David J. McDonald
Encyclopedia
David John McDonald was an American
labor
leader and president of the United Steelworkers of America from 1952 to 1965.
, to David and Mary (Kelly) McDonald, Welsh immigrants. David McDonald, Sr. was a long-time union activist who had been run out of Springfield, Illinois
, because of his union activity. After failing as a saloonkeeper, McDonald, Sr. got a job as a guide setter at a Jones and Laughlin Steel Company
rolling mill and joined the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
. Mary McDonald's father had been an officer in the Sons of Vulcan
, an early ironworkers' union, and both uncles on his mother's side were unionists. The night David McDonald, Jr. was born, his father was walking a picket line.
David McDonald, Jr. was educated in Catholic parochial schools. In 1915, David McDonald, Sr. was severely injured when a piece of hot steel impaled his left leg, causing him to be bedridden for 10 months and leaving him with a bad limp. David McDonald, Jr. got his first job as a paperboy at the age of 13 to help support the family. But his mother refused to let her son work full-time. McDonald, Jr. became an excellent student, singer and actor. He graduated from high school in 1918, receiving a two-year vo-tech diploma.
McDonald obtained a clerical job at the Jones & Laughlin mill, and later became a machinist's helper. In 1922, he became a typist-switchboard operator at Wheeling Steel Products Co.
and studied accounting at Duquesne University
.
McDonald married Emily Price in August 1937. She had been a secretary to Mine Workers president John L. Lewis
. They had a son, David J. McDonald, Jr.
, in 1939. The couple divorced in 1946. McDonald married his secretary, Rosemary McHugh, in 1950.
, president of District 5 of the United Mine Workers
. Murray hired him on the spot as his personal secretary, impressed with his typing speed and that McDonald had organized both the Holy Cross High School Alumni Association and Pittsburgh Catholic Alumni Association. The two become close friends.
McDonald enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
(now part of Carnegie Mellon University
where he studied drama and dancing. He became an amateur actor, and graduated in 1932. He was invited to come to Hollywood
by Warner Brothers
to discuss becoming an assistant movie director, but turned down the offer.
(SWOC). He named McDonald the union's secretary-treasurer. McDonald instituted tight financial controls, and centralized dues collection and expense payments in the national headquarters.
In 1940, Murray was elected president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO). Although Murray retained the presidency of the Steelworkers, McDonald increasingly oversaw more than just the day-to-day operations of the union. In many cases, he made union policy, often substituted for Murray at public and union events, helped negotiate contracts and represented the union at CIO events.
In 1942, SWOC merged with the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers to form the United Steel Workers of America. Murray was named the new union's first president, and McDonald its first secretary-treasurer.
The same year, Murray established a permanent political action committee
within the CIO. McDonald was appointed to the executive council of the CIO-PAC, controlling its policies, endorsements and donations alongside Jacob Potofsky
of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
, Emil Rieve
of the Transport Workers Union of America
and Emil Mazey of the United Auto Workers
. He also served as the PAC's secretary-treasurer.
Murray sent McDonald to England
in 1944 to report on the war effort. While in London
, a V-2 rocket
killed 175 people in the apartment building next to his hotel. In July and August, he toured Normandy as American troops broke out from their beachheads during Operation Cobra
, and his group came under artillery fire several times. The experience deeply moved him, and he urged the CIO to renew its "no-strike" pledge and redouble its efforts to support the war effort.
In 1946, McDonald was one of several union leaders within the CIO who pushed for a major organizing drive in the Deep South
. In March 1946, the CIO established the Southern Organizing Committee, and McDonald was its secretary-treasurer and one of its executive board members. Although McDonald had urged the organizing effort, he later criticized it for being underfunded and understaffed.
Murray increasingly resented McDonald's influence within the Steelworkers, however. The relationship between Murray and McDonald became strained. In 1950, Murray won passage of an amendment to the Steelworkers' constitution curbing McDonald's powers. Murray played a key role in the 1952 steel strike, centralizing the union's picketing, demonstrations, leafletting, bannering, job actions, public statements and more in the national headquarters and educating local and district leaders on the union's collective bargaining strategy and tactics.
Murray was a strong supporter of the National Labor Relations Act
, and believed the Taft-Hartley Act
in 1947 significantly weakened union organizing prospects.
As president, McDonald emphasized enhancing fringe benefits. The election of Dwight D. Eisenhower
as president and the advent of Republican
majorities in the United States Congress
(at least from 1952 to 1954) made expansion of social programs unlikely. To compensate, McDonald focused negotiations on benefits such as unemployment compensation, health insurance, pensions, tuition reimbursement and more. Throughout the 1950s, however, McDonald often felt an intense rivalry with the Auto Workers (UAW). The UAW often won better wage and benefit packages than the Steelworkers, and were able to obtain the closed shop
. McDonald's negotiating stands often reflected this inter-union jealousy.
