Five Labor Leaders in History

　 

 

By Linda Burchill

Broadcast: September 5, 2005

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ANNCR:

Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. At the beginning of the twentieth century, American laborers often worked long hours for little pay. Many worked under extremely dangerous conditions. About five-hundred-thousand workers, however, had joined groups called labor unions, hoping to improve their situation.

Today, Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about five labor leaders who worked to improve conditions for American workers.

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VOICE ONE:

In Nineteen-Hundred, the largest national organization of labor unions was the American Federation of Labor. Its head was Samuel Gompers.

Gompers had moved to New York with his parents when he was thirteen years old. He was twenty-four when he began working for the local union of cigar makers. He worked for the labor movement for sixty years.

VOICE TWO:

Samuel Gompers had helped create the A-F-L in the late Eighteen-Eighties. He led the organization for all but one year until his death in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. Gompers defined the purpose of the labor movement in America. He also established the method used to solve labor disputes.

Gompers thought unions should work only to increase wages, improve work conditions and stop unfair treatment of workers. He called his method pure and simple unionism.

Samuel Gompers sought immediate change for workers. He used group actions such as strikes as a way to try to force company owners to negotiate.

VOICE ONE:

Gompers was criticized for going to social events with industry leaders, and for compromising too easily with employers. But Gompers believed such actions helped his main goal. He believed if workers were respected their employers would want to make working conditions better.

Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, the labor movement won its first small gains. For example, the federal government recognized the right of workers to organize. That happened when union representatives were part of the National War Labor Board during World War One.

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VOICE TWO:

John L. Lewis expanded the American labor movement with a campaign he called organizing the unorganized.Lewis was the head of the United Mine Workers of America. He also was the vice-president of the A-F-L.

In Nineteen-Thirty-Five, Lewis formed the Committee for Industrial Organization within the A-F-L. He wanted the C-I-O to organize workers in mass production industries, such as automobile industry. The A-F-L mainly organized unions of workers who had the same skills. But Lewis believed skilled and unskilled workers in the same industry should be organized into the same union.

Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. It gave workers the legal right to join unions and to negotiate with employers. John L. Lewis thought it was the right time to press the large industries to recognize workers' rights.

The A-F-L, however, decided not to support such action and expelled the unions that belonged to the C-I-O. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, the C-I-O began operating as another national labor organization. Lewis was its leader.

VOICE ONE:

John L. Lewis was an extremely colorful and effective speaker. He had worked as a coal miner and could relate to the most terrible conditions workers faced. More than three million workers joined the C-I-O in its first year as a separate organization. For the first time, labor won many strikes and permanent improvements in workers conditions.

For many years, presidents, members of Congress, and business leaders considered John L. Lewis the voice of labor. And, American workers saw Lewis as their hero. By the Nineteen-Fifties, the labor movement an established part of American life.

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VOICE TWO:

Walter Reuther was the vice-president of the C-I-O under Lewis, and became its president in Nineteen-Fifty-Two. Reuther believed unions had a social responsibility. His ideas were partly influenced by his German father who was a socialist.

Walter Reuther was trained to make tools to cut metal. He joined the United Automobile Workers union when it first formed in Nineteen-Thirty-Five.

VOICE ONE:

Walter Reuther was president of the United Auto Workers for twenty-three years beginning in Nineteen-Forty-Six. He shaped the U-A-W into one of the most militant and forward-looking unions. He held strikes to gain increased wages for workers, but, at the same time, he expected workers to increase their rate of production. He was the first to link pay raises to productivity increases. Reuther also was greatly concerned about civil rights and the environment.

In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Reuther helped the A-F-L and C-I-O re-join as one organization.

Reuther's ideas were recognized worldwide. But they also brought him enemies. He survived three murder attempts. He said, "You have to make up your mind whether you are willing to accept thing