The Railroaders' Next Step—Amalgamation/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
THE FAILURE OF DUAL UNIONISM
Faced by the growing power and limitless greed of the railroad companies, railroad workers have for many years past sensed more and more clearly the need for the greatest possible solidarity among themselves. In the main this urge for united action may be said to have expressed itself in two general ways: (1) utopian dual unionism, (2) natural trade unionism. The dual unionism has been a product mostly of the more militant and energetic minorities, chiefly radicals, among the railroad workers. These minorities, consciously weighing the factors in hand as best they could and with an intense desire for united action, have for many years advocated the founding of an industrial union to include all railroad men. With characteristic impatience they have believed that this could be done only by discarding the old trade unions altogether and starting afresh with a new, theoretically perfect organization. On the other hand, the natural trade unionism is a product of the sluggish, conservative masses. More or less blindly and without plan, the latter have re-acted to the pressure of the companies, first by joining together into the most primitive types of unions, and then, gradually extending and developing them into ever-more wide-spreading and inclusive organizations, as the need for such became apparent. The method of the radical minorities has been largely to leap into industrial unionism, whereas that of the conservative masses is to drift into it gradually.
The question of solidarity is one of paramount interest and importance to railroaders, but there is an appalling confusion and lack of knowledge about the whole matter. A large body of radicals still have a highly unwarranted faith in the dual industrial program, and, together with the conservatives, are very much in ignorance of the true significance of the evolution towards greater solidarity constantly taking place in the old trade unions. Hence, before we can hope to successfully outline a rational program for further strengthening railroad unionism, we must examine in detail what has resulted from the radicals' conscious striving for industrial unionism and the conservatives' unconscious drift in the same general direction and profit from the lessons both tendencies have to teach us. Let us first consider what has been accomplished by dual unionism:
Knights of Labor and American Railway Union.
The railroad craft unions were in their infancy when the dual unionists began to set afloat their all-inclusive industrial unions. And they have followed their separatist policy vigorously for a generation, even up till the present day. During this long period they have launched manv such organizations, all of which have gone down to deteat. Let us glance briefly at the most striking examples:
The first important attempt to disregard the trade unions and to form a general union of railroaders occurred in 1877, when R. H. Ammon, in Pittsburgh, founded an organization to include engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen and yardmen. The companies were slashing wages right and left, and the new union was designed to stop them. But it soon collapsed because of internal difficulties Shortly afterward, however, the deep discontent of the men blazed forth spontaneously in one of the greatest and most violent railroad strikes in history, that of July-August, 1877.
But a far more serious and extensive effort was the one made by the Knights of Labor not long afterward. This famous organization was frankly revolutionary and aimed to combine the whole working class into one union. It was formed in 1869, but for the first dozen years of its life it led an anaemic existence. In the middle '80's, however, it caught the imagination of the masses and raged across the country like a prairie fire. Hundreds of thousands were swept into its ranks, among whom were large numbers of railroad workers. The organization secured an especially strong grip on several Western and Southwestern roads, winning big strikes on the Union Pacific, Wabash, Missouri Pacific, Missouri, Kansas & Texas, etc., in 1884-5. But the following year the wily and unscrupulous Jay Gould crushed the union on these roads in a bitterly fought two months' strike. A few years later, as the power of the Knights of Labor waned generally throughout the country, its railroad organization went to pieces, leaving the embattled, feeble craft unions alone in the field.
But not for long; soon the greatest of all dual railroad unions was under way. This was the American Railway Union, launched by Eugene V. Debs and a few others in Chicago in 1893. It was opposed by the craft unions, but as they were still weak, they could offer no effective resistance and it spread rapidly over the systems. By the Spring of 1894 it was said to have 465 local lodges and about 150,000 members. It included all classes of railroad workers.
Its first struggle with the employers came in April, 1894, on the Great Northern. That system was tied up from end to end by a general strike. The autocratic Jim Hill capitulated after eighteen days, coming to terms with the organization. But this brilliant victory bred an over-confidence among the men that soon brought about the destruction of their union. In an effort to force a settlement of the then pending Pullman strike, the militant railroad men placed a boycott against all Pullman cars which action produced a general strike, June 26th, 1894, on twenty-four roads centering in Chicago.
