Take It Easy, But Take It

"The objects of this organization shall be: (a) To unite in this industrial union, regardless of race, creed, color or nationality, all workers eligible for membership employed in, on and about any and all passenger and other transportation facilities and public utilities in the United States, Canada and possessions and territories of the United States. (b) To establish through collective bargaining adequate wage standards, shorter hours of work and improvements in the conditions of employment for the workers in the industry. (c) To secure legislation safeguarding the economic security and social welfare of the workers in the industry, to protect and extend our democratic institutions and civil rights and liberties and thus to perpetuate the cherished traditions of our democracy. 

"Almost from the very day that the fur workers first organized themselves into a union to fight for better working conditions, the bosses hired gangsters to smash the union. They sent their agents to disrupt it from within. They attacked the union through injunctions and court cases. They slandered and besmirched the union through the big-business controlled press. And as is their usual practice, they singled out trustworthy and militant leaders of the workers for frame-ups and persecutions - men in whom the membership had the greatest faith, leaders whose entire lives were devoted to serving the membership. But the union survived and grew, despite violence and gangsters and lockouts of employers. Why was it able to survive attacks as fierce as any ever aimed at a labor organization in the United States? Who were these men who could not be threatened, bribed, or slugged into submission? The history of the I.L.F.W.U. answers these questions. We give here only a few...

Workers who contributed to the C.I.O. PAC received these pins. By this time C.I.O. leadership was firmly entrenched in the Roosevelt / Democratic Party machine, with several top C.I.O. leaders sitting on government councils and boards. The bureaucracy established the necessary apparatus to make business unionism viable again, paving the way for the 1955 AFL-CIO merger.

This contract between American Woolen Mills & Textile Workers Union of America C.I.O. covers textile workers in at least 21 mills in the New England area. It guarantees a minimum wage of $1.05 an hour, the equivalent of $10.83 in 2017 wages.