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The CIO made remarkable strides in 1937. Lewis's young organization actually outnumbered the AFL, 3.7 million members to 3.4 million. The unionization effort had effectively succeeded in gaining collective bargaining agreements in the nation's two most antiunion industries, auto and steel. The organization also paved the way for unionization in other industries. The CIO gave millions of workers an opportunity to join a union. Lewis's gamble in forming the CIO paid off, and the organization improved the working conditions for the nation's blue-collar workers. The CIO stands as Lewis's most important contribution to American life.
Sources:
Irving Bernstein, Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970);
David Brophy, Workers in Industrial America: Essays on the Twentieth Century Struggle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980);
Robert H. Zieger, John L. Lewis: Labor Leader (Boston: Twayne, 1988).
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This section contains 139 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) |
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