On this day in labor history, the year was 1953.
That was the day Ralph Cordiner, president of General Electric issued his “Cordiner Doctrine.”
It was the height of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare.
The House Un-American Activities Committee persisted in its witch hunting of trade unionists, labor militants and alleged communists.
It targeted many of the unions purged from the CIO in 1949.
The United Electrical Workers was one of those unions.
The UE had organized the electrical manufacturing industry, including General Electric.
Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy and HUAC each began investigating UE local 301 at the General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York.
GE didn’t like the militancy of the UE or the bad publicity McCarthy generated about the company harboring subversives.
So President Cordiner issued a memo, which stated that any employee called before a Senate or legislative committee hearing, who invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to inquiries regarding alleged Communist ties, shall be terminated.
When McCarthy came to Albany, New York to hold hearings on alleged subversive activities three months later, hundreds of UE members packed the room, booing and jeering the senator and cheering the defendants.
One African-American worker demanded “Why don’t you investigate subversion by GE of the Jim Crow system, of the profits taken from the sweat of my people?”
McCarthy abruptly ended the hearings.
But twenty-eight UE members would be fired at GE.
Other electrical manufacturers like Westinghouse followed suit.
It was a devastating blow to the union and to the fired members who had helped build the UE from ground up.
But the union persevered and remains a powerful representative for workers in the industry to this day.
March 19 - Wartime President Pushes for Labor Peace
March 18 - Wartime Workers Betrayed
March 17 - The Hoggs Hollow Tragedy
March 16 - Big Bill Haywood Talks General Strike
March 15 - The Grapes of Wrath Opens in Theaters
March 14 - Remembering Walter Crane
March 13 - Ending Jim Crow on the Job
March 12 - OSHA Safety Incentives
March 11 - Raising Conditions for an Industry
March 10 - Radium Girls
March 9 - Striking the Mines
March 8 - IBEW Strikes to Win
March 7 - Work Faster! Work Faster!
March 6 - International Unemployed Day
March 5 -Lordstown Syndrome
March 4 - Mismanagement Kills an Airline
March 3 - Wildcat Strikes Hit Chrysler and Briggs
March 2 - Greyhound Bus Strike Begins
March 1 - The Hoover Dam Goes Public
February 28 - Fighting for Equal Pay
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Regenerative Skills
The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall
The No-Frills Teacher Podcast
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast