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Rose Schneiderman: N.Y. Senators vs. Working Women

Rose Schneiderman, an organizer for the New York Women’s Trade Union League, worked to bring together middle and working-class women in support of women’s right to vote. She makes a good case here against male politicians’ opposition to woman suffrage and she supports working women’s efforts to reduce the hours of labor and secure protective legislation.

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Social Work and the Labor Movement (1937)

“The Social Program of the Labor Movement,” a presentation by Mary van Kleek, Director, Division of Industrial Studies, Russell Sage Foundation New York City, at the National Conference of Social Work, 1937. “It is true that the movement has been divided as between the craft unions and the great masses of unorganized workers. Every day, however, brings evidence of the present vital unity.”

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Negro Workers and Recovery: 1934

Written by Lester B. Granger. “Negro labor in St. Louis, MO., has shown the way for colored workers throughout the country to make an aggressive attack against prejudiced and discriminatory policies on the part of certain sections of the American labor movement.”

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The Urban League and the A.F. of L. (1935)

“A Statement on Racial Discrimination,” read by Reginald A. Johnson, executive secretary of the Atlanta Urban League, at the Hearing of the American Federation of Labor Committee of Five to Deal with Negro Problems, 1935. “…the American Federation of Labor has stood firmly behind its position that the ranks of organized labor must be open to all workers regardless of color or creed. “

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Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Article by Edward Berman, The Nation, 1935. The Pullman Porters organized and founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925. The BSCP was the very first African-American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation.

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Negro Wage Earners and Trade Unions (1934)

Written by William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, 1934. “During the past five years Negro wage earners have been turning to the organized labor movement with new conviction. They are becoming responsible union members, sharing the benefits and hardships of union endeavor…These developments are evidence of substantial progress in the growing acceptance of responsibility on the part of Negro workers.”

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AFL-CIO

The AFL–CIO is a federation of international labor unions. Since its inception as the American Federation of Labor, the AFL–CIO has supported an image of the federation as the “House of Labor”—an all-inclusive, national federation of “all” labor unions.

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