USWA Local 7

Shortly after the turn of the century, the American Federation of Labor granted an all inclusive charter covering all who worked with rubber to the Almagamated Rubber Workers of North America. But in 1904, after a disastrous 212-day strike against nine companies at Trenton, New Jersey, the weakened Almagamated declined rapidly and never recovered.

When organization efforts finally resurfaced in 1913, the location shifted from the East to Akron, Ohio, home of the staunchly anti-union “Big Three” rubber companies. Trouble first broke out at Firestone but quickly spread to nearly all area rubber plants. Underlying causes for the disturbance related to the speedup, no grievance procedures, bad health and safety conditions and importation of labor. On February 11, 1913, 25 tire finishers at Firestone walked out in protest against a change in piecework rates. Within the week strikers from Goodrich and Goodyear joined a large group of Firestone employees in a city-wide strike. With lack of unity on issues, the strikers and management became locked in a confrontation of wills and the companies, with their superior resources, were bound to win. When the strike collapsed on March 15, 1913, with only a few gains realized, it signaled the end of effective industrial unionism for 20 years.

United States entry into World War I in 1917 brought sudden demand for greater production of rubber goods. Overnight the industry boomed as thousands migrated from farming to work in the defense effort.

After the catastrophic 1913 strike, rubber companies went to great expense to prevent future union organization. On the surface, the ’20’s gave the appearance of a decade of great economic growth and overall prosperity. Unfortunately, paternalism and anti-unionism kept the average worker from sharing in roaring twenties’ prosperity. On Tuesday’ October 29, 1929, the optimistic mood of the nation changed drastically. The stock market crash, however, merely announced the beginning of a worldwide depression of momentous proportions. The Great Depression destroyed whatever security the worker enjoyed.

In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President and the government began to address itself to the needs of working people. On March 9, 1933, FDR summoned a special session of Congress to deal with the crises. During the critical “Hundred Days”, Congress passed considerable legislation designed to put people back to work and give them a “New Deal”. In July 1933, less than two weeks after Congress enacted the strategic National Industrial Recovery Act, rubber workers launched a massive organizational drive which resulted in the industry’s first permanent union organization, The NIRA Section 7 {a) declared “Employees shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing and shall be free from interference, restraint, or coercion of employers in the designation of such representatives.’

Rubber company anti-union activities and the Supreme Court decision ruling NIRA unconstitutional on May 27, 1935 brought labor morale to a new low. Just when the situation. appeared most bleak, the Federal Government passed the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. This Act forced employers to deal with recognized employee representatives.

The founding convention of the United Rubber Workers of America was held in Akron, Ohio at the Portage Hotel on September 12, 1935.

We are ever grateful for the wisdom of our founders in establishing our union on the basis of freedom, fairness, and concern for all persons.

Almost serious development for the young International erupted at Goodyear early in November 1935. Local 2 requested a Federal Government Investigation of hours, wages, and working conditions in the Akron plant. The company had announced a policy of lengthening the hours of work, and the consequent laying off of 75% of its employee, and reducing the hourly earnings of the remaining employees. The Secretary of Labor appointed a board which held public hearings in Akron during November and December 1935. The Government’s Fact-Finding Board report strongly condemned Goodyear management’s labor practices and recommended that the company cease and desist from putting its announced retrenchment program into effect. The company, however, refused to comply with the Board’s decision. The situation reached an impasse when Goodyear discharged 137 tire builders who had sat down in protest against a layoff which violated the company’s own established policy of seniority. Workers went out on strike in February 1936, in the midst of below zero weather. The five-week Goodyear strike proved the most important victory for organized labor in 1936. Although the original demands of full union recognition, abolishment of the Industrial Assembly f company union) and a signed union contract did not materialize, the strike brought hope to members of the young Union. The settlement provided “for the return of all employees without discrimination; negotiation on all questions of mutual interest; changes in wage rates only after prior notice; maintenance of the 36-hour week and sixhour day shifts in the tire and tube division; establishment of grievance machinery, and making available for inspection lists of layoffs at the plant labor department to representatives of employees.” Goodyear continued its unfair labor practices despite the settlement.

Through the next several years violence against organizers was commonplace. Then came wage and condition freezes due to World War 11.

As the oil, auto, steel and coal disputes of the immediate postwar era erupted, negative public reaction mounted. Despite strong and persistent union opposition, the infamous 801h Congress, elected in the fall of 1946, passed anti-union legislation, known as the Taft-Hartley Bill, over President Truman’s veto in June 1947. This was a huge step backwards for labor relations.

The United Steelworkers of America laid the groundwork for the pension fight. In the spring of 1949, the USWA International Wage Policy Committee served notice that the union would seek adequate pensions and social insurance in contract talks, Negotiations quickly evaporated when the industry refused to bargain on pensions even after the Presidents Fact-Finding Board recommended that management establish both a noncontributory pension and a social insurance program.

One of the outstanding campaigns of the 1950’s ended in tragic defeat despite hard work and tremendous sacrifice by Rubber Workers. Early in 1957, the URW began a boycott and strike against O’Sullivan of Winchester, Virginia, in support of 400 members of Local 511 who were out on strike. The strikers were paid 40 to 50 cents less than most other organized plants. The unionists faced formidable opposition. Following a decertification election, O’Sullivan filed unfair labor practice charges against the International and Local Union. Although the NLRB decision against the Union was reversed by the Supreme Court in 1960 , the decision came too late. Under Section 9 of Taft-Hartley, strikebreakers had voted Local 511 out of existence. The Winchester campaign demonstrated that “courage and solidarity were not enough if the law was against you. You must change the law.” Virginia’s “right-to-work” laws ultimately triumphed.

The decade of the 1960’s is remembered as an era of tumultous change-a period when no institution remained aloof from attack. It began with the optimistic election of the youthful John F. Kennedy and concluded with the fateful shootings of anti-war demonstrators at Kent State. In between, the Nation suffered the agony of urban riots, assassinations, Vietnam, and student unrest. It also experienced a renewed effort to eradicate long-term problems of chronic unemployment, inflation, poverty-in-the-midst-of-plenty, and protection of the general welfare of the American people.