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Our History A Union is Born The Turbulent Years The Conspiracy Trials The Beginning of the
Morrin Era The Depression and a New
Deal For Labor World War II Ironworkers Grow in the
1950's Part Two Part Three John H. Lyons Jr.
Elected President The Tradition Continues Pathways to the 21st
Century Under The Leadership of General President Jake West
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Part Two
THE GREAT STEEL STRIKE OF 1919 he Ironworkers and the entire A. F. of L. were behind the plan to organize all steel companies at the end of World War I. John Fitzpatrick, President of the Chicago Federation of Labor, and Samuel Gompers, met at the Morrison Hotel in Chicago to map out the strategy. William Z. Foster, who had successfully organized workers in the stockyards during the war, was put in charge of the organizing campaign. The Iron Workers saw the opportunity of organizing the fabricating plants and assisting the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers in their efforts to again organize steel after their defeat at Homestead in 1892. The strike began on September 22, 1919 with half a million workers across the country walking out. In the Calumet area of Illinois and Indiana almost 90 % of the 87,000 workers in that area went out on strike. At this time the average worker was working over a twelve hour day for only 42 cents an hour. After the "Great Steel Strike" of 1919, which ended in complete failure to organize the steel industry, it appeared that the struggle for union recognition of the Iron Workers was forever lost. A year after the strike, work slowed down. On January 11, 1919 the International became affiliated with the Metal Trades Department of the A. F. of L. By 1920 there were seventy shop local unions organized. Practically all of the trades engaged in the various iron shops throughout the country were affiliated nationally with the Metal Trades Department.
Since 1918, in just two years, the International Association made greater progress both from a financial and membership standpoint than it had from 1896 through 1917. This was accomplished without any International assessment being levied upon the membership.
A NEW CONSTITUTION The Second Biennial Convention and the Twenty-First International Convention was held September 20th to29th, 1920 in Cleveland Ohio. P. J. Morrin was reelected General President and Harry Jones was reelected Secretary/Treasurer. General President Morrin came along at the right moment; it was an advantageous time for change for the Iron Workers. The dynamite conspiracy problems were behind them, the convicted men released from Leavenworth, the armistice ending World War I had been signed, and construction firms were preparing for the coming building boom. All this, plus a significant shift in the attitude and thinking of the members was occurring; they began to realize that they needed a strong International Association, as well as a strong leader. Morrin's predecessors during the last decade and a half, Buchanan, Ryan, and McClory, were strong men but their powers were circumscribed by convention delegates who for years preferred muscular local unions and a limited International Union. Morrin's timing was perfect. At long last, the Sam Parks syndrome was cured. (During his days as the power of New York Local No. 2, Sam Parks was the strident advocate of strong locals and a restricted International Association.) The International Union Constitution, adopted at the founding convention, was modified at subsequent conventions. Before his election as General President, Paul J. Morrin decided that the existing Constitution was a patchwork document, inadequate for an ascendant trade union like the Iron Workers. He planned to make changes he deemed appropriate and proper as soon as he took office in 1918. General President Morrin engaged Frank P. Walsh, America's premiere labor attorney, to counsel him and the General officers on a revised and strengthened constitution. This was the same Frank Walsh whose brilliant legal mind and persuasive personality had been recognized by President Woodrow Wilson five years earlier, when he appointed him Chairman of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations. Later, during World War I President Wilson appointed Walsh Chairman of the War Labor Board. Walsh's counsel was invaluable to the President of the United States, as well as to the General President of the Iron Workers. A resolution passed at the Cleveland Convention empowered Morrin to appoint a fifteen-member committee "for the purpose of rewriting the Constitution to conform with present day needs." Although much of the plan for the new Constitution had already been prepared by General Counsel Frank Walsh, it was important that a group of local union and district council officers approve his ideas and provide other ideas, revisions and amendments. The General Constitution Committee, whose members represented all branches of the trade and every section of North America, convened at Headquarters in Indianapolis an January 24, 1921. The members were:
The committee worked long hours and diligently for two straight weeks and the new constitution was approved and adopted on February 7, 1921. General President Morrin sought broader powers for the General President as the Union's leader and a central role for the General Executive Board. He got both. He knew it was essential to have a potent International headed by a strong General President instead a loose confederation of local unions and a limited General Presidency, if the Union was to succeed in organizing the non-union Ironworkers and to stake out its proper place in the construction industry. President Morrin hailed the new Constitution as a great benefit to the union; the addition of three General Vice Presidents, a trimmed Executive Board, International approval of local agreements and work rules and tightening relationships with local unions by writing a uniform constitution for all locals, among other provisions. In 1921 a brief economic collapse resulted in a loss of 5,000 Ironworker's jobs. If the Iron Workers were in a desperate situation in 1921, their foes certainly were not. That same year nearly 200 open shop associations met in Chicago and renamed their drive to crush the unions "The American Plan" (Similar to the "Right-to-Work" committee of today). Their motto read:
In reality, "The American Plan" meant the annihilation of organized labor, and indeed a few long-standing trade unions were dissolved at this time. In fact, organized labor felt that anti-labor activities were condoned by the Harding Administration, including those who were later implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal. In 1921, Federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis in Chicago arbitrated a building trades strike, ordering a 25 percent wage reduction from the 1914 level (much lower than employers had agreed to pay), and even formed a committee to enforce his own "Landis Decision" with Private detectives. Meanwhile, barely one out of every ten workers was earning $2,000.00 a year which was considered necessary for a "minimum" health and decency budget. Scroll to the top and click on "The Beginning of the Morrin Era - 1918 to 1929 - Part Three"
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