Eugene V Debs Research Paper

Employee and Labor Relations MG 216-44

The US Department of Labor Hall of Fame
Eugene V. Debs & John L. Lewis

Professor Juliet Grant Rachel Frederick Date: 9/24/2013 Monroe College- 2013 Spring Semester

Eugene V Debs Any discussion on the life of Eugene V Debs quickly raises certain critical questions in the development of the American Labor Movement – Craft
vs. Industrial unionism, the viability of potential action and the need for a labor party. Debs himself was at the center of such controversy for at least 50 years as an official of the Locomotive Firemen, the leader of the America Railroad Union and the most popular figure in American Socialism in the first two decades of this century (Robert & Lawrence, p.1). Labor leader, radical, socialist and presidential candidate; Eugene Victor Debs was a homegrown American original. Eugene V. Debs was born in November 5, 1855 and died on October 20th 1926 he was the son of an immigrant. He left school at age 14 and became a railroad shop worker for 5 cents a day. At age 16 he joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and began to work as a union organizer. Although he served as both a city and state elected official, his devotion was to the labor movement. So in 1893 he broke away from the Brotherhood and formed the American Railroad Union (ARU). Frustrated by the inability of the numerous railroad craft unions to maintain solidary during the 18 days strike against the Great Northern Railroad. Debs hoped this union of employees across craft lines would prove able to sustain a job action (Carrell & Heavrin, pg.48 2013). The strike which occurred because of the desperate employees and families from Pullman City who came with an appeal for support in their struggle with the Pullman Company. The so called “Pullman Boycott” grew out of the ARU‘s sympathy for the plight of laid off workers and reduced wages but no reduction in rent or prices for groceries at the company store where they were required to shop. Debs advocated caution and urged efforts at mediation before the ARU took on the Pullman Company.
Debs’ words of caution went unheeded, besides, the Pullman executives refused all efforts at mediation, so Deb had no choice but to lead the ARU in the boycott. The full force of support from all the railroad company owners plus the Federal government, including the legal system and the National Guard, not to mention solid support from the press, were all marshaled in a solid front aimed at breaking the strike and destroying the up-start union. The ARU got virtually no support from other unions or the Gompers led American Federation of Labor. The result was total disaster for the ARU. The strike was broken (Jefferson T, 1992). Debs and other ARU officials were sentenced to 6 months in jail for having violated injunction against the strike. There Debs read Marx’s Das Kapital and came to believe that the labor struggle in the U.S represented the struggle between the classes in Socialism versus Capitalism. When Debs started out as a labor organizer he decried strikes and violence. But years after of strikebreaking by Pinkerton agents and rival unions and futility of intrusion struggles led to a change at heart and for the next 30 years, Debs led the Democratic socialist movement among the workers of America. He espoused industrial unionism in the economic realm and socialism in the political realm to protect workers from the unbridled capitalism facing the United States in the century. In his time as Socialist Party of America‘s presidential candidate Debs waged a campaign for such so called radical ideas as abolition of child labor, the right of women to vote, a graduated income tax, the direct election of the U.S senators and so on (Carrell & Heavrin, p.53-55, 2013).
Debs had succeeded in demonstrating what role the industrial type of union could play in a society where workers’ rights could be protected.
So the ARU remained as an example of the superior type of union organization which united workers by industry rather than by interests of craft or skill. Though Debs was no longer a union leader this did not mean that his continued interest in workers’ rights would be expressed only in political activities. Wherever and whenever workers were in confrontation with owners, Debs was likely to show up to offer support and encouragement. As you can see Debs rightfully deserved his position in the U.S Department Hall of Fame he was important in Labor Relation’s history. An uncompromising, heartfelt fighter for economic and social justice, he was brilliant, powerful and eminently
human.

John L. Lewis John L.
Lewis once said “I have pleaded (labor 's) case, not in the quavering tones of a feeble mendicant asking alms, but in the thundering voice of the captain of a mighty host, demanding the rights to which free men are entitled”. John Lewis was an eloquent spokesman for working people throughout the United States (United States Department of Labor, 2013). He was born in Lowa on 12th February 1880. At fifteen years he found work as a miner in Illinois. He then jointed the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and eventually was elected branch secretary in 1911; Lewis left the mines to become an organizer for the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In 1917 he was elected vice president of the UMWA. Three years later he became president of what was then the largest trade union in America (Simkin J, 1997) .Lewis was a great labor leader who inspired millions to join America’s new industrial unions. The 1920’s were seen as a crisis period for the movement. The postwar prosperity coupled with completing their economic shift to mass production, left U.S bureaucratic firms in a dominant position. Workplaces therefore with large craft unions became overshadowed by workplaces with unskilled and unorganized industrial workers and the United Mine Workers was one such industrial union emerging from its leadership in 1924 where John Lewis became the next giant in history of the American Labor Movement. However in 1920’s some labor leaders viewed Lewis as a ruthless autocrat who was
an intent on shifting rank and challenge him as he was intent on defeating the coal companies. Lewis saw the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuring Great Depression as an opportunity which gave government protection to collective bargaining, industrial unionism became possible, Lewis set out to make that possibility a reality. With growing unemployment, membership of the UMWA fell from 500,000 to less than 100,000 in the 1930s. In 1935 Lewis joined with the heads of seven other unions to form the Congress for Industrial Organization (CIO). He became president of this new organization and over the next few years attempted to organize workers in the new mass production industries. This strategy was successful and by 1937 the CIO had more members than the American Federation of Labor. The CIO focused on a workplace agenda as did the AFL, but unlike the AFL, it organized and encouraged industrial unions. By 1938, the CIO was a separate and growing organization and differed from the AFL by promoting solidary with African American workers and with the women and immigrants in the workforce. In the 1940’s Lewis led a series of strikes that resulted in increased wages for miners. This caused a growth in union members to 500,000. Congress responded to the success of unions such as the UMWA by passing the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) that placed new restrictions on trade unions. Lewis held the post of president of the United Mine Workers of America until 1960 (Simkin J, 1997). John Llewellyn Lewis, who served as chairman of the UMWA 's Welfare and Retirement Fund after his retirement, died in Washington on 11th June, 1969. President of the United Mine Workers for more than four decades, Lewis won for his members the highest wages of any of the major industries of the period, as well as one of the first employer-paid health and retirement systems. An exponent of industrial unionism, he strengthened the U.S. labor movement in the 1930’s with the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, bringing hundreds of thousands of workers into the new CIO. Lewis rightfully deserved his hall of fame in the U.S Department of Labor we see that by his numerous works in the American society.

Works Cited Carrrell R.M, & Heavrin C, (2013). Labor Relation and Collective Bargaining: Private and Public Sectors. 10th Edition, New Jersey, Person Education.

Cohen,.S,. & Lawrence, R., (2012). Eugene Debs and the American Movement. Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations, 55 (4), 2. Retrieved from Ebscohost.

Jefferson T. (1992). Union Leader. Debs Foundation. Retrieved September 24, 2013, from http://debsfoundation.org Simkin J, (1997). John L. Lewis. Spartacus Education. Retrieved September 2, 2013,from http.spartacus.schoolnet.co

United Sates Department of Labor. (2002). Eugene V. Debs. United States Department of Labor. Retrieved September 24, 2013, from http://www.dol.gov

United Sates Department of Labor. (2002). John L. Lewis. United States Department of Labor. Retrieved September 24, 2013, from http://www.dol.gov