John L. Lewis

John L. Lewis in 1938

1880 - John Llewellyn Lewis was born Feb. 12 in the coal-mining town of Cleveland, Iowa; his father Thomas was a Welsh coal miner, and his mother was Ann Louisa Watkins. His family moved to Des Moines where John attended high school, then moved back to Lucas Country in 1897 and John worked in the coal mines.

1901 - He became secretary of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) local union.

1907 - He married Myrta Edith Bell and raised three children.

1908 - He moved to Panama, Illinois, and with the help of his five brothers, he rose to leadership in Gompers' AFL, and travelled around the country as an AFL organizer.

1912 - He campaigned for Woodrow Wilson, and served on government commissions in WWI.

1919 - He became acting president of the UMW, the nation's largest trade union with a membership of 400,000. He averted a threatened coal strike in 1919 by arranging a compromise with union radicals, and declared that "I will not fight my government, the greatest government on earth."

1920 - He was elected president of the UMW and would hold that position for the next 40 years.

1925 - He wrote the book, The Miners' Fight for American Standards, but his UMW union declined to a membership of only 100,00 in 1929.

1933 - Lewis and his consultant, W. Jett Lauck, influenced the writing of Title 7(a) of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), that gave workers the right to bargain and organize. The NIRA allowed Lewis to recruit new members, and his UMW increased to 350,000.

1934 - He was elected a vice-president of the AFL and became a member of its executive council. When the council refused his plan to recruit unskilled workers, he pulled his UMW out of the AFL with 10 other unions to create in 1935 the CIO.

1935 - In November, at the national convention of the AFL, William Hutcheson of the carpenters union called Lewis a "big bastard" when Lewis proposed admitting 30 million unskilled workers. Lewis jumped from the podium and slugged Hutcheson in the jaw and returned to the podium and relit his cigar. After the convention, he created the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), that became the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938.

1936 - He supported FDR in the presidential election, formed the Labor's Nonpartisan League (LNPL).

1937 - His CIO won agreements with GM after the Flint sit-down strike, and from U. S. Steel. However, the "Memorial Day Massacre" caused the strike against Republic Steel in Chicago to end in failure, and the death of 10 strikers. FDR turned against the Lewis and the owners and said"A plague on both your houses."

1940 - Lewis supported the Republican Wendell Willkie in the presidential campaign, and when FDR won, he resigned Nov. 18 as president of the CIO.

1942 - He withdrew the UMW from the CIO and it became an independent union.

1943 - His UMW waged an unpopular national strike during wartime, and Lewis won a $2 wage increase for his coal miners. The conservative Congress responded with the Smith-Connally Act that prohibited strikes in defense industries and political contributions by unions in federal elections, and required for any strike a 30-day cooling off period. FDr vetoed the bill june 25, but Congress pass the bill over his veto.

1944 - In response to the Smith-Connally Act, the CIO created the first Political Action Committee (PAC) that raised voluntary contributions for political elections

1947 - He called for repeal of the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act.

1960 - He retired from the presidency of the UMW.

1969 - He died June 11.

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revised 3/1/07 by Schoenherr | Labor Unions