The 1960s

1
The 1960s

• Class 1

2
Administrative

• Reading for next time Teacher Unionism and
  Cesar Chavez

3
Review

• Merger of the AFL and the CIO in 1956
• Emergence of anti-labor statutes
• Taft-Hartley
• Landrum-Griffin

4
Today

1. Racial Issues in the Work Place
2. Evolution of Strikes
3. Automation
4. Employee Health and Safety

5
I. Racial Issues at Work

• By 1960s US had a clear dual labor market
• Parts of the economy that were unionized were
  growing the most slowly or shrinking in terms of
  employment
• Millions worked in restaurants, laundries and
  garment sweatshops

6
Racial Issues at Work

• Only after 1960 did government begin to attack
  discrimination with any seriousness
• By 1961 only about 20 of collective bargaining
  agreements had anti-discrimination clauses
• Merged AFL-CIO admitted two railway brotherhoods
  with formal racial exclusions
• Civil Rights Act of 1964

7
Minorities and Union Organizing

• Hospital and health care workers
• Agricultural workers
• Construction unions and their hiring halls
• Minority caucuses formed in most major industrial
  unions

8
AFL-CIO Support for Civil Rights

• AFL-CIO supported civil rights movement
• Also supported racial integration
• Cost much of the southern labor movement many of
  its members
• 1971 Griggs v. Duke Power

9
II. Evolution of strikes

• Changed pattern of strikes
• Exemplified by the 1959 steel strike
• Violence of earlier time periods subsided in most
  industries
• Unions failed in political efforts to repeal or
  modify Taft-Hartley

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III. Automation

• The great automation debate
• Cause of much of the conflict of that period

11
IV. Employee Health and Safety

• Traditionally law dealt just with the
  consequences
• Federal Government now began to talk about taking
  responsibility for prevention of occupational
  injuries and accidents
• Mine Safety and Health Act
• Occupational Safety and Health Act

12
Next Time

• Growth of public employee unionism

13
The 1960s

• Class 2
• Excluded Workers

14
Administrative

• Reading for next time on the 1970s and 1980s
  none for next time but all to be done by the
  second class

15
Review

• Dual labor market at the beginning of the 1960s
• Government beginning to take responsibility for
  equal treatment in the labor market
• Changed pattern of industrial conflict
• Government taking responsibility for industrial
  health and safety

16
Today

1. Labor Movement in 1960
2. Exclusion of industry and occupational categories
3. Growth in unionism for some of those categories

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I. Labor Movement in 1960

• What groups of industries and occupations were
  heavily unionized in 1960?
• Mass production industries automobiles, steel,
  tires, electronics
• Construction including relatively unskilled
  laborers
• Transportation railroads, truck drivers,
  sailors, airlines
• Miners

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II. Exclusion of Industry and Occupational Groups

• What industries and occupations were largely
  untouched by unionism?
• White collar, professional, managerial
  occupations
• Public sector employees
• Wholesale and retail trade
• Finance and Insurance
• Service industries
• Agriculture

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Exclusion

• Managers
• Professionals
• Farm workers

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III. Growth of Unionism in New Categories

• Farm Workers
• Development of United Farm Workers in California
• Affiliated with AFL-CIO
• The Grape and Lettuce Boycotts

21
Growth of Unionism

• Teachers
• What groups were involved in attempting to
  unionize teachers?
• How were the approaches of these two groups
  different?

22
Growth of Unionism

• Teacher unionism part of growth of unionism by
  public employees
• Changes in legal situation
• New York
• Condon-Wadlin
• Taylor Law (1967)

23
Arguments for and against public sector bargaining

• Arguments against
• Sovereignty Doctrine
• Workers too likely to win strikes
• Civil Service already exists
• Arguments in favor
• Government workers should not be denied rights
  available to other workers
• Government as an employer acts much like other
  employers

24
Growth of Unionism

• Public sector went from one of least to one of
  most unionized sectors of the economy
• Teachers are now widely organized
• Collective Bargaining in school districts is
  absolutely the norm
• Teacher unions are among the most powerful
  lobbying groups in Washington and state capitals

25
Next Time

• Begin discussion of 1970s and 1980s