Prospects of Interunion Relations and Unity

F OR a very few days last summer there seemed real basis for believing that the war had finally brought home to leaders of American labor a realization of the folly of continuing to fight one another while their common enemies rigged the gallows for the destruction of all labor. With a steady sapping, and possible annihilation, of union rights as the alternative, unity between the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations appeared nearer at hand than at any other time since the CIO was formed in 1935. This prospect faded almost as rapidly as it had arisen. The flush of hope that attended the agreement of both factions to resume peace negotiations was dimmed by an exchange of angry public statements in which each group accused the other of past and present misdeeds. What hope remained vanished when week after week passed without any conferences. The men who held the key to unity were too busy to get together

Political science · History · Labor Movements and Unions