New Unionism refers to efforts to organize American workers in ways that sharply contrasted with the more conservative methods of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Led by Samuel Gompers, it focused its organizing efforts on forming trade unions among skilled workers who were overwhelmingly white, male, and native-born. The AFL became the nation’s first firmly established and influential labor organization and solidified its position by eschewing radical politics and labor violence. At times, it worked cooperatively with employers both in the workplace and through organizations such as the National Civic Federation.
Despite the AFL’s success, the vast majority of American workers remained unorganized and poorly paid. Among the reasons for this failure were the increasing use of sciENTific management techniques in mass production and the wave of new immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, who competed with each other for factory jobs. The nature of work itself also was changing. Receding were the days when skilled craft workers enjoyed positions of privilege, prestige, and power because of their specialized knowledge. With the introduction of interchangeable parts and assembly line production, many employers no longer required highly skilled craft workers. Finally, the number of industrial workers increased dramatically, as the automobile, steel, mining, and oil industries built massive plants and refineries and employed hundreds, even thousands, of workers.
When the AFL failed to organize these unskilled and semi-skilled industrial workers, other organizations stepped into the breach. Where the AFL had restricted its efforts to organizing only highly skilled workers, many of the new unions attempted to organize workers throughout entire industries. One of the early examples of this was the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). Led by John Mitchell, the UMWA attempted to organize mine workers regardless of their job classification within the industry. It was successful in recruiting new members in both bituminous and anthracite coal in the eastern fields and began to recruit in the West. Other unions, such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), had as their purpose the organization of workers on an industrial basis, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, or occupation.
These new unions also differed from the AFL in that they were more progressive and even radical in their politics. Some had strong socialist influences and sought state intervention in labor relations; others looked toward direct action in the workplace as a cure for workers’ ills. They were more willing to confront employers to gain recognition or secure their demands. When the UMWA encountered resistance to its attempts to organize the Pennsylvania miners, 140,000 miners walked off the job in the 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike, one of the nation’s largest. Led by William “Big Bill” Haywood, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and others, the IWW pursued its goals through work stoppages, general strikes, boycotts, strikes, and other forms of direct action in eastern textile and electrical manufacturing, midwestern agriculture and timber, and at the iron ore deposits of the Mesabi Range in Minnesota and Michigan. Some of the most dramatic demonstrations of the New Unionism were in the Shirtwaist Makers Strike of 1909-10 and the Lawrence Strike of 1912.
One result of the rise of new unionism was that the labor movement grew in size and strength between 1900 and 1920. Union membership increased from 2 million in 1904 to 5 million in 1920. Throughout the country, workers were organizing unions and demanding pay increases, shorter workdays, and improved working conditions. The burgeoning labor movement also began flexing its political muscle, securing passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) at the federal level and workmen’s compensation laws at the state level. Through the Industrial Relations Commission, the organized labor movement for the first time played an active role in shaping federal policy on labor relations. Despite the growing influence of the New Unionism, employers continued to resist bitterly the more radical new unions, especially the IWW, preferring to work with the more conservative AFL or to resist with private and state action all labor unions. Between 1914 and 1919, the AFL was the chief beneficiary of the increased power of the labor movement and worked closely with Woodrow Wilson’s administration to support the American effort during World War I.
The end of the war also brought an end to cooperation between the labor movement and the federal government. It resulted as well in severe repression of the new unionism. Across the country, workers frustrated by pledges not to strike during the war, by low wages, and by rampant inflation, walked off the job in one of the largest waves of strikes in the country’s history. The Steel Strike of 1919, which began on September 22, and lasted until January 8, 1920, involved 365,000 steelworkers and marked the end of the uneasy labor accord reached during the war. The backlash against the strike wave and the labor movement was swift and widespread. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer was convinced that many of the new unionists were supporters of the Russian Revolution and were plotting to overthrow the federal government. With the backing of the AFL and many employers, Palmer launched a series of raids against suspected radicals, which became known as the Red Scare. As one of the chief targets of the Red Scare, the IWW had its offices raided on several occasions. Big Bill Haywood and 165 other IWW leaders were arrested and convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 for hindering the war effort. Similar repression took place throughout the Northwest, where the IWW had been strongest. By the end of 1920, the organization was in total disarray and ceased to be an effective force in the American labor movement.
The demise of New Unionism severely undermined the strength of the labor movement and ensured that it remained in a weakened state throughout the 1920s. New industrial and mixed unions had brought thousands of previously unorganized workers into the labor movement, challenged the supremacy of employers, and criticized conservative state and federal policies toward organized labor. The massive post-World War I strike wave indicated the extent to which new ideas and a willingness to take direct action had taken root among American workers, but the divisions between the new and more radical unions, such as the IWW and the older, more conservative AFL, undermined the effectiveness of the strike wave and helped ensure the demise of the new unionism.
See also labor and labor movement.
Further reading: David Montgomery, The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
—Robert Gordon
World History