McDonald led the Steelworkers out on strike in 1956, winning substantial wage increases, unemployment benefits and lay-off rights, and improved pensions.
Prior to the strike, the major steel companies were reporting high profits. McDonald and Steelworkers general counsel Arthur J. Goldberg requested a major wage increase. But industry negotiators refused to grant a wage increase unless McDonald agreed to substantially alter or eliminate Section 2(b) of national contract.
Section 2(b) of the steelworkers' contract limited management's ability to change the number of workers assigned to a task or to introduce new work rules or machinery which would result in reduced hours or numbers of employees. Management claimed that this constituted featherbedding
and reduced the competitiveness of the American steel industry.
McDonald characterized management's proposals as an attempt to break the union. Negotiations broke off, and the contract expired on July 1, 1959.
President Eisenhower asked both sides to extend the agreement and resume bargaining. McDonald and Goldberg offered to extend the contract by one year and to create a joint committee to study changes to Section 2(b) and to the contract's benefit structure. Steelmakers rejected the offer, and on July 15 500,000 steelworkers struck. The strike shuttered nearly every steel mill in the country. By the end of August, the United States Department of Defense
voiced concern that there would not be enough steel to meet national defense needs in a crisis.
McDonald was beginning to feel pressure to end the strike from the AFL-CIO. George Meany was willing to support the strike, but not if it meant negatively impacting national security. The strike was also affecting the auto industry, which was threatening to lay off tens of thousands of Walter Reuther's members due to a steel shortage.
On September 28, 1959, Eisenhower met privately with McDonald and Goldberg, and threatened to invoke the back-to-work provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act. But McDonald was unwilling to budge on Section 2(b) without other concessions from the steelmakers. The steel companies, realizing they only needed to wait until Eisenhower forced union members back to work, refused to make any such concessions.
Eisenhower set in motion the Taft-Hartley machinery on October 9, and appointed a Board of Inquiry. However, Eisenhower limited the Board to clarifying the issues rather than recommending a settlement. Realizing that the strike could linger despite the provisions of Taft-Hartley, management offered a three-year contract with small improvements in pay and fringe benefits and binding arbitration over Section 2(b). McDonald rejected the offer. He proposed a contract similar to his proposal of early July, but reduced the union's wage and benefit demand and limited the contract to two rather than three years. Working off a plan devised by Goldberg, McDonald also proposed a nine-member committee consisting of three members from labor, management, and the public to study and resolve work-rule issues. Management rejected the new proposal.
The Board of Inquiry issued its final report on October 19 and declared that there was no chance of a negotiated settlement.
On October 20, the United States Department of Justice
petitioned the federal district court for western Pennsylvania to an injunction ordering the steelworkers back to work. Goldberg argued that the Taft-Hartley Act was unconstitutional, but the district court ruled for the government on October 21. However, the court agreed to a stay of the injunction until the matter was fully settled. The union appealed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, and lost again on October 27. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari
and set argument for November 3, 1959.
Meanwhile, a budding friendship between Goldberg and Kaiser Steel
heir Edgar Kaiser
led to an independent settlement between the union and Kaiser Steel on October 26. Although the Steelworkers won only a fractionally higher wage increase than the steelmakers had proposed, the settlement included the nine-member committee proposed earlier by Goldberg and McDonald.
On November 7, 1959, on the 116th day of the strike, the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court's findings. In Steelworkers v. United States, 361 U.S. 39 (1959), in an 8-to-1 per curiam decision, the court upheld the constitutionality of the Taft-Hartley Act. The justices affirmed the district court's injunction ordering the workers back to work for an 80-day cooling-off period.
McDonald reluctantly ordered his members back to work, but productivity slowed due to extremely poor relationships between workers and managers. The Taft-Hartley Act required management to make a last offer and for union members to vote on this proposal. Management proposed minimal improvements in wages and benefits and the elimination of Section 2(b). McDonald turned management of the union over to Goldberg, to concentrate the legal and bargaining work in one set of hands. Goldberg convinced the leadership of the union to reject the proposal, and members followed suit.
It was a dangerous tactic, one which could have broken the union if not for the support of Vice President Richard Nixon
. Nixon planned to run for president in 1960, and offered his services in the hopes of negotiating a settlement which might win him labor's backing. The Board of Inquiry, meanwhile, reconvened on November 10 and issued a second report on January 6, 1960. The major issues, the Board said, remained the size of the wage increase and Section 2(b).
