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Page 3 of 4 Under the Thumb Between 1899 and 1908 the open-shop movement spurred a series of strikes in several industries which almost resulted in the annihilation of unionism and total control by employers. Employers were portrayed by open-shop proponents as victims of tyrannical, corrupt union business agents who interfered with the “inalienable” right of employers to run their businesses. The National Association of Manufacturers assumed leadership of the movement in 1903 and created the Citizens’ Industrial Association. The latter organization depicted the closed shop as “un-American,” the antithesis of free enterprise. Thousands of people believed the CIA’s educational campaign. Ministers and educators denounced unions as the workingman’s oppressors. Harvard President Charles W. Eliot extolled the strikebreaker as “the finest type of American citizen whose liberty had to be protected at all costs.”
Similar strategies in other industries not only resulted in the establishment of open shops, but also caused organized labor to “live down to” the accusations made by employers. For example, it appeared that by limiting the number of apprentices, restricting use of labor saving machinery and limiting output, the building trades unions wanted only to increase construction costs-to the detriment of other interests. In other cases business agents used their office to strong-arm employers and increase their personal treasuries. The violence and destruction occurring during many of the confrontations of this period convinced the public that Unions were unscrupulous enough to destroy lives and property for their own interests; therefore, unionism was condemned. Another tactic used successfully by employers and the federal government against unionism was the creation of’ a climate of fear, the “Red Scare’-of anarchists taking over, of revolution, of the destruction of the “American way of life.’” Through the hysteria generated by sensational headlines trumpeting the radical alliances of unionists, employers and the government could justify the increasing use of violence against strikers. Page 3 of 4 |
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One example of the tactics used during this period is provided by the fate of the New York building trades unions. By 1903 the building tradesmen had formed the United Board of Building Trades, securing control of labor conditions and the affiliation of workers employed by building-material dealers. Then material and lumber dealers joined together and called a lockout, halting New York’s construction industry. Contractors then formed the Building Trade Association and pooled their efforts with the dealers to exterminate the unions. The coalition split the United Board when it demanded tradesmen work with whatever material the contractors used. Then the contractors demanded abolition of the sympathetic strike and creation of an arbitration board. When the semiskilled and unskilled trades refused to accept this, the contractors threatened formation of dual organizations among those trades. Most of the trades gave in, leaving control of the New York building industry in the hands of the employers.