Prospects of Interunion Relations and Unity
| DOI | 10.1177/000271624222400107 |
| Date | 01 November 1942 |
| Author | A.H. Raskin |
| Published date | 01 November 1942 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
40
Prospects
of
Interunion
Relations
and
Unity
By
A.
H.
RASKIN
F OR
a
very
few
days
last
summer
~
there
seemed
real
basis
for
believing
that the
war
had
finally
brought
home
to
leaders
of
American
labor
a
realiza-
tion
of
the
folly
of
continuing
to
fight
one
another
while
their
common
enemies
rigged
the
gallows
for
the
destruction
of
all
labor.
With
a
steady
sapping,
and
possible
annihilation,
of
union
rights
as
the
alternative,
unity
between
the
American
Federation
of
Labor
and
the
Congress
of
Industrial
Organizations
ap-
peared
nearer
at
hand
than
at
any
other
time
since
the
CIO
was
formed
in
1935.
This
prospect
faded
almost
as
rap-
idly
as
it
had
arisen.
The
flush
of
hope
that
attended
the
agreement
of
both
factions
to
resume
peace
negotia-
tions
was
dimmed
by
an
exchange
of
angry
public
statements
in
which
each
group
accused
the
other
of
past
and
present
misdeeds.
What
hope
remained
vanished
when
week
after
week
passed
without
any
conferences.
The
men
who
held
the
key
to
unity
were
&dquo;too
busy&dquo;
to
get
together.
PRESSURE
FOR
UNITY
Despite
the
delay
and
the
hostile
at-
mosphere
in
which
the
problem
is
being
approached,
it
may
be
that
peace
will
be
attained
anyway.
Never
before
have
the
chieftains
of
the
rival
labor
forces
faced
such
insistent
pressure
from
their
own
memberships
and
from
the
public
at
large
for
jettisoning
old animosities
and
making
an
honest
effort
to
unify
their
ranks.
Never
before
has
self-
interest
so
compellingly
dictated
such
a
course.
To
fashion
the
arms
needed
for
vic-
tory,
to
earn
a
place
at
the
peace
table,
and
to
safeguard
hard-won
economic
standards
after
the
war,
organized
la-
bor
will
have
to
give
its
utmost
in
disci-
plined
co-operation.
It
is
not
sufficient
to
promise
that
interunion
rivalry
will
not
bubble
over
into
strikes
or
other
forms
of
interference
with
production.
Any
dissipation
of
labor’s
energies
in
internal
warfare,
any
impediment
to
unified
action
in
moments
of
crisis,
is
certain
to
weaken
the
entire
union
movement
and
smooth
the
road
for
those
who
would
blot
out
industrial
democracy.
The
AFL
has
shown
itself
more
sensi-
tive
to
these
considerations
than
has
the
CIO.
With
the
single
exception
of
Sid-
ney
Hillman
of
the
Amalgamated
Cloth-
ing
Workers,
the
CIO
leaders
have
taken
the
view
that
it
is
less
important
to
try
to
bring
about
a
full-fledged
merger
than
it is
to
carry
forward
on
a
local
and
national
basis
the
joint
war
activities
of
the
two
labor
organizations.
They
profess
to
fear
that
the
very
act
of
try-
ing
to
rejoin
the
two
may
provoke
such
a
scramble
for
power
and
personal
ad-
vantage
as
to
retard
war
output.
One
fact
is
clear.
The
differences
in
organizational
philosophy
that
pre-
cipitated
the
original
split
have
largely
disappeared.
The
principal
remaining
obstacles
to
peace
lie
in
the
realm
of
politics
and
personalities.
As
long
ago
as
1937
a
basic
accord
on
jurisdictional
problems
was
arrived
at,
but
political
and
personal
factors
operated
to
nullify
the
accord
and
perpetuate
the
split.
They
are
equally
potent
today.
If
these
factors
can
be
overcome
and
unity
achieved,
it
will
bring
into
being
the
most
powerful
social
and
economic
unit
in
the
history
of
this
country-
eleven
million
workers,
all
marching
in
the
same
direction
under
a
single
ban-
ner.
It
is
true
that
twenty-eight
million
workers
(not
counting
some
two
million
in
the
railroad
brotherhoods
and
in
inde-
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