On November 11, 1942, the Congress of Industrial Organizations began its annual convention. One of the key parts of this convention was the creation of the Committee to Abolish Racial Discrimination,
This is the grave of John Brophy. Born in 1883 in Lancashire, England, Brophy grew up in the coal mining world. His family emigrated to the United States in 1892 to take up mining in Pennsylvania. The
On March 2, 1937, U.S. Steel signed a contract with the Steel Workers Organizing Committee. This victory for SWOC was not only a critical early win for what would soon become the Congress of Industria
Yeselson has an excellent long-form review of two new books on the CIO, race, and New Deal liberalism that look flawed but necessary anyway. You will want to read the whole thing if you care about the
This is the grave of Sidney Hillman. Hillman was born into a Jewish family in Lithuania in 1887. He was training to be a rabbi, but fell in with political radicals, joined the Bund, and fled Tsarist a
This is the grave of Philip Murray, former CIO president and of the United Steelworkers of America. Born in Blantyre, Scotland in 1892. His father was a miner and union leader who had himself immigrat
I’ve been reading and rereading some key books of American labor history of late and I have a few thoughts. First on the CIO, after reading Robert Zieger’s 1995’s book, The CIO, 1935
On September 22, 1946, the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural & Allied Workers of America (FTA) reached a contract agreement with the Piedmont Tobacco Company, marking an early victory in the CIO’