Cigar Makers' International Union
Encyclopedia
The Journeymen Cigar Makers' International Union of America (CMIU) was a labor union
established in 1864 that represented workers in the cigar
industry. The CMIU was part of the American Federation of Labor
from 1887 until its dissolution in 1974.
. This was followed two or three years later by the establishment of a New York
Cigarmakers' Union of about 70 members, mostly emigrants from England
or Germany. This group quickly expanded in size to include about 160 of the city's 800 or so cigar workers before collapsing in an unsuccessful strike
to avert a general cut in wages.
The defeat proved temporary, as in 1859 another New York union was established in response to complaints about the business behavior of one manufacturer named Tom Little. About 250 cigarmakers were brought into the union before it, too, collapsed in a failed strike 10 months later.
Part of the reason for the failure of cigarmaker strikes was the lack of concentration
of the industry. Prior to the American Civil War
of 1861-1865, cigarmakers were typically independent proprietors. The craftsman worked for himself, buying tobacco in small quantities as he needed it, making his product with virtually no tools in the place in which he lived.
Samuel Gompers
, himself a skilled cigarmaker, echoed similar sentiments in his memoirs:
In New York City, one of the leading hubs of cigar production in the 1860s, it was typical for cigar manufacturers to furnish the raw material to the cigarmakers they employed, who would pay a deposit of nearly double the value of the tobacco
supplied. The cigarmakers would then carry their stock home and make the cigars in their own rooms, bringing back completed cigars to the manufacturer for payment. Defects in workmanship would result in the manufacturer refusing to take the cigars, who would be left in the possession of the cigarmaker to dispose of as he was best able.
During the Civil War, the revenue-starved federal government instituted an internal revenue tax on cigars and established a system of permits for employers and employees. As the tax system tightened its embrace, this system of so-called "turn-in jobs" was eliminated; henceforth the employer would have to have some sort of physical facility. Many previously self-employed
cigarmakers were consequently driven out of business, forced to work in the employ of bonded cigar manufacturers. This accelerated the trend towards unionization of the industry.
, Newark
, Cleveland
, New Haven
, Boston, Detroit
, and elsewhere to a preliminary convention in Philadelphia. This gathering decided to move forward with the establishment of a national union and called a foundation convention for the group for June 21, 1864, in New York City.
The union formed at this New York meeting was initially known as the National Union of Cigar Makers of America, before changing its name to the Journeymen Cigar Makers' International Union (CMIU) in 1867.
One of the early challenges faced by the CMIU related to a new system of manufacture established in the first years of the 1870s. The years 1871 and 1872 saw the arrival of a substantial wave of immigrants from Bohemia
, a region which now comprises the western two-thirds of the Czech Republic
. This new group of arrivals provided manufacturers with a ready source of low-cost labor. A new system of machine-production was also emerging at the same time, a mold invented in 1867 enabling the manufacture of cigars with essentially unskilled labor. Cigar manufacturers, seeking to realize large profits from economies of scale using the new machine methods would buy or rent a block of tenements and then sublet the apartments to cigarmakers and their families — thereby technically fulfilling the government requirement of maintaining a physical facility.
Traditional craft skill was thus devalued and the cigarmakers demoralized. High union initiation fees further limited the size of the unionized workforce. English-speaking Local 15 of the CMIU in New York City evaporated to fewer than 50; German-speaking Local 90 to just 85; and the union as a whole to only 3,771 members in 1873.
The CMIU concentrated its efforts on publicizing the abuses inherent in the so-called "tenement house system," ultimately forcing the New York Board of Health to take notice of the situation. The report of the Board of Health whitewashed the tenement system, making it seem as though the tenements represented superior living quarters, an action which enraged the unionized cigarmakers and mobilized other unions of the city to the cigarmakers' cause.
by the employers' association of cigar manufacturers putting 7,000 workers out on the street in a lockout lasting four months. Only 131 of the union's approximately 6,000 members remained in the union after the strike and the CMIU did not again exceed the 1,000 member mark until a full year later.
The CMIU was instrumental in the formation of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions
in 1881, and organization which later evolved into the American Federation of Labor
(AF of L).
The years 1879 to 1883 were a period of dramatic growth, with the number of union locals increasing from 35 to 185, with about 10,000 members.
In 1882, bitter disagreement over the question of political endorsements lead to a split of the union, with about 1,800 New York City cigarmakers seceding to form the Cigarmakers' Progressive Union of America. Many of the members of this new organization were members of the Socialist Labor Party of America
and were unwilling to see the national union work hand-in-glove with established, sometimes corrupt, politicians of the Democratic and Republican parties. The two sibling unions were in a position of competing with one another and they engaged in a bitter and destructive four year war, undercutting one anonther's contracts in order to gain recognition, until they once again reunited in 1886.
The American Federation of Labor
chartered the Cigar Makers in 1887.
