Book Description

Informative and original, Labor's Struggles, 1945-1950 contains information and insights that must be included in any subsequent efforts to interpret this period in labor history. The author based this account largely on his own experience as legislative representative for the United Auto Workers-CIO from 1943 to 1947, as well as on documents and conversations from that period, supplemented with historical research. This study of policy-making in union headquarters and in Washington centers on the 1945 splits within the CIO as well as the sharp division between the "social" CIO and the "opportunist" AFL. In addition, it focuses on the Labor Management (Taft-Hartley) Act of 1947 that divided an already fragmented movement.