In December, Nixon met privately with the steelmakers and cautioned them that Congress would soon begin hearings on the steel strike. Neither Republicans nor Democrats
would support the steel companies if the strike triggered an election-year recession, and Nixon urged management to accept the terms of the Kaiser Steel settlement. Industry executives agreed to a new contract similar to the Kaiser Steel settlement the last week of December.
On January 15, a new 20-month contract was signed. Section 2(b) was preserved. Workers received a 7-cents an hour pay increase, 4.25 cents an hour lower than the Kaiser Steel settlement and far lower than anything McDonald had demanded. For the first time, however, the union won an automatic cost-of-living wage adjustment as well as greatly improved pension and health benefits. McDonald trumpeted the settlement as great victory (given what might have happened).
In the long run, however, the strike devastated the American steel industry. More than 85 percent of U.S. steel production had been shut down for almost four months. Hungry for steel, American industries began importing steel from foreign sources. Steel imports had been negligible prior to 1959. Basic industries found Japanese and Korean steel less costly than American steel, even after accounting for importation costs. The sudden shift toward imported steel set in motion a series of events which led to the gradual decline of the American steel industry.
.
McDonald strongly, actively and openly disliked Reuther. He opposed Reuther's plans to undertake a new wave of organizing, and pushed for stronger support of mainstream Democrats rather than left-wing candidates. McDonald believed that the conservative trend in American politics indicated labor should retrench rather than expand aggressively. At the CIO convention in December 1952, McDonald nominated Allan S. Haywood, the CIO's 64-year-old director of organizing, as president. McDonald was supported by most of the CIO's independent local unions and Industrial Union Councils (the CIO's local central labor bodies). Reuther promised to create the office of executive vice-president and appoint Haywood to the position, a move with allowed him to eke out a win, with 54 to 48 percent of the vote.
Reuther followed through on his convention promise, and Haywood became the CIO's new executive vice-president. But Haywood died suddenly in February 1953. McDonald quickly demanded that John V. Riffe, a veteran organizer with several CIO unions, be appointed in Haywood's stead. Reuther acquiesced. McDonald then pushed Riffe, who was in ill health, to promote McDonald's views within the CIO. McDonald also won a CIO staff position for his longtime personal assistant, Oral Garrison, who also pressured Riffe and reported on CIO affairs to McDonald.
Throughout most of 1953 and 1954, McDonald implicitly threatened to leave the CIO. He associated with John L. Lewis, who had led his United Mine Workers out of the CIO in 1942 and back into the American Federation of Labor
(AFL) in 1944, and pointedly reminded the press and the CIO that the Steelworkers were an independent union which would go its own way in politics, collective bargaining and policy.
just two weeks later, the personality differences keeping the two labor federations apart seemed to disappear. Gone, too, were the paralyzing arguments over industrial unionism
, organizing and civil rights. Both labor federations were organizing significant numbers of workers (including blacks), and many of these workers went into industrial unions.
AFL president George Meany
and CIO president Walter Reuther began unity talks in earnest in January 1953. A no-raid pact was produced in the fall of that year. McDonald, however, pressed Reuther for quicker action and intimated that the USWA would pull out of the CIO if merger was not effectuated immediately. While hinting that the Steelworkers might withhold dues money from the CIO in order to recoup loans it had made to the federation, McDonald publicly and brazenly pulled USWA organizers from CIO projects.
McDonald's influence weakened Reuther's attempts to win strong guarantees on civil rights, union corruption and industrial unionism in the unity talks. In September 1954, McDonald demanded that the CIO abandon its demands in these areas and merge. Reuther, unable to stand up to McDonald any longer, settled for a paper statements against corruption and racial discrimination. But there were no mechanisms to enforce these lofty goals, and many AFL unions continued to segregate blacks and engage in racist practices.
Jurisdictional dispute resolution mechanisms, too, were put off, to be established later by the new organization's executive council. Aggressive AFL industrial unions, such as the Teamsters
, were already pressing hard on CIO affiliates such as the United Brewery Workers
, and the new organization held out little hope that these CIO affiliates would survive.
Reuther did win constitutional inclusion of an Industrial Union Department to promote industrial unionism and organizing in the new federation. But while Reuther advocated a 6-cent tax on CIO unions to fund the department, McDonald pressed for a 1- or 2-cent tax. When Reuther expressed interest in leading the new Industrial Union Department, McDonald proposed a USWA district director. Once more, McDonald won the day and the Industrial Union Department—once envisioned as an organizing juggernaut—now became merely a research, publicity and lobbying unit.
McDonald acquiesced in Reuther's selection of John W. Livingston as the AFL-CIO's new organizing director. But Livingston was merely a functionary and not an aggressive organizer. McDonald approved of Livingston because of exactly these reasons.
