On the heels of the Great Depression and in the face of wartime limits on wages, labor turned to mass disruption and strikes to alleviate the poverty of the working class.
In examining the crisis in U.S. labor relations that followed World War II, one is confronted not by a single dramatic event but by a series of interrelated industrial struggles. Between 1945 and 1948, concerns about the postwar economy and labor reorganization swelled into a nationwide wave of strikes that influenced all levels of employment. The strikes occurred in the political vacuum created by divisions within the U.S. workforce, the shift in industrial production from a wartime to a peacetime economy,
During the war, government intervention into industrial relations had been deemed necessary to ensure uninterrupted production of war materials. Beginning in 1940, under the slogan National Unity, the government enforced a policy of uneasy collaboration between unions and employers. William Green of the American Federation of Labor
Composed of four members each from labor, management, and the public, the board’s primary duties were to regulate wages and settle disputes between labor and management. In such disagreements, the board not only was the final arbiter but also set limits on what the disagreeing parties could negotiate voluntarily. Thus, in July, 1942, the War Labor Board implemented the Little Steel formula
Despite these governmental efforts to create economic stability, commodity prices rose 33 percent. Inflation rates were severe enough to provoke strikes during the war, against the “no-strike” pledges of most wartime industrial union leaders. In 1943, almost five thousand unauthorized work stoppages occurred, affecting more than two million laborers. During the same year, John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers
That such a major walkout could take place given the harsh wartime restrictions made many labor analysts predict chaos after the war ended—and many of their concerns were realized. The dissolution of the War Labor Board following the United States’ victory over Japan in 1945 brought on a massive wave of strikes. With the end of national price controls, the already high inflation rate soared to unprecedented heights, yet employee wages, held by the Little Steel formula, showed little growth. To overcome the gap between prices and wages, unions attempted to negotiate wage increases. When negotiations failed, strikes were called.
Beginning in 1946, the United Auto Workers
The auto strikers were soon joined by workers throughout industry. On January 15, 1946, 174,000 electrical workers struck General Electric. The next day, 93,000 meat packers struck. On January 21, 750,000 steelworkers struck U.S. Steel. At the height of these and 250 lesser disputes, 1.6 million workers were on strike. On April 1, 340,000 of Lewis’s coal miners struck again, causing a nationwide brownout. A May 23 railroad strike by engineers and trainmen over work-rule changes brought an almost complete shutdown of the nation’s commerce.
The strike wave, however, was not limited entirely to industrial workers. Strikes were widespread among teachers and municipal workers, and there were more strikes in transportation, communication, and public utilities than in any previous year. In short, the first six months of 1946 marked the most concentrated period of labor-management strife in U.S. history, with 2.97 million workers involved in strikes—and by the end of the year, that figure had risen to 4.6 million.
Spurring the strikers was the idea of counter-power over such management decisions as the speed of work, numbers of workers per task, what foremen were acceptable, and how the work was organized. The real uniting factor for the unions, however, was the long-standing push for higher wages. In 1947, the government moved to contain the strike movement. In the auto dispute, President Harry S. Truman appointed a fact-finding board and appealed to the strikers to return to work pending its decision; similar boards were created for numerous other industries. In most cases, however, the findings of the strike boards were insufficient to satisfy union demands. Where fact-finding boards were unable to set limits on the strike wave, the government turned to direct seizure of industries, still authorized under wartime powers.
Overall, unions made little effort to combat the government’s attack. Except for Lewis’s United Mine Workers, fined $3.5 million for insubordination, all returned to work when the government seized their industries. After June 23, 1947, they had less choice in the matter: The Taft-Hartley Act
The final settlement of the strike wave granted wage increases of only 17 percent, not enough to keep up with lost income from cutbacks in overtime. Contract language regarding control over the workplace strengthened management at the expense of the workers, and wage increases with no bar against price hikes meant that unions’ gains came at the expense of the consumer.
The labor unrest was finally quelled by the conservative political response to the strikes of 1943 and 1946, combined with the emerging conservatism of the Cold War as embodied in the Taft-Hartley Act. To enforce its restrictions, that act included strict anticommunist oaths for union officers. Elimination of domestic communists from the trade union movement was seen not only as a way to prevent another massive strike wave but also as an essential ingredient of the larger anticommunist crusade typified by Senator Joseph McCarthy and his counterparts on the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC).
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Barnard, John. Walter Reuther and the Rise of the Auto Workers. Boston: Little, Brown, 1983. A complete biography of the celebrated union organizer; discusses his view of the place of labor in the U.S. economy. -
Brecher, Jeremy. Strike! San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Narrates and analyzes rank-and-file labor struggles; discusses the major strikes of U.S. workers between 1877 and 1970, including the 1946 strike wave. Index. -
DeCaux, Len. Labor Radical: From the Wobblies to the CIO. Boston: Beacon Press, 1970. A “personal history” that spans the period from 1910 to the 1960’s. As a participant in the labor movement, DeCaux provides a unique perspective on the 1940’s strike wave. Index. -
Lens, Sidney. The Crisis of American Labor. New York: Sagamore Press, 1959. A political and social analysis of post-World War II labor unrest. Focuses on key labor leaders, including John L. Lewis and Walter Reuther. Index. -
Lingeman, Richard R. Don’t You Know There’s a War On? The American Home Front, 1941-1945. Updated ed. New York: Nation Books, 2003. Details all aspects of the American domestic experience during World War II, from Japanese internment to rationing. -
Lipsitz, George. Class and Culture in Cold War America. South Hadley, Mass.: J. F. Bergin, 1981. Analyzes the effects of the collective actions and aspirations of workers after World War II on the United States’ economic, political, and social identity. Contains a chapter chronicling the strike wave of 1946. Bibliography, index. -
Zieger, Robert. John L. Lewis: Labor Leader. Boston: Twayne, 1988. Describes in detail Lewis’s rise through the ranks of the United Mine Workers; compares Lewis’s goals for the labor movement with those of Walter Reuther. Index.
6.6 Million Women Enter the U.S. Labor Force
Roosevelt Bans Discrimination in Defense-Industry Employment
Roosevelt Signs the Emergency Price Control Act
United States Begins the Bracero Program
Zoot-Suit Riots Exemplify Ethnic Tensions in Los Angeles
Race Riots Erupt in Detroit and Harlem
Employment Act
Taft-Hartley Act Passes over Truman’s Veto