As of 1925, the CMIU included 13,463 men and 3,186 women out of an American national work force in the industry of 28,293 men and 50,648 women. Of some 10,320 cigar-making shops known to the union, an impressive 7,180 used union labor, but of these 3,246 consisted of shops in which the owner was the only worker employed.
in 1865, it reversed this decision two years later and came to be a forerunner in the representation of workers of various ethnic backgrounds. The Cigar Makers' International Union in 1867 became one of only two national unions to accept females to membership. This policy was sometimes openly defied by union locals, however.
The CMIU pressed for higher wages, shorter hours, better working conditions, and the right of collective bargaining
.
The CMIU created a standard blue "union made" label in 1880. Union stamps underwent frequent changes and are an excellent help to collectors in the dating of cigar boxes. A "Sept. 1880" date was added top center to the label design in 1888 and appears on all CMIU cigar (not stogie) issues until 1974.
, and as cigarette
s grew in popularity. Exacerbating these trends was a move of cigar production to countries of the Caribbean
and Central America
.
All these factors led to the CMIU being disbanded in 1974.
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
established in 1864 that represented workers in the cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
industry. The CMIU was part of the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
from 1887 until its dissolution in 1974.
Forerunners
The first local Cigarmakers' Union was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 1851 by craftsmen who were opposed to the importation of low-cost laborers from GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. This was followed two or three years later by the establishment of a New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Cigarmakers' Union of about 70 members, mostly emigrants from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
or Germany. This group quickly expanded in size to include about 160 of the city's 800 or so cigar workers before collapsing in an unsuccessful strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
to avert a general cut in wages.
The defeat proved temporary, as in 1859 another New York union was established in response to complaints about the business behavior of one manufacturer named Tom Little. About 250 cigarmakers were brought into the union before it, too, collapsed in a failed strike 10 months later.
Part of the reason for the failure of cigarmaker strikes was the lack of concentration
Market concentration
In economics, market concentration is a function of the number of firms and their respective shares of the total production in a market...
of the industry. Prior to the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
of 1861-1865, cigarmakers were typically independent proprietors. The craftsman worked for himself, buying tobacco in small quantities as he needed it, making his product with virtually no tools in the place in which he lived.
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...
, himself a skilled cigarmaker, echoed similar sentiments in his memoirs:
"In every community where the demand for cigars was sufficient to warrant, the cigarmaker worked and sold his own cigars direct to the consuming public. Rarely did he employ helpers and then not more than one or two journeymen. If the journeyman became dissatisfied for any reason, he needed but small capital to become his own employer."
In New York City, one of the leading hubs of cigar production in the 1860s, it was typical for cigar manufacturers to furnish the raw material to the cigarmakers they employed, who would pay a deposit of nearly double the value of the tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
supplied. The cigarmakers would then carry their stock home and make the cigars in their own rooms, bringing back completed cigars to the manufacturer for payment. Defects in workmanship would result in the manufacturer refusing to take the cigars, who would be left in the possession of the cigarmaker to dispose of as he was best able.
During the Civil War, the revenue-starved federal government instituted an internal revenue tax on cigars and established a system of permits for employers and employees. As the tax system tightened its embrace, this system of so-called "turn-in jobs" was eliminated; henceforth the employer would have to have some sort of physical facility. Many previously self-employed
Self-employment
Self-employment is working for one's self.Self-employed people can also be referred to as a person who works for himself/herself instead of an employer, but drawing income from a trade or business that they operate personally....
cigarmakers were consequently driven out of business, forced to work in the employ of bonded cigar manufacturers. This accelerated the trend towards unionization of the industry.
Foundation
In 1863 came the first effort to establish a national union of cigarmakers, bringing delegates from New York, PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, Boston, Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, and elsewhere to a preliminary convention in Philadelphia. This gathering decided to move forward with the establishment of a national union and called a foundation convention for the group for June 21, 1864, in New York City.
The union formed at this New York meeting was initially known as the National Union of Cigar Makers of America, before changing its name to the Journeymen Cigar Makers' International Union (CMIU) in 1867.
One of the early challenges faced by the CMIU related to a new system of manufacture established in the first years of the 1870s. The years 1871 and 1872 saw the arrival of a substantial wave of immigrants from Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, a region which now comprises the western two-thirds of the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. This new group of arrivals provided manufacturers with a ready source of low-cost labor. A new system of machine-production was also emerging at the same time, a mold invented in 1867 enabling the manufacture of cigars with essentially unskilled labor. Cigar manufacturers, seeking to realize large profits from economies of scale using the new machine methods would buy or rent a block of tenements and then sublet the apartments to cigarmakers and their families — thereby technically fulfilling the government requirement of maintaining a physical facility.
Traditional craft skill was thus devalued and the cigarmakers demoralized. High union initiation fees further limited the size of the unionized workforce. English-speaking Local 15 of the CMIU in New York City evaporated to fewer than 50; German-speaking Local 90 to just 85; and the union as a whole to only 3,771 members in 1873.
The CMIU concentrated its efforts on publicizing the abuses inherent in the so-called "tenement house system," ultimately forcing the New York Board of Health to take notice of the situation. The report of the Board of Health whitewashed the tenement system, making it seem as though the tenements represented superior living quarters, an action which enraged the unionized cigarmakers and mobilized other unions of the city to the cigarmakers' cause.