The tieup was highly effective and the companies were on the way to defeat, when the Government and courts took a hand. Troops were rushed to Chicago; injunctions were issued against the strikers; their leaders were jailed, and such a general reign of terror set up that the conservative mass became terrified and straggled back to work. Before three weeks had passed the strike was lost. The A. R. U. lingered along until 1897, when it turned itself into a cooperative political organization the Social Democratic Party, forerunner of the present Socialist Party.
The advent of the American Railway Union, as is always the case with dual organizations, did great harm to the railroad craft unions. All of them were weakened and some nearly destroyed. Thousands of their best members quit them to take part in the A. R. U., only to find themselves blacklisted out of the railroad service later on because of the lost strike. The case of Debs himself is a striking example of the damage done. When he resigned his position as General Secretary-Treasurer and editor of the official journal of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen in order to form the A. R. U., he was a great force for progress in the old unions. Had he but stayed with them he would have been a big factor in their future development. But he was lost to them, and that they have suffered much in consequence no unbiased observer will deny. This constant sucking of the best blood out of the craft unions is one of the very worst features of dual industrial unionism.
A Flock of Dual Unions
Hard upon the heels of the American Railway Union came a whole series of dual unions on the railroads, some of them being but parts of general separatist movements, whilst others specialized in railroad workers alone. But all were alike in that they advocated the industrial form of organization and sought to realize it by going outside of the old unions and beginning anew. They are also alike in that none of them succeeded in establishing itself firmly on the railroads.
The first of these dual unions was the Socialist Trades and Labor Alliance, organized in 1895. A general labor organization, it made war upon the whole trade union movement. But it secured little or no hold on the railroads. In 1905 it was one of the organizations that were merged together to form the I. W. W.
An organization somewhat similar to the S. T. & L. A. was the Western Labor Union, organized in 1898 by the Western Federation of Miners. It was designed to supplant the entire existing labor movement, the railroad organizations included. But it was still-born, and after an anagmic struggle re-named itself the American Labor Union. It later went to make part of the I. W. W. at the latter's foundation. At no time did it become strong in the railroad industry.
A much more militant dual union on the railroads was the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes. This organization was started in 1900. It worked mostly in the West, and succeeded in getting a strong hold on several roads in that section. It had agreements with a few companies. But it finally went the way of all dual industrial railroad unions and collapsed. Just as it was about to expire it was fused with the other unions going to form the I. W. W.
The Canadian Order of Railwaymen was in existence during part of the period covered by the U. B. R. E. It was launched in 1901. It claimed jurisdiction over engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen and yardmen in Canada. But it was unable to make good its claim in the face of the craft unions. It made no important headway and soon died off.
The next important one in the long list of dual industrial railroad unions was the Industrial Workers of the World. This organization was formed in 1905 in Chicago by an amalgamation of several industrial unions. It was intended to replace the entire trade union movement. Debs, Hall, Estes and many other active railroad militants gave it their hearty support for a time. But it has never been able to make substantial progress on any of the roads, except in the Canadian Northwest, where it organized the railroad construction workers ten years ago and waged several strikes in their behalf. At the present time it is not a big factor on the railroads.
The Workers' International Industrial Union is an offshoot of the I. W. W. It split off because of internal squabbles in 1908. Like its parent, it is a general dual union. But it has never been able to make a strong showing among railroad workers. It still exists in skeleton form.
Two later attempts to start dual railroad unions were those of the Industrial Railway Union and the Brotherhood of Federated Railway Employes. Both these organizations, bred of internal strife in the old unions, led brief existences in 1915-16 on a few Eastern roads. Neither secured any considerable following.
