support for organized labor by appointing AFL President Samuel Gompers to the Council of National Defense and the War Committee on Labor . AFL membership surged to more than four million .
• Following the 1918 armistice , unions sought to keep their recently won gains , even in the face of a downturn in the economy . In 1919 , an unprecedently high 21 % of the national labor force went on a series of more than 3,500 separate strikes against multiple industries . These actions caused a backlash against unionism . At the same time , courts issued a series of anti-union rulings peeling back some of the protections granted in the 1914 – 1916 years .
• The open shop “ company union ” movement gained more traction in the business-friendly environment of the 1920s . The rapid growth of manufacturing companies using assembly lines to produce automobiles , radios and household appliances meant that more workers were not “ craftsmen ,” but semi-skilled or even unskilled men and women who could be taught to be functional members of a manufacturing firm . They were not particularly attractive candidates for trade union membership .
• And , finally , organized labor suffered in 1924 from both the death of Samuel Gompers and the loss of the AFLendorsed Progressive Party presidential candidate Robert M . La Follette . AFL membership fell from 4.1 million in 1920 to less than 2.9 million in 1929 , a year in which only 1 % of the work force engaged in a strike .
A New Splinter Group
Under Samuel Gompers , the AFL had not been particularly interested in broadening its recruiting activities to include the semiskilled and unskilled personnel working on assembly lines . Yet as far back as 1912 , under its President John L . Lewis , the United Mine Workers ( UMW ) had been recruiting not just miners but also carpenters , electricians and others who worked in the coal mines . Similarly , the non-AFL-affiliated Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America ( ACWA ) under President Sidney Hillman was organizing workers of many types employed in the men ’ s clothing trades . In 1919 , some unions began lobbying the AFL ’ s annual conventions to continue pursuing
Philip Murray , president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations ( CIO ), delivers an opening address at the CIO ’ s Fourth National Convention in Detroit on November 17 , 1941 .
craft unionism while moving more aggressively into so-called industrial unionism . But President William Green led the resistance to those requests , even while more of the AFL ’ s smaller unions began to recruit members outside their traditional narrowly defined crafts .
In the early 1930s , workers in large mass production industries such as aluminum , automobiles and rubber began organizing themselves . Leaders representing many independent groups kept petitioning the AFL to formally adopt industrial unionism . They were even joined by some AFL members . But they all kept losing such requests at successive AFL annual conventions . Finally , the 1934 convention supported the formation of industrial unions — but only in certain industries . The dispute between the “ crafters ” and “ industrialists ” reached a peak during the 1935 annual convention when UMW President Lewis punched out Carpenters ’ Union President William L . Hutcheson . The next day , Lewis convened a meeting of several dozen supporters of industrial unionism . Three weeks later , they formed the Committee for Industrial Organization ( CIO ) within the AFL to promote that agenda . But AFL President Green did not recognize the legitimacy of that effort ; indeed , he even called for the committee to be disbanded .
Workers in several industries — especially automobiles , steel and rubber — responded favorably to the CIO ’ s organizing exertions . Within two years , its membership reached almost two million , while AFL membership declined to less than 3.2 million . In April 1938 , the new organization formally broke away from the AFL ; six months later , it renamed itself the Congress of Industrial Organization ( CIO ). During the next several years , the CIO added members in mass production industries throughout the Midwest and on the West Coast . At the same time , several AFL affiliates recognized the opportunities to build membership by extending their own recruiting efforts to those industries .
Over time , the two umbrella organizations each recruited both craft unions and industrial unions . But the CIO remained different from the AFL in a few key areas . It was a more centrally operated organization that did not give the local unions much autonomy in setting policies . It was led by several left-leaning officials who had some sympathy with socialist and even communist political philosophies that became more prevalent as the United States began developing a relationship with the Soviet Union . And it used a Political Action Committee ( PAC ) to arouse public opinion about issues and actively support selected political candidates .
UMW President Lewis was also head of the CIO . As president of its largest and most stable union , he dominated that larger organization and caused tension and discontent among other union
Bettmann
26 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2025 | www . MoAF . org