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ANNCR:
Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. At thebeginning of the twentieth century, American laborers often workedlong hours for little pay. Many worked under extremely dangerousconditions. About five-hundred-thousand workers, however, had joinedgroups called labor unions, hoping to improve their situation.
Today, Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about five laborleaders who worked to improve conditions for American workers.
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VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Hundred, the largestnational organization of labor unions was the American Federation ofLabor. Its head was Samuel Gompers.
Gompers had moved to New York with his parents when he wasthirteen years old. He was twenty-four when he began working for thelocal union of cigar makers. He worked for the labor movement forsixty years.
VOICE TWO:
Samuel Gompers had helped create the A-F-L in the lateEighteen-Eighties. He led the organization for all but one yearuntil his death in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. Gompers defined the purposeof the labor movement in America. He also established the methodused to solve labor disputes.
Gompers thought unions should work only to increase wages,improve work conditions and stop unfair treatment of workers. Hecalled his method pure and simple unionism.
Samuel Gompers sought immediate change for workers. He used groupactions such as strikes as a way to try to force company owners tonegotiate.
VOICE ONE:
Gompers was criticized for going to social events with industryleaders, and for compromising too easily with employers. But Gompersbelieved such actions helped his main goal. He believed if workerswere respected their employers would want to make working conditionsbetter.
Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, the labor movement wonits first small gains. For example, the federal governmentrecognized the right of workers to organize. That happened whenunion representatives were part of the National War Labor Boardduring World War One.
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VOICE TWO:
John L. Lewis expanded the American labor movement with acampaign he called organizing the unorganized.Lewis was the head ofthe United Mine Workers of America. He also was the vice-presidentof the A-F-L.
In Nineteen-Thirty-Five, Lewis formed the Committee forIndustrial Organization within the A-F-L. He wanted the C-I-O toorganize workers in mass production industries, such as automobileindustry. The A-F-L mainly organized unions of workers who had thesame skills. But Lewis believed skilled and unskilled workers in thesame industry should be organized into the same union.
Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act inNineteen-Thirty-Five. It gave workers the legal right to join unionsand to negotiate with employers. John L. Lewis thought it was theright time to press the large industries to recognize workers’rights.
The A-F-L, however, decided not to support such action andexpelled the unions that belonged to the C-I-O. InNineteen-Thirty-Six, the C-I-O began operating as another nationallabor organization. Lewis was its leader.
VOICE ONE:
John L. Lewis was an extremely colorful and effective speaker. Hehad worked as a coal miner and could relate to the most terribleconditions workers faced. More than three million workers joined theC-I-O in its first year as a separate organization. For the firsttime, labor won many strikes and permanent improvements in workersconditions.
For many years, presidents, members of Congress, and businessleaders considered John L. Lewis the voice of labor. And, Americanworkers saw Lewis as their hero. By the Nineteen-Fifties, the labormovement an established part of American life.
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VOICE TWO:
Walter Reuther was the vice-president of the C-I-O under Lewis,and became its president in Nineteen-Fifty-Two. Reuther believedunions had a social responsibility. His ideas were partly influencedby his German father who was a socialist.
Walter Reuther was trained to make tools to cut metal. He joinedthe United Automobile Workers union when it first formed inNineteen-Thirty-Five.
VOICE ONE:
Walter Reuther was president of the United Auto Workers fortwenty-three years beginning in Nineteen-Forty-Six. He shaped theU-A-W into one of the most militant and forward-looking unions. Heheld strikes to gain increased wages for workers, but, at the sametime, he expected workers to increase their rate of production. Hewas the first to link pay raises to productivity increases. Reutheralso was greatly concerned about civil rights and the environment.
In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Reuther helped the A-F-L and C-I-Ore-join as one organization.
Reuther’s ideas were recognized worldwide. But they also broughthim enemies. He survived three murder attempts. He said, “You haveto make up your mind whether you are willing to accept things asthey are or whether you are willing to try to change them.”
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VOICE TWO:
A. Philip Randolph is known for combining the labor and civilrights movements. Randolph became involved with unions inNineteen-Twenty-Five. A group of black workers on passenger trainsasked him to organize a union, The Brotherhood of Sleeping CarPorters.
Randolph was not a laborer. He was the college-educated son of aminister. He published a socialist magazine in New York City. He wasknown as a fighter for black rights. Randolph strongly believed thateconomic conditions affected rights and power for African-Americans.
For twelve years, Randolph fought the Pullman Company thatemployed the passenger train workers. In 1935, Pullman finallyagreed to negotiate with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.Two years later, the porters’ union signed the first labor agreementbetween a company and a black union.
A. Philip Randolph led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Portersfor forty-three years. In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven he becamevice-president of the A-F-L–C-I-O.
Randolph used large group proteststo change work conditions. He planned marches on the capital inWashington to protest the unequal treatment of black workers by thegovernment.
In Nineteen-Sixty-Three, Randolph planned the ‘March onWashington for Jobs and Freedom.’ At this huge peaceful gathering,civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Junior, made his famous “Ihave a dream” speech. Within a year the civil rights amendmentpassed guaranteeing equal rights for blacks and other minorities.
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VOICE ONE:
Cesar Chavez created the first farmers union inNineteen-Sixty-Two. That union later became the United Farm Workersof America.
Farm workers had been considered too difficult to organize. Theyworked during growing seasons. Many farm workers did not speakEnglish or were in the country illegally.
Farm workers earned only a few dollars each hour. They oftenlived in mud shelters and had no waste removal systems. Many farmworkers were children.
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Cesar Chavez went to school for only eight years. But he read alot. He was greatly influenced by the ideas of famous supporters ofnon-violence such as Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Chavez led his workers on marches for better pay and conditions.Workers walked hundreds of miles carrying cloth banners with theSpanish words Viva la Causa — long live our cause.
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Cesar Chavez created a new strike method called a boycott. Peoplerefused to buy products of a company accused of treating farmworkers badly. Chavez also publicized the dangers of some farmchemicals.
Cesar Chavez improved the conditions of farm workers by makingtheir mistreatment a national issue.
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Union membership has dropped sharply since its highpoint in theNineteen-Forties. Yet conditions for American workers continue toimprove as employers realize that treating their workers well isgood for business. The efforts of leaders of the American labormovement during the past one hundred years continue to improve thelives of millions of workers.
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ANNCR:
This Special English program was written by Linda Burchill andproduced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Rich Kleinfeldt andSarah Long. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for anotherPeople In America program in VOA Special English.
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