Sidney Hillman was born in Zagreb, Lithuanian on March 23, 1887, in a semi-Jewish family. He was the son of Schumer Hillman, a merchant, and Judith Paik in, a shopkeeper. As a Lithuanian-American, he becomes an active labor leader. He was sent away to study rabbinate in a Jewish seminary in 1901. At 14, he joined Jewish Bund, a radical workers’ organization group devoted to trading unionism and socialism that led him to drop school after less than a year. His illegal Jewish trade union got him arrested twice, spending several months in Czarist prisons. After the revolution of the 1905 failure, he left for England then to Chicago in 1907 for fear of a post-revolutionary wave that could have suppressed Russia. He became the founder of the Industrial Organization congress and he also played a major role in reshaping national labor for employees and welfare legislation of workers during the New Deal (Fraser, 1991).
Union Career
He then arrived in Chicago, the United States of American, and went into an apprentice fabric cutter that dealt in manufacturing men’s clothing. Three years later, he conspired with his employees to go on strike on the leaders of United Garment Workers of America (UGWA) that was mistreating workers. Hillman actively participated in the workers’ organization union and socialism as a business agent that taught him “Power is always seized, never bestowed”. After Hillman successfully created the UGWA, he moved to International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU). In 1914 he moves to New York to serve as a chief clerk for arbitration machinery for the union. Workers in the garment factory (UGWA) were dissatisfied with the company’s traditional policies. The revolt exploded in 1914 when the immigrant tailors resign from UGWA to form their union known as Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA). These organizations did not sit well with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) because the union retracted the workers away from the UGWA, which was an American Federation of Labor affiliate (Fraser, 1991).
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA)
ACWA union existed outside the dominant labor movement. Hillman’s active participation in the ACWA as a leader helped flourish the union. During 19202, when most of the American trade unions were collapsing, ACWA went through numerous activities, from insurance to cooperative housing projects, Russia-America Industrial Corporation to labor markets and unemployment that could have led to its closure but it survived anyway. The union also availed extensive education programs for its members. With all these activities, Hillman gained a reputation as the “labor statesman”. However, he failed to resurrect his union from the Great Depression havocs that led to the fall of the company’s funds and membership (Fraser, 1991).
New Deal
Hillman later rebuilt the membership and finances of his union, the ACWA after he joined Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal labor legislation and later united with other labor leaders in a militant campaign to mobilize industrial unionism into mass-production industries. In 1936, Hillman finally won the AFLA membership but it later refused to support the Industrial Organization’s program for industrial unionism. In 1938 ACWA committee become permanent as the Congress for Industrial Organization (CIO) and made Hillman the Vice president. He also became chairman of the CIO Textile Workers Organization Committee from 1937 to 1939. Other men such as Davis Dubinsky and John L. Lewis joined Hillman in managing the company but instead, the colleagues changed the nature of labor-management relations to organized labor that forced national politics into the union (Fraser, 1991)
Political Activities
Hillman resigned from his socialist activities in the 1930s to become zealous of New Deal Democrats. He was well exposed to the country’s politics as he had gained experience from his socialist background, which made him feel comfortable among intellectuals that made President Franklin Roosevelt chose him as his confidant. Between1933-1936, he took up a role in Roosevelt as labor advisory leader. In his position, he guided social voters in New York into the Roosevelt camp in the 1936 Presidential election into establishing the American Labor party. In 1940, Hillman was made Roosevelt labor representative sitting on the Advisory Commission board, then moved to Council of National Defense and associate director of the Office of Production Management during World War II. Hillman became Roosevelt’s chief adviser on labor matters. Hillman’s drive force was to offer workers a better living and as a society an average degree of social stability. On July 10, 1946, when his career as a political and social activist was at its peak, he suddenly died of a heart attack (Fraser, 1991).
Impacts
Sidney Hillman the founder of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) now called UNITE and its president in the years between 1941 to 1946, is the one that invented the trade unions we see today. He worked tirelessly to seek a “constructive cooperation” between the union and garment companies to ensure the favorable economic health of the industries and also making sure that working conditions for workers are upraised. Hillman also developed a mechanism for dispute resolution that prognosticated today’s grievances and arbitration procedures. In labor unions, he prioritized political and educational achievements within its movement. He emphasized labor unions serve the interests of their members while at or off work by providing them with employment benefits and community services. Since Hillman was the president’s confidant, he became an instrument for reshaping labor legislation protecting workers rights, and upraising living standards (Fraser, 1991)
Hillman as an apprentice cutter in a garment factory in Chicago was exposed to poor working conditions. In 1910, about 45,000 women in the factory went on strike and Hillman followed suit. He becomes the group’s spokesman and mediated between the workers and the employer. He convinced the employer, Hart, Marx, and Schaffner to acknowledge Local 39 of the UGW and to accept to settle future disputes arising from the workers-employer relationship through arbitration. He was well recognized for his role in a settlement after the workers strike that led to his close relationship with Jane Addams, Clarence Darrow, and other prominent people that had supported the garment worker strike and they also contributed greatly to his idea about industrial democracy and the role of unions (AFL-CIO online).
