Congress of Industrial Organizations

An inventory of the Records of the Congress of Industrial Organizations at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives

Mailing Address: The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. 20064

Telephone: 202-319-5065

Email: archives@mail.lib.cua.edu

URL: http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/index.html

Historical Note

Discontented leaders of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed the Committee for Industrial Organizations (CIO) after the 1935 AFL Convention. The AFL's refusal to organize workers on an industrial model motivated John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers Union (UMW) President, Sidney Hillman, Amalgamated Clothing Workers (ACW) President, and other AFL leaders to form the CIO. The renegade union leaders also argued that the union movement should be more active in politics and enlist the support of the federal government in labor relations. Both worker activism, as embodied in major strikes in 1934 in San Francisco, Toledo, and Minneapolis, and federal government actions that favored union recognition, particularly passage of the Wagner Act earlier in 1935, encouraged Lewis, Hillman and the others. The CIO quickly evolved into an independent and competing union federation. At its first Constitutional Convention in 1938 the CIO changed its name to the Congress of Industrial Organizations, demonstrating its already established autonomy.

Although CIO leaders envisioned a more activist labor federation that included national unions organized on an industrial model, they had no clear idea of an alternative central federation structure. Consequently, the CIO national office created a national federation structure quite similar to the AFL's. The national CIO office certainly incurred more responsibility than the AFL central office. For example, it more aggressively assisted organizing drives throughout the country and quickly become a major participant in national politics. But the primary decision-making unit remained, like in the AFL, the individual national unions.

Other aspects of the CIO national office also mirrored its AFL counterpart. The CIO recreated the state and local labor federations found in the AFL. Chartered by the CIO national office, the state and local Industrial Union Councils (IUC) organized collaborative labor union activities in their own jurisdiction. The IUCs were composed of local unions which voluntary affiliated and financed the IUCs based on per-capita dues. IUC activities depended on the energy and strength of the member unions and included, but was not limited to, political action, local strike and organizing support, public events and celebrations. Bitter factional fights also developed in some state and local IUCs between the right and left wings of the labor movement. The national CIO resolved these disputes in places like the Los Angeles IUC (California) and the Wayne County IUC (Michigan).

Finally, the CIO also chartered Local Industrial Unions (LIU) directly affiliated with the CIO national office (as opposed to a national union). The LIUs were the rough equivalent of the AFL's Federal Labor Unions. Workers in industries where no appropriate national union existed created Local Industrial Unions, which were designed to be temporary. When enough workers joined LIUs in a particular industry the directly affiliated unions were to join together and create their own national union. In reality the LIUs were small and often short-lived local unions composed of workers in typically non unionized job categories. For example, the CIO chartered LIU #765, United Dispensary Workers, Louisville, Kentucky; LIU #1617, United Basket Workers, Garretsville, Ohio; and LIU #1641 (miscellaneous workers), in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1953 the CIO finally moved aggressively to move the idiosyncratic group of LIUs into the most appropriate national union.

While it created the central office and chartered its affiliated structures during the last half of the 1930s, the CIO also successfully utilized increased worker activism and a temporarily encouraging National Labor Relations Board (created by the Wagner Act to certify unions and encourage collective bargaining) to its advantage. The infant union federation scored important breakthroughs in the targeted mass industries, particularly in auto, steel, electrical, and rubber plants. For instance, the national CIO's Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC) scored some early triumphs in the open shop steel industry and led to the formation of the United Steelworkers of America in 1942. The CIO's commitment to organizing all unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled workers in an industry in one union meshed with its explicit pledge to organize workers regardless of race or religion into egalitarian unions. Although the CIO unions actual commitment to racial equality was uneven and imperfectly implemented, many African-American workers in the mass industries found an entrance into the labor movement that had been previously denied.

The CIO's reliance on the federal government increased during World War II. CIO leaders traded a wartime no-strike pledge (sometimes ignored by workers) for the federal government's help in increasing the stability of union membership. The federal government formed a series of tripartite organizations, like the National Defense Mediation Board and the National War Labor Board, manned by labor, government, and public representatives, to maintain wartime labor peace and increase production. The federal government also approved and encouraged maintenance of membership and dues check off agreements which helped stabilize union membership during the war.