American Federation of Railroad Workers, One Big Union,
and United Association of Railway Employes
The American Federation of Railroad Workers occupies a unique position among the many dual industrial unions that have sprung up from time to time on the railroads. While all the others have been radical, it is markedly conservative. It has had a checkered history. Originally it was the International Association of Car Workers, an A. F. of L. union. But as there was a conflict in jurisdiction between it and the Brotherhood Railway Carmen of America, the A. F. of L. ordered the two bodies to amalgamate. The president of the I. A. of C. W. refused point blank to agree to this salutary measure, and surrendered his charter to the A. F. of L. at the Atlanta Convention in 1911.
The organization struggled along for a few years as a craft union, and then, in 1915, it extended its jurisdiction to take in all railroad workers, calling itself thereafter the American Federation of Railroad Workers. Its membership at the present time is estimated to be about 9,000, principally car workers. It has contracts on two or three railroads.
From its inception, the A. F. of R. W. has been a thorn in the side of the old unions. It has done them much harm and compromised the interests of railroaders generally. One of its latest exploits was a clear betrayal of union principles. During the recent big struggle to maintain the national agreements and to preserve the system of bargaining upon a national scale rather than with individual companies, the officials of the A. F. of R. W. promptly stepped in and signed up a separate agreement with the Philadelphia & Reading, which not only gave up the principle of the shopmen's national agreement, but also many of the conditions established by the same. Similar agreements have since been made on other roads, to the sad compromise of the interests of railroad workers as a whole. But such are the fruits of dual unionism generally, no matter in the name of what high-sounding purpose the dual union operates.
The One Big Union was set afoot in Western Canada in 1918. It is a general dual union, organized upon the industrial plan and claiming all classes of workers. For a time it made great progress in Canada, assembling large numbers of workers, among them many railroad men, into its fold. Some railroad locals were established in the United States also, notably in Chicago. But the movement has lost its impetus; it is waning rapidly and seems about to be eliminated.
The United Association of Railway Employes is an aftermath of the great, so-called "outlaw" yardmen's strike of the Spring and Summer of 1920, headed by John Grunau. It was formed of the various groups of strikers and blacklisted men. Numerically it is not strong. So far as the writer can learn, it has no agreements with the companies anywhere. It, too, appears to be moribund.
The strike that gave birth to this organization is a typical illustration of the unfortunate dualistic tendency that has long afflicted railroad men. It must be admitted that the men affected had crying grievances and that the union officials were asleep at the switch when it came to taking care of these grievances. But the wiser thing to have done, rather than to call the unauthorized strike, was to fight out the matter within the confines of the old unions. Had this been done there can be no doubt but that with the tremendous spirit of unrest and resentment prevailing, the leaders would have been spurred into action. Had a strike become necessary, it could have been widespread and official, and it would have surely resulted in a victory, so favorable were economic conditions. Undoubtedly the most wholesome effects would have been produced upon the unions. But no, impatiently the men first went out on the unauthorized strike and then into the new, dual unions. The results, easily to be foreseen, were the loss of the strike; the blacklisting of thousands of first-class union men out of the railroad service; the general weakening of the old unions; the strengthening of the conservative bureaucracies in these organizations, and the affliction of the railroad industry with one more dual union to create disharmony and division.
At present there are five dual industrial unions on the railroads: The I. W. W., W. I. I. U., A. F. of R. W., O. B. U., and U. A. of R .E. All of them advocate the solidarity of labor, and at the same time all are waging war upon each other, as well as upon the craft unions. Their combined membership is only a fraction of the total number of railroaders organized.
Such are the results of the dual industrial union program after more than thirty years of effort on the part of thousands of active and earnest militants. Could a showing be more disappointing? It amounts to a failure complete in both theory and practice. Not only have the dualists failed to rally the masses to their program, but they have also failed to grasp the principles of solidarity. The spectacle of five dual industrial unions in one industry, all conceived in the name of solidarity, is tragically ridiculous. But that is the logical result of deserting the old unions and setting up utopian organizations. Other industries where similar tactics have been used show identical results.
In view of these facts should it not be evident that the long-hoped-for industrial union of railroad workers will not come through dual unionism? And is it not clear that this disruptive program should be finally and definitely abandoned? In the next chapter we will see how the industrial union is really being brought about through the evolution of the old trade unions.