Labor's Struggles, 1945-1950: A Participant's View

by Irving Richter, David Montgomery

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521414128
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/29/1994
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.55(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction and acknowledgments; Labour's fragmentation and the industrial relations context in 1945; Searching for coexistence: the management labour charter and the labour management conference; The great strike wave of 1946 and its political consequences; The Taft-Hartley legislative scene; The aftermath of Taft-Hartley; Postlude; Appendix: The Labour Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act of 1947; Illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

"Richter's book points to issues that scholars have just begun to wrestle with: the relationship between labor and the state and the role of labor law in American society. From his privileged position as a UAW senior staffer he offers us a unique vantage point to the internal warfare within the UAW and CIO and a starting point for future research." Richard A. Greenwald, Labor History

From the Publisher