Although McDonald served as chair of the resolutions committee at the final CIO Convention in early December 1955, he nearly sabotaged the organization's final moments. Believing that Reuther had intentionally omitted reference to John L. Lewis in his closing remarks, McDonald led the Steelworker delegation out of the auditorium during the closing ceremonies. Only a small number of remaining delegates gathered around the podium at the end to sing "Solidarity Forever."
by President John F. Kennedy
, and used his influence to help McDonald. On January 13, 1961, the Steelworkers announced an agreement in which the Human Relations Committees would be empowered to negotiate on behalf of the union and the steelmakers. The three public members of the committees would act as mediator and fact-finders, and be able to make public recommendations of their own.
A new three-year national steel contract was signed on March 31, 1962. Goldberg associated Marvin Miller
acted as a go-between for the union and management, helping to ease tensions. The union agreed to not enforce Section 2(b) and permit increased automation, with a percentage of the profits from automation going to wage increases. In return, displaced workers would get employer-provided unemployment benefits, retraining, and rehire rights elsewhere in the company. In addition to retaining the cost-of-living wage increase, workers would get an across-the-board 2.2 percent wage hike. McDonald, however, was not involved in the negotiations. He left most of the discussions to subordinates on the various company committees, and to his legal staff.
In May 1962, at the age of 60, McDonald received a bachelor's degree in industrial relations from St. Martin's College.
Union members, however, began to feel that McDonald was not protecting their interests. A brief recession led to layoffs, and McDonald negotiated job security provisions which saved workers' jobs. But when the economy recovered in 1963 and 1964, industry profits did not lead to wage increases.
Under the constitutional provisions forced through by Philip Murray in 1950, McDonald should have retired in 1965. However, he won passage of a constitutional amendment permitting him to serve two additional four-year terms.
In 1965, however, I.W. Abel
challenged McDonald for the president. Abel had served as secretary-treasurer since 1952, and was a long-time McDonald supporter. But Abel strongly criticized the Human Relations Committees, promised a return to militancy in order to win higher wages and benefits for workers. The election was a bitter one. The election took place on February 9. Voting irregularities and challenged ballots delayed a final result until April 30. Abel relied heavily on voting and ballot-challenging procedures established under the relatively new Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act
(or "Landrum-Griffin Act"). Without the assistance of the new law, it is unclear that he would have won. But union officials and federal monitors eventually declared Abel the winner by a razor-thin margin of 10,142 votes out of 600,678 cast, and on May 20 McDonald declined to challenge the result. Over 7,000 of those votes came from Canadian locals, and Abel spent a greater amount of time than any of his predecessors protecting the interests of Canadian steelworkers locals. Abel was sworn in as USWA president on June 2, 1965.
McDonald retired to California. In 1969, he published his autobiography, Union Man: The Life of a Labor Statesman. Although union members voted to invite him to their convention in 1966, Abel did not ask for him to come. When the USWA held its convention in Las Vegas, Nevada
, in 1976, McDonald was not invited to attend.
David McDonald died in Palm Springs, California
, on August 8, 1979.
He enjoyed classical music, purchased high-end electronic stereo equipment, patronized jazz clubs, and was a member of Pittsburgh's expensive and fashionable Duquesne Club.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
labor
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...
leader and president of the United Steelworkers of America from 1952 to 1965.
Early life
McDonald was born in 1902 in Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, to David and Mary (Kelly) McDonald, Welsh immigrants. David McDonald, Sr. was a long-time union activist who had been run out of Springfield, Illinois
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
, because of his union activity. After failing as a saloonkeeper, McDonald, Sr. got a job as a guide setter at a Jones and Laughlin Steel Company
Jones and Laughlin Steel Company
The earliest foundations of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company were the American Iron Company, founded in 1851 by Bernard Lauth, and B. F. Jones founded in 1852a few miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in 1854 by James H. Laughlin...
rolling mill and joined the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers was an American labor union formed in 1876 and which represented iron and steel workers. It partnered with the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, CIO, in November, 1935...
. Mary McDonald's father had been an officer in the Sons of Vulcan
Sons of Vulcan
The Sons of Vulcan was an American labor union which existed from 1858 until 1876. The union recruited puddlers, skilled craftsmen who manipulated pig iron to create steel. In the 1870s, it was the strongest union in the United States...
, an early ironworkers' union, and both uncles on his mother's side were unionists. The night David McDonald, Jr. was born, his father was walking a picket line.
