- letters and other correspondence, newspaper articles,
handbills, essays, reports and conference notes -- are a distant mirror
of our own time.
Intended as a resource book, I have divided the
materials into six sections: 1) AFL-CIO Union History, 2) Life of the
Organizer, 3) Techniques & Methods of Organizing, 4) Obstacles to
Organizing, 5) Organizing in the South, and Organizing in Baltimore. Unlike a history text, this
book does not make any definite argument or take any point of view,
other than contained in its topic, namely, union organizing and all that
that entailed during the 50s and 60s, and 70s. The reader can start at any point
in the text. The "Table of Contents" contains topic summaries,
under which there may be more than one document.
This work however does have an emphasis: Blacks and
the South. The first section contains, however, a brief history of
unionism from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. A brief summary
of activities of the AFL-CIO Department of Organization is also included
here. The reader unaware of U.S. union history might want to read this
section initially as a means of orientation. These pieces provide an
overview of some of the problems and successes of union organizing
during the period between 1955 and 1973.
In this first section, a stirring address by Martin
Luther King, Jr. is present to point toward the relationship of labor
and the Negro freedom movement. Thurgood Marshall's address in the fifth
section could have been included here, but his legal emphasis highlights
the legal problems the AFL-CIO had in the South, with its system of
legalized Jim Crow. Also present is material that provides background to
the development of Chavez's farm workers union in the late 1960s.
The most poignant documents in this book are letters
written by union organizers. We hear the gasp and cry of committed men
in the field working day and night for labor. The John Wiggs Case is
heartbreaking. This situation reveals the lack of power and respect
AFL-CIO organizers have in dealing with their superiors and their
ability to make life a living hell for the man or woman who fails to be
a "team player." It is hoped, nevertheless, that placing such
issues before the rank and file workers will bring about vibrant reforms
that the AFL-CIO can become a more relevant organization in American
life.
Some other issues contained within these letters
include the job opportunities (or the lack thereof) for organizers, the
problems of accounting for seniority on the merger of two organizations
(when record-keeping is haphazard and intentions are unclear), health
and stress issues, the phobia and scare of Communism, the use of union
dues to defeat an incumbent Republican, and, of course, race.
What organizers of the 50s and 60s had to say about
organizing and organizing in the South still has relevance in the 90s,
especially in light of the many failures still being encountered in the
South as well as other sections of the country by today's organizers.
(See, for example, the final piece in the book about organizing in
Mississippi.) The detailed methods and approaches contained within some
of these pieces can be a useful checklist for organizers in what needs
to be done and avoided in an organizing campaign.
Included also are qualities thought useful in a good
organizer.
The fourth section contains some of the problems that
stood in the way of organizers. Some result from internal problems and
others with social or legal barriers to organizing. The first piece in
this section is very poignant. A New Orleans woman cleaning woman,
employed at a union office, wrote a letter to George Meany and
complained about the money she was paid. Here's a curious irony that
should not be forgotten.
There were jurisdictional problems between the old
AFL and the old CIO unions. There are accusations of communists among
CIO locals. The 1958 layoffs created great strain on many organizers and
limited what could be done by the national AFL-CIO. The perennial
argument of servicing versus organizing continues today among service
employees unions. The question of corruption among Teamsters is as
relevant as yesterday's news. The problems of race among certain unions
is still a hot issue.
The fifth and largest section contains material on
the South. What is revealed here is the storm released after the 1954
Supreme Court decision on segregation that affected not only the Negro's
freedom movement but also the labor and union movement in the South.
Included also are numerous pieces on attempts to organize Johns Hopkins
Hospital in Baltimore in 1959 and 1969. Those were glorious years of
militant unionism when the poorest workers in Baltimore gained integrity
and dignity never known or even dreamed of.
Some of the pieces of the six section also come from
the GMMA archives and has mostly to so with organization attempts in
Baltimore by BSEIU and especially the organizing of health care workers,
mostly black and poor, and efforts at organizing them at one of the most
powerful institutions in Baltimore, namely, Johns Hopkins Hospital.
These efforts culminated in a union win in 1969 by Local 1199. It was
mostly the so-called non-professional workers, the black and the
poor, who were able to see the benefits of joining the union movement.
These struggles of health care workers in Baltimore and other cities
continue. There are still thousands of health care workers in Baltimore
who do not make a living wage and many retire with a meager pension
after twenty to thirty years of devoted service.
Some of the pieces of section six are recent. One of
the more interesting pieces, written by me, resulted from an interview
of the present president of Local 1199E-DC, Robert
Moore. This piece ties perceptively the civil rights movement, the
black consciousness movements, and the movement of poor black workers to
organize themselves against large non-profits like Johns Hopkins
Hospital to gain dignity and integrity. In addition, the piece on Walter
Lively should also be read to give further context for the efforts
of activists to make a better world for the poor in Baltimore.
This little slice of the Department of Organization
Collection provides a curious organizer's view of the 50s and 60s that
can be of interest also to those who have no vested interest in union
organizing. There is material here for the sociologist, the
psychologist, and the novelist, or for anyone who is interested in the
human drama. My fondest hope is that the reader enjoys reading these
archival documents as much as I have had in pulling them altogether.
* * *
* *
posted 24 July 2008 |
