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.
December 28 - Heroes in Space
December 27 - Musicians Fight Back
December 26 - Garment Workers Rise Up
December 25 - Debs Released; Real Gift is His Message
December 24 - A Christmas Eve Beating for Striking Workers
December 23 - The High Cost of Low Wages
December 21 - Red Scare Deportations Begin
December 20 - THE UNION IS DISSOLVED!!!
December 19 - Solidarity Gets the Goods!
December 18 - No More Beer
December 17 - Unraveling Anti-Japanese Hysteria
December 16 - No Justice, No Bagels!
December 15 - Troops Put Down the Mother’s March
December 14 - Another Hard Fought Victory
December 13 - The Beginning of the End of Apartheid
December 12 - We Disaffiliate!
December 11 - Right to Work is a Lie!
December 10 - August Spies is Born
December 8 - The American Federation of Labor is Founded
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