During the 1910 workers strike, Hillman met his wife-to-be, Bessie Abramowitz who was also labor leader of the movement at the time. After their marriage in 1961 and the birth of their two daughters, she still continues to be an active member of the group. Immigrant workers in other cities were motivated by the Chicago strike and formed their own new local unions. The first union was UGW but workers later become dissatisfied with its leadership and formed Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) in 1914 and Hillman was made the president. ACWA specialized in the men’s clothing industry. Hillman then moved to create the federal Board of Control and Labor Standards for Army Clothing during World War I. By 1920, the union had flourished and was able to employ about 177,000 workers and reduced working hours to 44 a week then to 40. By doing this he improved workers long working conditions as compared to what other companies before the union were doing. Constructive cooperation initiated by Hillman in the first agreement that took place in Chicago was incorporated in the ACWA. These cooperation policies secured loans for workers and also conducted financial education for employers who were experiencing problems in that sector. Hillman also availed the union member’s educational and social programs that included low-cost cooperative housing projects and insurance for unemployment. Other organizations adopted the “new unionism” policies that enhancement productively and deter unionization (AFL-CIO online).
The Great Depression that took place between1929-1939 strengthened the partnership between government and labor. Hillman became Labor Advisory Board in 1933, then to National Industrial Recovery Board in 1934. He helped Sen. Robert Wager draft the historical labor legislation that later becomes the National Labor Relations Act. Hillman also worked with Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins to draft an expansive wage and hours bill that become the Fair Labor Standards Act. In the 1930s ACWA achieved wide recognition among the states and it becomes the fastest-growing labor union at the time. Hillman also helped form the new Committee for Industrial Organization in 1935 and pressured the case for industrial unionism handled within the American Federation of Labor. Hillman then later pulled ACWA out of the AFL and joined John L. Lewis and other members who supported the labor movement and together they founded the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). In 1937, he moved to Textile Workers Organizing Committee as a Vice president and also was in charge of the Department Store Workers Organization Committee. This union later gave birth to the Textile Workers Union of America in 1939 and recruited over 100,000 members. From the Textile Workers Union of America, Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Workers Union Workers for America were created (AFL-CIO online).
When there was an outbreak of war in Europe, the majority of Americans did not want their country to be involved. Hillman on the other hand supported U.S aid to Europe in the war that emerged between England and France against Nazi Germany. Roosevelt moved Hillman to National Defense Advisory Committee in 1940 and in 1942, was named associate director of the Office of Production Management. Roosevelt then moved him to War Production Board to serve as the head of the labor division. Hillman used his position to influence union policies that laid the foundation for post-war prosperity. In the processing of transforming trade unions from pariah to partnership, many employers opposed the idea of collective bargaining and did whatever they could to limit union power. Hillman believed that what the employers called collective bargaining will motivate workers politically. Hillman joined John L. Lewis in 1936 to form Labor’s Non-Partisan League that mobilized votes for Roosevelt’s re-election in 1936 and 1940. With Roosevelt’s election, CIO gained a powerful political program and infrastructure that activated the labor unions we see today (AFL-CIO online).
Hillman stood for progressive social unionism. He pressed for minimum wage laws, pushed for legislated reductions in the workdays and hours, and also liberated labor laws to not only benefit the working people but also his own membership. Hillman was a good labor leader concerned with social issues and reforms of the worker’s welfare that made him become the labor statesman. Hillman gained his experience as an immigrant worker then made him climb the ladder of the labor bureaucracy. Government policies frustrated Hillman’s efforts to fight for workers’ rights. In February 1945, President Rieve Emil drew away from TWUA, a body that represented regional labor boards for its inability to, force employers to adopt wage directives. The strike that took place in March led to workers’ walks demanding a wage increase and fringe benefit improvements. CIO leader’s aggressiveness took an intensive political meaning that later looked into workers’ welfare. The new union created called the New Deal successfully centralized employers duties under the contract and introduce problem-solving through arbitration, strikes, and fence lines were becoming less common (Travail, 1996, p.2).
Hillman as an anti-communist and quiescent between the 1930s and 1940 was also joined by Murray P and Walter R that helped construct the Congress of Industrial Organization into a more lenient, reformist organization that suppressed rank and file action. He actively defended trade unions as the labor bureaucrat. When Hillman saw the liberal state, he quickly made reforms that would work with that system. Once he gained access to the white house, he used the opportunity to influence Roosevelt to support the union. He used his position as a defender of the status quo rather than a threat to both the White House and the union. He was warmly welcomed into the political field and for that matter, he was a second-class citizen as compared to another labor activist such as Hoffa (Travail, 1996, p.3).
Hillman and other leaders that created CIO looked for another way to participate in an international organization that would include the Soviet Union. The first organization took place in London’s Transport house which was the headquarters of the British Trade Union Congress (TUC) that become the landlord of IFTU’s headquarters staff. After the German- Russia confrontations, TUC at its annual conferences in Edinborough created a joint War Committee along with French labor. Anglo-Russia Trade Union Council calling upon each body to have its own internal policy and organization. TUC worked effortlessly to bring the AFL, CIO, and Independent Railroad Brotherhood into the council but failed because AFL did not support union cooperation with the trade union. Hillman continues to pursue union policies within the webs of unions in England and around the United States. We also see that Hillman supported the campaign of the national home idea of Histadrut (Fraser, 1991, p.10).
In 1914, when Histadrut in Palestine had disagreements about the Zionist movement, he negotiated on the possible makeup of the delegation to sit in the forthcoming World Trade Unions Conference that was foreseeing the formation of the World Federation of Trade unions. Hillman did not associate himself with Jewish Common Wealth for the fear that the move would lead to partition for Jewish and Arabs living between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River even though the members were looking for support from the Soviet Union for social ideologies. Throughout Hillman’s subsequent career, he remained committed to obtaining organized power that was inhibited by doctrinal beliefs that did not stop him from pursuing his dreams. Hillman incorporated discoveries of Western social science into traditional cultures that brought the union into existence. Hillman became an important mediation figure that had the ability to communicate across hostile borders of different classes and cultures (Melvyn & Warren, 1987, p.210).
Hillman was a national influence that employed creativity and diligence in executing his obligation as a mediator during his first twenty years in the New World. He progressively reformed workers’ poor working conditions and intensive long working hours. He actually achieved his experience by working under the care and tutelage of Jane Addams, WTUL, Clarence Darrow, Felix, Frankfurter, Walter Lipman, Louis Brandeis, and other people such as social scientists, politicians, and jurists. Hillman was not included in the worker’s strike but he headed the union that emerged from the strike. He showed, at least from the start, a resilience approach and sensitivity in the way he handled the political and social framework of labor organization that crowned him a labor statesman (Melvyn & Warren, 1987, p.211).
United Garment Workers tried to advantage of the workers’ sagging morale to hurry up and conclude an agreement with the company to end up the strike that would have conceded everything that workers had fought for. Hillman called for a dramatic mass meeting to denounce the betrayal and rejuvenated the strike. In another strike meeting, Hillman aggressively opposed a proposed settlement led by Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) that made Joseph Schaffner consider him as a man of “sweet reasonableness”. A close relationship existed between immigrant garment workers and sections of the progressive movement. The progressive movement entered into a partnership with immigrant labor for the reason that independent unionism was breaking the ability of laisser-faire capitalism to disintegrate into economic turmoil and social catastrophe that garment manufacturing companies represented (Melvyn & Warren, 1987, p.211).
The garment industry at that time was inefficient, labor provided was medieval and business practices were not appropriate and jeopardized the company’s progressive commitment. The new policies brought the company to a balanced and scientifically managed industrial and democratic order. Hillman’s union threatened modern companies such as HSM to stabilize the production process, standardize wages and hours and thereafter eliminate the ruthless competition that existed among its business rivals that caused constant battle on the shopfloor and disrupted production. These aristocracy circles of business, political and social welfare came together to recognize the importance of the union and incorporated its policies into its system to exercise constant watch over the industry’s labor markets and shopfloor practices that could refine and rationalize garment manufacturing (Melvyn & Warren, 1987, p.212).
Hillman accepted aid from progressives and also invented the idea of industrial democracy and scientific management of the organization. Through this process, Hillman created “new unionism”, a productive tool that was commanded by scientific principles and delivered efficiency. The scientific apparatus provided a model of social harmony signing up the voluntary cooperation and participation of the lowly paid industrial worker that included a progressive vision that would stimulate industrial democracy, a Vision for evading the intractable realities of power and dominative authority. Hillman signed up for these visions and also embraced the scientific way of business management through his trade unions. HSM signed up the agreement in 1911 that sort to establish machinery that would handle workers’ grievances and the machinery that would settle arbitration, a Hillman’s dream that he sought to achieve to seek out the existing shop floor disputes. The arbitration mechanism provided a constitutional basis for labor-management relations that introduced industry standards of production and looked into workers’ welfare (Melvyn & Warren, 1987, p.213).
Hillman tirelessly worked to better workers’ welfare in their places of work as well as off work. He knew that he could not solely realize workers’ freedom since the national labor movement was paralyzed. He instead looked for help in multiple circles of progressive reformers in and out of government. He befriended Progressive Sen. LaFollette, Norris, Wagner, and many other liberal members and state planners in the policy-making circles such as Roosevelt that helped in the wage and hour legislation proposals, unemployment insurance, national planning, and public works. All these activities brought the trade unions we see today that have bettered workers’ living standards.
References
- AFL-CIO. Sidney Hillman (1887-1946).
- Fraser, S. (1991).Labor shall rule: Sidney Hillman and the rise of labor. New York State: Cornell University Press.
- Melvyn D., & Warren V., R. (1987). Labor Leaders in America. Chicago: University of Illinois Press
- Travail, L. (1996). Labor shall rule: Sidney Hillman and the rise of labor. BNET, 1996, 1-4