Upon his death, the CFL passed a resolution honoring its longtime president, saying: Philip Randolph, the first union in the nation with African American leadership.įitzpatrick headed the CFL for four decades, navigating two World Wars and the Great Depression, as well as countless strikes and rallies, perhaps most notably the Little Steel Strike and Memorial Day Massacre of 1937. Fitzpatrick’s CFL also supported the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, founded by A. Harris “Mother” Jones led the steel strike of 1919, shutting down steel plants in Pennsylvania, Chicago, and across the country. Later that same year, Fitzpatrick and his dear friend Mary G. “A heavy responsibility rests on the white portion of the community to stop assaults on negroes by white men…All of the influence of the unions should be exerted on the community to protect colored fellow workers from the unreasoning frenzy of racial prejudice.” In organizing steelworkers, Fitzpatrick said,” I don’t care what the by-laws of the international unions are, if they keep the Negro out, they have got to be changed to let him in.” During the “Red Summer” of 1919 as race riots engulfed Chicago, the New Majority called for white union members to stand with Black workers, writing: The CFL focused on organizing the steel mills and stock yards that chewed through workers, especially immigrants and workers of color. John Fitzpatrick, Chicago Federation of Labor Presidentįitzpatrick and Nockels advanced the mission of the CFL to fight for racial, social, and economic justice. The CFL’s first president was Thomas Preece, a bricklayer, and the Federation would eventually have nine men serve as president in its first decade of existence. Labor leaders recognized that their voices were more powerful together as one, as opposed to fractured into individual unions. It is in this atmosphere of labor activism and worker oppression that the Chicago Federation of Labor was born. Eventually, the strike was violently broken by the Federal government, though President Grover Cleveland did designate the first Monday in September to be Labor Day, a holiday still celebrated today. Members of the American Railway Union went on strike in Chicago and nationwide, bringing nationwide rail transit to a halt. Company owner George Pullman slashed workers’ wages in response to severe recession, but refused to lower rents in the Pullman company town. Later, in 1894, Chicago again emerged as the focal point of union activism, as workers went on strike protesting wage cuts at the Pullman Palace Car Company, triggering a nationwide railroad strike. Though no one would ever know who threw the bomb, eight anarchist organizers were convicted in a sham trial, and eventually four were executed by the state. As police closed in on the crowd at the end of the rally, someone threw an explosive device into the fray, triggering a chaos that would leave seven officers dead and dozens of bystanders wounded. There, a peaceful rally included speakers demanding an eight-hour workday. The next day, May 4, a rally was called to support the McCormick workers in Haymarket Square. On May 3, locked out strikers at the McCormick Reaper plant in Chicago clashed with strikebreakers and police officers, and two workers were killed. Hundreds of thousands of workers walked off the job, including tens of thousands of Chicagoans. In 1886, a general strike was called for May 1 in an effort to enact the eight-hour day. Organizers began demanding an eight-hour workday to provide more rest for workers, as well as more jobs for the unemployed. At the time, workers would be expected to work 10- or 12-hour shifts, six days a week or more. In the late 1880s, the main fight was over the eight-hour workday. As workers flooded into Chicago, nascent worker organizing efforts sprouted up to fight for decent wages, worker protections, and better working conditions. Immigrants from around the world settled in the city, drawn by its thriving meatpacking industry and critical location in the center of the country. Today, Chicago’s union members continue to be students of history and the struggles of the men and women who fought for fairness, justice and equality at work.Ĭhicago was the epicenter of organizing in the late 19 th century. First organized as the General Trades Assembly in 1864 and later the Trades Council and Trades and Labor Assembly, the Chicago Federation of Labor received its charter from the American Federation of Labor on November 9, 1896.įrom the Haymarket Affair in 1886 spurred by the fight for the eight-hour day, to the Pullman railroad strike in 1894 over corporate greed and poverty, to the Memorial Day Massacre during the “Little Steel” strikes in 1937, Chicago’s rich labor history stems back to the formative years of our nation’s economy and the modern labor movement.
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