Term paper on Growth of Organized Labor during the 1930s

Growth of Organized Labor during the 1930s

RESOURCE GUIDE

During the 1930s, organized labor grew significantly, its membership trebling from 3.6 million in 1930 to more than 10 million in 1941. New Deal legislation, particularly the National Labor Relations Act (better known as the Wagner Act), aided this growth, as did the efforts of New Dealers such as Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins. So too did the unionization of unskilled workers that followed the split within the ranks of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) in 1938. The surge in CIO membership resulted largely from the successful unionization of the automobile and steel industries after bitter strikes.
Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Discuss the impact of the New Deal on organized labor.

2. Discuss the split within the AFL and the formation of the CIO.

3. Discuss the unionization of the steel industry.

4. Discuss the unionization of the automobile industry.

5. Discuss the career of John L. Lewis as a labor leader.

Suggested Sources : See entries 32 and 34 for related items.

REFERENCE SOURCES

The ABC-CLIO Companion to the American Labor Movement . Paul F. Taylor. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1993. Alphabetically arranged entries of personalities, events, issues, and other areas. Good chronology. Part of the publisher’s series.

Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor . James C. Docherty. Blue Ridge, PA: Scarecrow, 1996. Valuable for its comprehensive treatment of organized labor on an international scale. Places the American labor movement into perspective. Entries treat personalities, events, organizations, and other areas.

GENERAL SOURCES

Boyle, Kevin, ed. Organized Labor and American Politics, 1894–1994: Essays on the Labor-Liberal Alliance . Albany : State University of New York Press, 1998. Newly published collection of writings on liberalism and labor union political activity.

Clark, Gordon L. Unions and Communities under Siege: American Communities and the Crisis of Organized Labor . Cambridge , UK : Cambridge University Press, 1989. Study of industrial relations, with a focus on trade unions and community development, by a British scholar.

Draper, Alan. Conflict of Interests: Organized Labor and the Civil Rights Movement in the South, 1954–1968 . Ithaca , NY : ILR, 1994. Good account of organized labor in the South and its relationship to race relations in the years following the emergence of labor as a political force. Published as part of Cornell Studies in Industrial and Labor Relations.

Foner, Philip S. Organized Labor and the Black Worker, 1619–1981 . 2d ed. New York : International Publishers, 1982. Comprehensive general history of blacks and the labor struggle.

Goldfield, Michael. The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States . Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1987. Examination of the setbacks organized labor has faced in the past few decades following its period of expansion.

Goode, Bill. Infighting in the UAW: The 1946 Election and Ascendancy of Walter Reuther . Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1994. Treats the struggle of Walter Reuther to become president of the United Auto Workers. Part of the publisher’s Contributions in Labor Studies series.

Halpern, Rick, and Roger Horowitz. Meatpackers: An Oral History of Black Packinghouse Workers and Their Struggle for Racial and Economic Equality . New York : Twayne, 1996. A history of the union beginning in the 1930s to the 1960s. Based on interviews with members of the union.

Nelson, Daniel. Shifting Fortunes: The Rise and Decline of American Labor, from the 1820s to the Present . Chicago : Ivan R. Dee, 1997. Brief historical survey of the role of workers with attention to governmental policy as a factor.

Puette, William. Through Jaundiced Eyes: How the Media View the Organized Labor. Ithaca, NY: ILR, 1992. Interesting treatment of press coverage given to trade unions and to industrial relations.

Tomlins, Christopher L. The State and the Unions: Labor Relations, Law and the Organized Labor Movement in America , 1880–1960 . New York : Cambridge University Press, 1985. General overview of labor legislation and its relationship to trade unions.

Zieger, Robert H., ed. Organized Labor in the Twentieth-Century South . Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991. Collection treating trade unions and race relations in the South.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Bernstein, Irving . A Caring Society: The New Deal, the Worker, and the Great Depression, a History of the American Worker, 1933–1941 . Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1985. Informative history of the working class from the Depression to the outbreak of World War II.

Horowitz, Ruth L. Political Ideologies of Organized Labor: The New Deal Era. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1978. Concise, informative examination of the period of the New Deal and the rise of the CIO.

Paulsen, George E. A Living Wage for the Forgotten Man: The Quest for Fair Labor Standards, 1933–1941 . Selinsgrove , PA : Susquehanna University/Associated University Presses, 1996. First important study of the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 and its significance for labor history.

Roberts, John W. Putting Foreign Policy to Work: The Role of Organized Labor in American Foreign Relations, 1932–1941 . New York : Garland , 1995. Detailed analysis of the considerations of organized labor in the development of foreign relations prior to World War II.

Simonds, Patricia. The Founding of the AFL and the Rise of Organized Labor . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Silver Burdett, 1991. Easy-to-read sixty-four-page account of the AFL and other early unions in their struggle for better conditions. Good background material.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Colman, Penny. A Woman Unafraid: The Achievements of Frances Perkins. New York : Atheneum, 1993. Easy-to-read brief biography of the first woman cabinet member and fighter for labor reform.

Dubofsky, Melvyn, and Warren Van Tyne. John L. Lewis: A Biography. Abr. ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986. Well-focused and enlightening biography of the important labor leader. Admirably shortened to 387 pages from the initial 1977 effort of 619 pages.

Lichtenstein, Nelson. Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit . (1995). Reprint. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1997. Detailed and thorough biography of the life and career of one of the foremost labor leaders.

O’Donnell, L. A. Irish Voice and Organized Labor in America: A Biographical Study. Westport, CT : Greenwood, 1997. Collective biography of Irish American officials and leaders of the various trade unions.

AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES

The Great Depression and the New Deal . Wynnewood, PA: Schlessinger Media/Library Video. 1996. Videocassette. The eighteenth of twenty titles in the United States History Video Collection, this 35-minute presentation treats the Wagner Act and growth of unions, as well as the Depression and growth of welfare.

Zwerin, Charlotte M. ‘‘Sit Down and Fight: Walter Reuther and the Rise of the Auto Workers Union.” The American Experience . Santa Monica, CA: PBS Home Video. 1993. Videocassette. 1-hour profile of the life of Walter Reuther, with emphasis on the early development of the union.

WORLD WIDE WEB

‘‘Federal Labor Law.” History of U.S. Labor Law . April 1995. http://garnet.berkeley.edu:3333/.labor/.files/.archive/.labor.law.html Summary of important legislation, drawn from the Congressional Digest , June–July 1993, beginning with the Clayton Act of 1914 and ending with the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959.