The CIO Challenge to the AFL: A History of the American Labor Movement, 1935-1941

Front Cover
Harvard University Press, 1960 - Business & Economics - 732 pages

The period immediately preceding World War II was probably the most critical in the history of the American labor movement. Prior to 1936, the trade unions were weak, but by 1941 a fundamental change in power relationships enabled them to penetrate the strongholds of American industry--steel and automobiles.

The CIO Challenge to the AFL is a three-part study. It discusses the split in the American Federation of Labor and the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations; presents eighteen specific industry or union case studies, each an independent essay in economic history; and, finally, analyzes various general aspects of the labor movement.

 

Contents

Background of the Struggle 3
59
The Organization of Steel
75
The Automobile Industry
123
Coal Mining
193
The Electrical and Radio Manufacturing Industries
239
The Rubber Industry
266
The Mens Clothing Industry
283
The Womens Clothing Industry
300
The Petroleum Industry
409
The Maritime Industry
427
The Teamsters
459
The Machinists
495
The Building Trades
514
Printing and Publishing
530
Railroad Unionism
566
Some General Aspects of the Labor Movement
583

The Renascence of Textile Unionism
325
ΙΟ The Meat Industry
349
ΙΙ The Lumber Industry
379
Notes
647
Index
715
Copyright

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About the author (1960)

Walter Galenson was Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Economics at Cornell University.