state and the U.S. labor movement in the short twentieth century

[Bryant Etheridge]

I am seeking presenters for a panel on the state and the U.S. labor movement in the short twentieth century. My paper would focus on an aspect of New Deal collective bargaining policy and how it changed in the 1940s. Chronologically, I imagine papers will fall somewhere between the WWI-era NWLB and the Reagan-era NLRB. Thematically, they could address any of the ways the state (at the federal, state or local level) acted during that period to assist or hinder labor organizations in the accomplishment of their objectives. Strike activity, wage policy, full employment policy, anti-discrimination policy—all are possible areas of state-union interaction that could be examined as part of the panel.

 

My paper would be about what I term the “craft severance movement.” This movement, which emerged in the 1940s, was comprised of craftsmen who wished to leave the CIO unions they were a part of in order to join AFL craft unions. In order to leave the industrial bargaining units represented by CIO unions, they sought permission from the NLRB to form craft bargaining units. That separation process was known as “craft severance.” My research is a case study focused on southeast Texas from 1935 to 1955 but the movement was national in scope.

 

Please get in touch if any of this sounds interesting!

 

Thanks,

Bryant

[Caroline Propersi-Grossman]

Hi Bryant, 

Would you be interested in joining my panel on race, gender, ethnicity in the labor union? The papers cover: state attempts to integrate an AFL craft union, francophone radicals relationships with organized labor, turns towards separatism after the classical civil rights movement, and "runaway shops" that were relocated from the relatively militant northeast to the southern united states? 

Let me know!

Caroline