David McDonald, Jr. was educated in Catholic parochial schools. In 1915, David McDonald, Sr. was severely injured when a piece of hot steel impaled his left leg, causing him to be bedridden for 10 months and leaving him with a bad limp. David McDonald, Jr. got his first job as a paperboy at the age of 13 to help support the family. But his mother refused to let her son work full-time. McDonald, Jr. became an excellent student, singer and actor. He graduated from high school in 1918, receiving a two-year vo-tech diploma.
McDonald obtained a clerical job at the Jones & Laughlin mill, and later became a machinist's helper. In 1922, he became a typist-switchboard operator at Wheeling Steel Products Co.
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel was a steel manufacturer based in Wheeling, West Virginia, which is located at the edge of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area...
and studied accounting at Duquesne University
Duquesne University
Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit is a private Catholic university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened its doors as the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost in October 1878 with an enrollment of...
.
McDonald married Emily Price in August 1937. She had been a secretary to Mine Workers president John L. Lewis
John L. Lewis
John Llewellyn Lewis was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960...
. They had a son, David J. McDonald, Jr.
David J. McDonald, Jr.
David J. McDonald, Jr. , Professor of Drama Emeritus at University of California, Irvine, received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, his M.F.A...
, in 1939. The couple divorced in 1946. McDonald married his secretary, Rosemary McHugh, in 1950.
United Mine Workers career
In 1923, a friend introduced him to Philip MurrayPhilip Murray
Philip Murray was a Scottish born steelworker and an American labor leader. He was the first president of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee , the first president of the United Steelworkers of America , and the longest-serving president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations .-Early...
, president of District 5 of the United Mine Workers
United Mine Workers
The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada...
. Murray hired him on the spot as his personal secretary, impressed with his typing speed and that McDonald had organized both the Holy Cross High School Alumni Association and Pittsburgh Catholic Alumni Association. The two become close friends.
McDonald enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Institute of Technology
The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...
(now part of Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
where he studied drama and dancing. He became an amateur actor, and graduated in 1932. He was invited to come to Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
by Warner Brothers
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
to discuss becoming an assistant movie director, but turned down the offer.
Secretary-Treasurer
In June 1936, Murray was named director of the Steel Workers Organizing CommitteeSteel Workers Organizing Committee
The Steel Workers Organizing Committee was one of two precursor labor organizations to the United Steelworkers. It was formed by the CIO in 1936. It disbanded in 1942 to become the United Steel Workers of America....
(SWOC). He named McDonald the union's secretary-treasurer. McDonald instituted tight financial controls, and centralized dues collection and expense payments in the national headquarters.
In 1940, Murray was elected president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
(CIO). Although Murray retained the presidency of the Steelworkers, McDonald increasingly oversaw more than just the day-to-day operations of the union. In many cases, he made union policy, often substituted for Murray at public and union events, helped negotiate contracts and represented the union at CIO events.
In 1942, SWOC merged with the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers to form the United Steel Workers of America. Murray was named the new union's first president, and McDonald its first secretary-treasurer.
The same year, Murray established a permanent political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
within the CIO. McDonald was appointed to the executive council of the CIO-PAC, controlling its policies, endorsements and donations alongside Jacob Potofsky
Jacob Potofsky
Jacob Samuel Potofsky was an American trade unionist.He was president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and was known for his skills as a conciliator within the union movement. His work landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents.He died in New York City of...
of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
, Emil Rieve
Emil Rieve
Emil Rieve was a Polish American labor leader. He was president of the Textile Workers Union of America from 1939 to 1956, a vice president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations from 1939 to 1955, and a vice president of the AFL-CIO from 1955 to 1960.Emil Rieve was born in Poland and...
of the Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article discusses the parent union and its largest local, Local 100,...
and Emil Mazey of the United Auto Workers
United Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...
. He also served as the PAC's secretary-treasurer.
Murray sent McDonald to 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...
in 1944 to report on the war effort. While in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, a V-2 rocket
V-2 rocket
The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
killed 175 people in the apartment building next to his hotel. In July and August, he toured Normandy as American troops broke out from their beachheads during Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra was the codename for an offensive launched by the First United States Army seven weeks after the D-Day landings, during the Normandy Campaign of World War II...
, and his group came under artillery fire several times. The experience deeply moved him, and he urged the CIO to renew its "no-strike" pledge and redouble its efforts to support the war effort.
In 1946, McDonald was one of several union leaders within the CIO who pushed for a major organizing drive in the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
. In March 1946, the CIO established the Southern Organizing Committee, and McDonald was its secretary-treasurer and one of its executive board members. Although McDonald had urged the organizing effort, he later criticized it for being underfunded and understaffed.