When World War II ended in 1945 the CIO appeared to be in a strong position. But federal government support of unionization during World War II ended with the War. The post-World War II period saw a strong backlash against CIO progress. Industry leaders sought a retraction in CIO growth and in 1947 Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act. The Taft-Hartley Act--referred to by many in the CIO as the "slave labor act"--limited union actions in a number of different ways. For example, it made some union tactics illegal, like secondary boycotts; the Act allowed states to pass right-to-work laws that hampered union stability, primarily utilized in the south; and it mandated that union leaders sign affidavits pledging that they were not Communist party members. Not long after the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act the CIO expelled 11 unions for being Communist dominated.

By the time that AFL President William Green and CIO President Philip Murray died in 1952, the most important differences separating the CIO and the AFL had vanished. In response to the CIO's earlier activism and success, the AFL became more active, increased membership and participated more aggressively in politics. New federation presidents, George Meany (AFL) and Walter Reuther (CIO), completed a merger between the competing labor federations in 1955. The newly created American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) ended the CIO's twenty year tenure as an independent and competing labor federation.

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Scope and Contents

The CIO Records Collection originated from the main office of the national CIO located in Washington, DC. The records span from 1934-1958, but the vast majority encompass 1936-1955, the CIO's years as an independent labor federation. Throughout the CIO Records Collection researchers will find central office work completed by the entire CIO office staff, included most prominently are John Brophy, Katherine Pollick Ellickson, Len DeCaux, Walter Smethhurst, Anthony Smith, Allen Haywood, and Ralph Hetzel. Although much of the correspondence that the CIO office staff is responding to was mailed to CIO Presidents' John Lewis (1935-1940) and Phil Murray (1940-1952), only rarely do the records document work done by them. The records appear to be from a central office filing location which many people in the office had access to, filed into, and probably referred to while conducting routine office business. As a whole, the CIO Records Collection documents the creation of the CIO's central bureaucracy and all its component structures.

The records are divided into six series. The first four series, (1) National and International Union Series, (2) State Industrial Union Councils Series, (3) Local Industrial Union Councils Series, and (4) Local Industrial Unions Series, have been maintained primarily in the order they were originally transferred.

The (1) National and International Unions Series is composed of correspondence with national and international unions. The records are uneven, with unions established before the CIO being only sparsely documented and unions created after the CIO came into existence, like the Utility Workers Union, more substantially documented. These CIO created national unions usually began as organizing committees, such as the Utility Workers Organizing Committee, and then later became formal national unions. There are significant organizing drives and union conflicts documented in these files, but inconsistently so.

The (2) State and (3) Local IUC Series are primarily correspondence files focused on the chartering of local and state IUCs and documenting the CIO's help when problems occurred. Much of the correspondence is routine, but difficulties related to jurisdictional problems and factional squabbles are included at times. Researchers should note that these two series in particular are chronologically and topically inconsistent.

The (4) Local Industrial Unions Series is composed of records related specifically to chartering LIUs and their dispersal to national unions. Although the records are slim, this appears to be a complete record of the CIO's chartering of LIUs and their movement into national unions.

The (5) Central Office Correspondence Series is composed of two previously independent groups of records that were accidentally separated at the AFL-CIO offices and sent to the CUA Archives in two separate installments. The AFL-CIO transferred an incomplete alphabetical run of central office correspondence in 1964 another incomplete alphabetical run of correspondence identified as Labor's Non-Partisan League in 1967. The Labor's Non-Partisan League Correspondence Series had been available for research at the CUA Archives as a separate series prior to May 2000. It was determined, however, that the two transfers were both central office correspondence. These records are now merged into a single Central Office Correspondence Series (5). The series contains routine correspondence sent primarily to John L. Lewis and Phil Murray and often includes the response of the CIO office staff member. The correspondence covers topics like routine requests for information and CIO pamphlets, requests for CIO speakers at public events, compliments and criticisms of John L. Lewis, and general correspondence from other outside organizations and persons.