Development
The economic crisis of 1877 was very nearly fatal to the organization, with a coordinated lockoutLockout
Lockout may refer to:* Lockout , a type of work stoppage* Lockout * Lockout chip, a computer chip in a video game system to prevent use of unauthorized software* Lock-out device, part of a signaling system used on game shows...
by the employers' association of cigar manufacturers putting 7,000 workers out on the street in a lockout lasting four months. Only 131 of the union's approximately 6,000 members remained in the union after the strike and the CMIU did not again exceed the 1,000 member mark until a full year later.
The CMIU was instrumental in the formation of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions
Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions
The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada was a federation of labor unions created on November 15, 1881, in Pittsburgh...
in 1881, and organization which later evolved into the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
(AF of L).
The years 1879 to 1883 were a period of dramatic growth, with the number of union locals increasing from 35 to 185, with about 10,000 members.
In 1882, bitter disagreement over the question of political endorsements lead to a split of the union, with about 1,800 New York City cigarmakers seceding to form the Cigarmakers' Progressive Union of America. Many of the members of this new organization were members of the Socialist Labor Party of America
Socialist Labor Party of America
The Socialist Labor Party of America , established in 1876 as the Workingmen's Party, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States and the second oldest socialist party in the world. Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 and has...
and were unwilling to see the national union work hand-in-glove with established, sometimes corrupt, politicians of the Democratic and Republican parties. The two sibling unions were in a position of competing with one another and they engaged in a bitter and destructive four year war, undercutting one anonther's contracts in order to gain recognition, until they once again reunited in 1886.
The American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
chartered the Cigar Makers in 1887.
As of 1925, the CMIU included 13,463 men and 3,186 women out of an American national work force in the industry of 28,293 men and 50,648 women. Of some 10,320 cigar-making shops known to the union, an impressive 7,180 used union labor, but of these 3,246 consisted of shops in which the owner was the only worker employed.
Ideology
Although the Cigar Makers' Union initially barred black and female cigarmakers from membership at its 2nd National Convention, held in Cleveland, OhioCleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
in 1865, it reversed this decision two years later and came to be a forerunner in the representation of workers of various ethnic backgrounds. The Cigar Makers' International Union in 1867 became one of only two national unions to accept females to membership. This policy was sometimes openly defied by union locals, however.
The CMIU pressed for higher wages, shorter hours, better working conditions, and the right of collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
.
Union labels
After 1880, Cigar manufacturers who negotiated labor contracts with the CMIU affixed blue labels to boxes of "union made" cigars. Previously, local chapters issued their own stamps including white labels, used by the Cigar Makers' Association of the Pacific Coast to show that their cigars were made by white labor, in response to the growing use of low-wage, Chinese immigrant labor. In 1875, the cigarmakers' local in St Louis tried to encourage consumers to buy union-made cigars by using a red label.The CMIU created a standard blue "union made" label in 1880. Union stamps underwent frequent changes and are an excellent help to collectors in the dating of cigar boxes. A "Sept. 1880" date was added top center to the label design in 1888 and appears on all CMIU cigar (not stogie) issues until 1974.
Decline and dissolution
The CMIU's membership dropped steadily as mechanization and unskilled cigar workers (known as "bunch breakers") replaced skilled cigar makers after World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and as cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
s grew in popularity. Exacerbating these trends was a move of cigar production to countries of the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
.
All these factors led to the CMIU being disbanded in 1974.
Notable members
- J. Mahlon BarnesJ. Mahlon BarnesJohn Mahlon Barnes was an American trade union functionary and socialist political activist. Barnes is best remembered as the Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America from 1905 to 1911, during which time he originated the idea of the party's 1908 "Red Special" campaign train on behalf...
—Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America. - John J. BallamJohn J. BallamJohn J. "Johnny" Ballam was an American Marxist political activist and trade union organizer. He is best remembered as a founding member and one of the pioneer leaders of the Communist Party of America and as a leader of the Trade Union Unity League in the textile industry during the...
—Communist Party Central Executive Committee member and union organizer. - Samuel GompersSamuel GompersSamuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...
— longtime President of the AF of L, was a National Vice President of the CMIU and President of Local 144. - Adolph Strasser
Further reading
- Patricia A. Cooper, Once a Cigar Maker: Men, Women, and Work Culture in American Cigar Factories, 1900-1919. Urbana: Illinois University Press, 1987.
- G.W. Perkins (ed.), Cigar Makers' Official Journal. Volumes 33 to 36. Chicago: Cigar Makers' International Union of America, 1908-1911.
- G.W. Perkins (ed.), Cigar Makers' Official Journal. Volumes 42 to 44. Chicago: Cigar Makers' International Union of America, 1918-1920.
- G.W. Perkins (ed.), Cigar Makers' Official Journal. Volumes 45 to 47. Chicago: Cigar Makers' International Union of America, 1921-1923.
External links
- Tony Hyman, "Dating Union-Made Labels," National Cigar Museum. Retrieved April 29, 2010. —Color illustrations of CMIU labels, 1880-1974.