Today in Labor History February 12, 1880: John L. Lewis was born. He was president of the United Mine Workers (UMWA) from 1920-1960, and founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). In 1935, he pulled the UMWA from the American Federation of Labor (and punched out Carpenters Union President William Hutcheson in the process) when the AFL refused to endorse industrial unionism. Lewis then formed the CIO, which organized millions of unskilled, mass production workers into unions in the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1920s, he used red-baiting, stolen elections and violence to expel the communists from the UMWA. Yet he refused to make his officials take the non-Communism oath required by the Taft-Hartley bill. Canadian labor leader J.B. McLachlan called Lewis a traitor to the working class.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #cio #union #communism #TaftHartley #JohnLewis #UnitedMineWorkers #IndustrialUnionism

Today in Labor History December 9, 1869: The Knights of Labor was founded on this date in Philadelphia as a secret society open to all members of the producing classes except "parasites" like stockbrokers, gamblers and lawyers. The Knights were one of the most important labor organizations of the late 1800s, reaching a membership of 700,000 by 1886. While other unions were fighting for a 10-hour work day, the Knights were demanding an 8-hour day, as well as an end to child and convict labor. They were also one of the earliest labor organizations to accept blacks and women, and one of the first organized by industry, rather than craft. Yet they also supported the Chinese Exclusion Act and participated in anti-Chinese riots.

#knightsoflabor #industrialunionism #union #racism #AntiAsianHate #feminism #8hourday #strike #labor #workingclass #immigrant