Iowa Almanac
Iowa Almanac -- Wednesday, June 26, 2024
The Unions Merge More from the Iowa Almanac in a Moment. Stay up to date on the latest news impacting the soybean industry by attending the Iowa Soybean Association's Summer Soy Series, coming to a community near you. Hear the latest insights on issues directly impacting farmer profitability, productivity and sustainability, including soybean demand, research, policy and more. Register today at iasoybeans.com/events. The Iowa Soybean Association, driven to deliver for Iowa's 37,000 Soybean Farmers. We often hear of disputes between labor unions and employers, but fighting between unions has also been common over time. The American Federation of Labor was formed in Ohio in 1886 under the leadership of Samuel Gompers. The AFofL was founded and dominated by craft unions, especially in the building trades. That led to conflict in the 1920s and 1930s with various industrial unions affiliated with the AFofL, including the United Mine Workers, led by Iowa native John L. Lewis. In 1935, a committee of these unions was formed as a segment within the AFofL. The final blow toward separation, though, was a literal one. Lewis and the president of the carpenter's union came to blows on the floor of the 1935 AFofL convention. By 1938, that committee separated into its own union federation, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO. Iowa's Lewis was its first leader. The Depression era led to not only growth in the labor movement, but bitter fights between the AFofL and CIO. The relationship did become more cooperative during World War II, and by the 1950s the two groups combined to form the AFL-CIO. Union chapters in Iowa became the third state to approve the merger on June 26, 1956. Iowa's union history is well documented thanks to the Iowa Labor History Oral Project, ILHOP. It is the largest and longest-running labor-focused oral history project in the world. The project is now directed by the University of Iowa Labor Center, and boasts more than 1,000 streaming audio files and interview transcripts available for review. And when the AFofL and CIO merge to create the longest-lasting and most influential labor federation in the country, Iowa was one of the leaders approving the new AFL-CIO plan on this date in 1956. And that's Iowa Almanac for June 26. There's more online at IowaAlmanac.com. Until tomorrow, I'm Jeff