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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 21, 25 May 1940, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
CHICAGO – With the beginning of 1940 the Thurman Arnold “anti-trust” crusade got off to a flying start in Chicago. A whole series of indictments were returned against unions in the building trades after preliminary grand jury investigations. Now these “wheels of justice” have slowed down somewhat, but they keep on grinding, with court trial of the first case, that of the tile trade, set for June 3.
Involved in indictments so far are the tile setters, stone cutters, carpenters, electricians and glaziers, in each case some contracting firms and the unions together with some, if not all, of the officials of the unions as individuals. Named in indictments also are the AFL Chicago Building Trades Council and its officials.
As the grand jury investigation continued to grind along, its real objective became increasingly clear. No one is particularly impressed with protestations accompanying the indictments to the effect that the prosecution is not at all intended to interfere with what is classified as legitimate union activities. One look at the actual indictments shows what is happening.
For example, the electrical workers union is indicted for having combined with contracting firms in keeping out material not bearing the union label. The carpenters union is under fire because of its refusal to handle plywood manufactured by non-union labor in unorganized sawmills; a refusal also including some mills organized by the CIO. And to top the whole thing off in proper crusading style, the Building Trades Council was dragged into the net because of the adoption of a motion to support the indicted unions; one of its delegates for having made the motion, another for having given his second, the secretary for having entered it into the record and the president for having put the motion to a vote.
It is perfectly true that contracting firms are formally also under fire in this crusade, but that is merely incidental to its real aim. Union members here have very little doubt left that this aim is to bust up the unions. One needs only to remember the fact that in all of these cases, not the contracting firms, but the unions are the ones who take final action and enforce the refusal to handle non-union made material. And it is the unions that are already at this stage of the government’s crusade presented as the real culprits.
That cases of collusion between union officials and contracting firms, and for that matter also of the kind that violates trade union ethics, have existed almost everywhere no one needs to doubt. But it is equally clear that if the Thurman Arnold crusade really intended to get at the bottom of collusion in restraint of trade in the building industry, a really fertile field could be found among the material manufacturers and their monopoly price-fixing, as well as among the banks and insurance companies fixing arbitrarily exorbitant finance charges.
Refusal by union members to handle non-union material, however, is a matter of the very life of organized labor, and its right to press ahead for organization. It is this right that constitutes the greatest thorn in the side of the real monopoly concerns and their governmental hirelings, and it is a right that labor can never afford to give up. For the bosses and their government to be permitted to strike a serious blow against this right would mean a serious blow struck at the very vitals of organized labor.
Now that these cases appear in court the union busting aim of the crusade is further clarified. Court cases are costly and cut into union treasuries. The usual newspaper build-up follows in an effort to discredit union practice in the eyes of what is called the public. In reality it means an effort to sow distrust and throw fear into the minds of union members and wage workers in general; on the whole a grandiose scheme of disorganization and weakening of these unions. And let it be noted that a campaign for wage reductions follows right on the heels of the government union-busting crusade.
Even in respect to wage cutting the governmental agencies are also taking the initiative. It began with the WPA. In Chicago, the same as in so many other cities, lack of co-operation and unity of action among the building trades unions made it a relatively easy matter for the government to enforce the 130-hour month and put an end to the prevailing wage principle. By this lengthening of hours, building trades mechanics on the WPA have had their wages cut down to about 65c per hour. But this was only a beginning. A recent announcement by the federal housing authorities has arbitrarily reduced the wage scale for building trades maintenance workers employed on these projects to $1.00 an hour.
The first result is that Chicago building trades workers are asking ever more persistently: whose government is this anyway? Nearly all of them were in the past staunch supporters of the New Deal administration. Now many of them are becoming disillusioned and beginning to learn a fundamental lesson in the role and function of government in a capitalist democracy. That alone is progress. Maybe before these cases are over further steps will follow toward getting the building trades unions out of the conservative backwardness of the past.
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Last updated: 3 February 2019