Murray increasingly resented McDonald's influence within the Steelworkers, however. The relationship between Murray and McDonald became strained. In 1950, Murray won passage of an amendment to the Steelworkers' constitution curbing McDonald's powers. Murray played a key role in the 1952 steel strike, centralizing the union's picketing, demonstrations, leafletting, bannering, job actions, public statements and more in the national headquarters and educating local and district leaders on the union's collective bargaining strategy and tactics.
Murray was a strong supporter of the National Labor Relations Act
National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Act or Wagner Act , is a 1935 United States federal law that limits the means with which employers may react to workers in the private sector who create labor unions , engage in collective bargaining, and take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in...
, and believed the Taft-Hartley Act
Taft-Hartley Act
The Labor–Management Relations Act is a United States federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions. The act, still effective, was sponsored by Senator Robert Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr. and became law by overriding U.S. President Harry S...
in 1947 significantly weakened union organizing prospects.
Presidency
Philip Murray died in November 1952, and McDonald was named acting president by the USWA executive board. Although observers felt that Murray had intended to push McDonald out of the union, his sudden death left McDonald in a position to take control. In 1953, the USWA executive board named McDonald president.As president, McDonald emphasized enhancing fringe benefits. The election of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
as president and the advent of Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
majorities in the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
(at least from 1952 to 1954) made expansion of social programs unlikely. To compensate, McDonald focused negotiations on benefits such as unemployment compensation, health insurance, pensions, tuition reimbursement and more. Throughout the 1950s, however, McDonald often felt an intense rivalry with the Auto Workers (UAW). The UAW often won better wage and benefit packages than the Steelworkers, and were able to obtain the closed shop
Closed shop
A closed shop is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times in order to remain employed....
. McDonald's negotiating stands often reflected this inter-union jealousy.
McDonald led the Steelworkers out on strike in 1956, winning substantial wage increases, unemployment benefits and lay-off rights, and improved pensions.
1959 strike
In 1959, McDonald led the union out on strike again. But the 1959 steel strike was a both a victory and a disaster.Prior to the strike, the major steel companies were reporting high profits. McDonald and Steelworkers general counsel Arthur J. Goldberg requested a major wage increase. But industry negotiators refused to grant a wage increase unless McDonald agreed to substantially alter or eliminate Section 2(b) of national contract.
Section 2(b) of the steelworkers' contract limited management's ability to change the number of workers assigned to a task or to introduce new work rules or machinery which would result in reduced hours or numbers of employees. Management claimed that this constituted featherbedding
Featherbedding
Featherbedding is the practice of hiring more workers than are needed to perform a given job, or to adopt work procedures which appear pointless, complex and time-consuming merely to employ additional workers. The term "make-work" is sometimes used as a synonym for featherbedding.The term...
and reduced the competitiveness of the American steel industry.
McDonald characterized management's proposals as an attempt to break the union. Negotiations broke off, and the contract expired on July 1, 1959.
President Eisenhower asked both sides to extend the agreement and resume bargaining. McDonald and Goldberg offered to extend the contract by one year and to create a joint committee to study changes to Section 2(b) and to the contract's benefit structure. Steelmakers rejected the offer, and on July 15 500,000 steelworkers struck. The strike shuttered nearly every steel mill in the country. By the end of August, the United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
voiced concern that there would not be enough steel to meet national defense needs in a crisis.
McDonald was beginning to feel pressure to end the strike from the AFL-CIO. George Meany was willing to support the strike, but not if it meant negatively impacting national security. The strike was also affecting the auto industry, which was threatening to lay off tens of thousands of Walter Reuther's members due to a steel shortage.
On September 28, 1959, Eisenhower met privately with McDonald and Goldberg, and threatened to invoke the back-to-work provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act. But McDonald was unwilling to budge on Section 2(b) without other concessions from the steelmakers. The steel companies, realizing they only needed to wait until Eisenhower forced union members back to work, refused to make any such concessions.
Eisenhower set in motion the Taft-Hartley machinery on October 9, and appointed a Board of Inquiry. However, Eisenhower limited the Board to clarifying the issues rather than recommending a settlement. Realizing that the strike could linger despite the provisions of Taft-Hartley, management offered a three-year contract with small improvements in pay and fringe benefits and binding arbitration over Section 2(b). McDonald rejected the offer. He proposed a contract similar to his proposal of early July, but reduced the union's wage and benefit demand and limited the contract to two rather than three years. Working off a plan devised by Goldberg, McDonald also proposed a nine-member committee consisting of three members from labor, management, and the public to study and resolve work-rule issues. Management rejected the new proposal.
The Board of Inquiry issued its final report on October 19 and declared that there was no chance of a negotiated settlement.