The last series (6), Export-Import Bank Series, is composed of materials sent to the CUA Archives in 1976. It contains reports and correspondence related to Senate Bill 3589 which sought to strengthen the Export-Import Bank and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Although the CIO Records Collection--along with the James Carey CIO Secretary-Treasurer Papers, the Katherine Pollick Ellickson Papers, and the Sidney Hillman Papers--is one of only a few collections of archival materials from the national CIO office available to researchers, its content is uneven. There is strong evidence that the collection was purged before it came to Catholic University. A researcher from CUA who used the CIO Records Collection and conducted research in the AFL-CIO office in the 1960s, shortly after the CIO Records Collection was transferred to the CUA Archives, claims to have been told that the CIO records were purged twice of sensitive materials. Several subsequent reseachers and ourselves have also noted the sparseness of the records. This would explain the absence of some of the important factional conflicts in CIO unions and in the CIO's state and local bodies. For example, much of the material available in the Wayne County and Michigan CIO IUC Collections at the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor History and Urban Affairs is missing. However, some areas of the CIO Records Collection still have important historical materials. Many regional areas and unions, Los Angeles and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, for example, contain valuable documentary evidence demonstrating the growth of unions, organization efforts, and factional conflicts within CIO structures at local, state and national levels. Moreover, the collection as a whole demonstrates the creation of the CIO bureaucracy, from a relatively small collection of national unions that opposed the AFL with no central structures holding them together, to an organization with a stable internal staff, and a strong nationwide presence of local and state wide labor organizations.

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Arrangement

The Records of the Congress of Industrial Organizations consists of six series:

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

None.

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Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) transferred the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) Records Collection to the Department of Archives, Manuscripts, and Museum Collections (now the American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives) at The Catholic University of America in four separate installments between 1962 and 1976. The AFL-CIO transferred the first four series (State Industrial Union Councils, Local Industrial Union Councils, National and International Unions, and Local Industrial Unions) to the CUA Archives in the first installment in 1962. This transfer, the largest of the four, contained 41.5 linear feet. The AFL-CIO added 9.5 linear feet of central office correspondence in 1964 and 4 linear feet of what was identified by the AFL-CIO as Labor's Non-Partisan League correspondence in 1967. Finally, in 1976 the AFL-CIO library transferred a small last installment, 0.5 linear foot, of materials related to Import-Export Bank legislation.

Processing Information

Processing completed in September 2000 by Joseph Turrini. Data Entry: Clint Tibbs, Joseph Turrini. EAD markup completed in March 2005 by Washington Research Library Consortium. Additional EAD markup completed in October 2005 by Jordan Patty.

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Related Material

John Brophy Papers

Philip Murray Papers

CIO Executive Board Meetings, microfilm edition (guide available), Volumes 1-2, 1935-1941

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Significant Subject Topics

Organizations:

Persons:

Subjects

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Additional Major Archival Sources on the CIO and Its National Unions

Catherwood Library, Labor-Management Documentation Center, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Records

Insurance Workers of America Records

International Fur and Leather Workers Union Records

International Ladies Garment Workers Union Records

Department of Manuscripts, University of Virginia Library (Charlottesville, VA)

W. Jett Lauck Papers

International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (San Francisco, CA) Library (Charlottesville, VA)

International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union Records

Pennsylvania State University, Labor Archives (University Park, PA)

David J. McDonald Papers

Clinton Golden Papers

United Steelworkers of America Records

Perkins Library, Manuscripts Department, Duke University (Durham, NC)

CIO Organizing Committee (Operation Dixie)

Rutgers University Libraries, Special Collections (New Brunswick, NJ)

International Union of Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers Records

State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin)

American Communications Workers of America

Textile Workers Union of America

Adolph Germer Papers

United Packinghouse Workers of America Records

United Electrical Workers Union/Labor Archives, University of Pittsburgh Library (Pittsburgh, PA)

United Electrical Workers Union Records

University of Maryland Department of Manuscripts and Archives (College Park, MD)

International Union of Marine, Shipyard Workers of America Records

University of Texas-Arlington Southwestern Labor History Archives (Arlington, TX)

United Packinghouse Workers of America (Southwest)

Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor History and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University (Detroit, MI)

James Carey Papers, (CIO Secretary-Treasurer)

Katherine Pollick Ellickson Papers

CIO Washington Office (1952-1955)

UAW President's Office--Walter Reuther Papers

Len DeCaux Papers

Western Historical Collections, University of Colorado Libraries (Boulder, CO)

International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers Records

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Selected Introductory Bibliography on CIO History and Sources

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Detailed Description of the Collection