On October 20, the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
petitioned the federal district court for western Pennsylvania to an injunction ordering the steelworkers back to work. Goldberg argued that the Taft-Hartley Act was unconstitutional, but the district court ruled for the government on October 21. However, the court agreed to a stay of the injunction until the matter was fully settled. The union appealed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, and lost again on October 27. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari
Certiorari
Certiorari is a type of writ seeking judicial review, recognized in U.S., Roman, English, Philippine, and other law. Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin certiorare...
and set argument for November 3, 1959.
Meanwhile, a budding friendship between Goldberg and Kaiser Steel
Kaiser Steel
Kaiser Ventures is an American corporation, headquartered in Ontario, California. It was founded by Henry J. Kaiser to provide steel plate for the Pacific Coast shipbuilding industry, which expanded during World War II, then shrank, then expanded again during the Korean War...
heir Edgar Kaiser
Edgar Kaiser
Edgar Fosburgh Kaiser, Jr is a Canadian financier and a former owner of the Denver Broncos American football team. He was born in Portland, Oregon on 5 July 1942 and is the grandson of shipbuilding industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. He earned a BA degree from Stanford University and an MBA degree...
led to an independent settlement between the union and Kaiser Steel on October 26. Although the Steelworkers won only a fractionally higher wage increase than the steelmakers had proposed, the settlement included the nine-member committee proposed earlier by Goldberg and McDonald.
On November 7, 1959, on the 116th day of the strike, the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court's findings. In Steelworkers v. United States, 361 U.S. 39 (1959), in an 8-to-1 per curiam decision, the court upheld the constitutionality of the Taft-Hartley Act. The justices affirmed the district court's injunction ordering the workers back to work for an 80-day cooling-off period.
McDonald reluctantly ordered his members back to work, but productivity slowed due to extremely poor relationships between workers and managers. The Taft-Hartley Act required management to make a last offer and for union members to vote on this proposal. Management proposed minimal improvements in wages and benefits and the elimination of Section 2(b). McDonald turned management of the union over to Goldberg, to concentrate the legal and bargaining work in one set of hands. Goldberg convinced the leadership of the union to reject the proposal, and members followed suit.
It was a dangerous tactic, one which could have broken the union if not for the support of Vice President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
. Nixon planned to run for president in 1960, and offered his services in the hopes of negotiating a settlement which might win him labor's backing. The Board of Inquiry, meanwhile, reconvened on November 10 and issued a second report on January 6, 1960. The major issues, the Board said, remained the size of the wage increase and Section 2(b).
In December, Nixon met privately with the steelmakers and cautioned them that Congress would soon begin hearings on the steel strike. Neither Republicans nor Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
would support the steel companies if the strike triggered an election-year recession, and Nixon urged management to accept the terms of the Kaiser Steel settlement. Industry executives agreed to a new contract similar to the Kaiser Steel settlement the last week of December.
On January 15, a new 20-month contract was signed. Section 2(b) was preserved. Workers received a 7-cents an hour pay increase, 4.25 cents an hour lower than the Kaiser Steel settlement and far lower than anything McDonald had demanded. For the first time, however, the union won an automatic cost-of-living wage adjustment as well as greatly improved pension and health benefits. McDonald trumpeted the settlement as great victory (given what might have happened).
In the long run, however, the strike devastated the American steel industry. More than 85 percent of U.S. steel production had been shut down for almost four months. Hungry for steel, American industries began importing steel from foreign sources. Steel imports had been negligible prior to 1959. Basic industries found Japanese and Korean steel less costly than American steel, even after accounting for importation costs. The sudden shift toward imported steel set in motion a series of events which led to the gradual decline of the American steel industry.
Post-Murray relationship with the CIO
McDonald had a rocky relationship with the CIO under its new president, Walter ReutherWalter Reuther
Walter Philip Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century...
.
McDonald strongly, actively and openly disliked Reuther. He opposed Reuther's plans to undertake a new wave of organizing, and pushed for stronger support of mainstream Democrats rather than left-wing candidates. McDonald believed that the conservative trend in American politics indicated labor should retrench rather than expand aggressively. At the CIO convention in December 1952, McDonald nominated Allan S. Haywood, the CIO's 64-year-old director of organizing, as president. McDonald was supported by most of the CIO's independent local unions and Industrial Union Councils (the CIO's local central labor bodies). Reuther promised to create the office of executive vice-president and appoint Haywood to the position, a move with allowed him to eke out a win, with 54 to 48 percent of the vote.
Reuther followed through on his convention promise, and Haywood became the CIO's new executive vice-president. But Haywood died suddenly in February 1953. McDonald quickly demanded that John V. Riffe, a veteran organizer with several CIO unions, be appointed in Haywood's stead. Reuther acquiesced. McDonald then pushed Riffe, who was in ill health, to promote McDonald's views within the CIO. McDonald also won a CIO staff position for his longtime personal assistant, Oral Garrison, who also pressured Riffe and reported on CIO affairs to McDonald.
Throughout most of 1953 and 1954, McDonald implicitly threatened to leave the CIO. He associated with John L. Lewis, who had led his United Mine Workers out of the CIO in 1942 and back 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...
(AFL) in 1944, and pointedly reminded the press and the CIO that the Steelworkers were an independent union which would go its own way in politics, collective bargaining and policy.
AFL-CIO merger role
McDonald, along with USWA general counsel Arthur J. Goldberg, played a key role in the merger of the AFL and CIO in 1955. Murray had long disdained merger, but had engaged in desultory merge talks on and off for much of his presidency. With the death of Philip Murray on November 9 and AFL president William GreenWilliam Green (labor leader)
William Green was an American trade union leader. Green is best remembered for serving as the President of the American Federation of Labor from 1924 to 1952.-Early years:...
just two weeks later, the personality differences keeping the two labor federations apart seemed to disappear. Gone, too, were the paralyzing arguments over industrial unionism
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
, organizing and civil rights. Both labor federations were organizing significant numbers of workers (including blacks), and many of these workers went into industrial unions.
AFL president George Meany
George Meany
William George Meany led labor union federations in the United States. As an officer of the American Federation of Labor, he represented the AFL on the National War Labor Board during World War II....
and CIO president Walter Reuther began unity talks in earnest in January 1953. A no-raid pact was produced in the fall of that year. McDonald, however, pressed Reuther for quicker action and intimated that the USWA would pull out of the CIO if merger was not effectuated immediately. While hinting that the Steelworkers might withhold dues money from the CIO in order to recoup loans it had made to the federation, McDonald publicly and brazenly pulled USWA organizers from CIO projects.
McDonald's influence weakened Reuther's attempts to win strong guarantees on civil rights, union corruption and industrial unionism in the unity talks. In September 1954, McDonald demanded that the CIO abandon its demands in these areas and merge. Reuther, unable to stand up to McDonald any longer, settled for a paper statements against corruption and racial discrimination. But there were no mechanisms to enforce these lofty goals, and many AFL unions continued to segregate blacks and engage in racist practices.
Jurisdictional dispute resolution mechanisms, too, were put off, to be established later by the new organization's executive council. Aggressive AFL industrial unions, such as the Teamsters
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....
, were already pressing hard on CIO affiliates such as the United Brewery Workers
International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink and Distillery Workers
The International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink and Distillery Workers was an labor union in the United States. The union merged with the Teamsters in 1973.-Early history:...
, and the new organization held out little hope that these CIO affiliates would survive.
Reuther did win constitutional inclusion of an Industrial Union Department to promote industrial unionism and organizing in the new federation. But while Reuther advocated a 6-cent tax on CIO unions to fund the department, McDonald pressed for a 1- or 2-cent tax. When Reuther expressed interest in leading the new Industrial Union Department, McDonald proposed a USWA district director. Once more, McDonald won the day and the Industrial Union Department—once envisioned as an organizing juggernaut—now became merely a research, publicity and lobbying unit.
McDonald acquiesced in Reuther's selection of John W. Livingston as the AFL-CIO's new organizing director. But Livingston was merely a functionary and not an aggressive organizer. McDonald approved of Livingston because of exactly these reasons.
Although McDonald served as chair of the resolutions committee at the final CIO Convention in early December 1955, he nearly sabotaged the organization's final moments. Believing that Reuther had intentionally omitted reference to John L. Lewis in his closing remarks, McDonald led the Steelworker delegation out of the auditorium during the closing ceremonies. Only a small number of remaining delegates gathered around the podium at the end to sing "Solidarity Forever."
Final union years and death
Eager to avoid a repetition of the 1959 steel strike, McDonald worked with steel industry executives to widen the mandate of the new nine-member commissions (now known as "Human Relations Committees"). Goldberg had been appointed Secretary of LaborUnited States Secretary of Labor
The United States Secretary of Labor is the head of the Department of Labor who exercises control over the department and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all other issues involving any form of business-person controversies....
by President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, and used his influence to help McDonald. On January 13, 1961, the Steelworkers announced an agreement in which the Human Relations Committees would be empowered to negotiate on behalf of the union and the steelmakers. The three public members of the committees would act as mediator and fact-finders, and be able to make public recommendations of their own.
A new three-year national steel contract was signed on March 31, 1962. Goldberg associated Marvin Miller
Marvin Miller
Marvin Julian Miller is a former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association , from 1966 to 1982. Under Miller's direction, the players' union was transformed into one of the strongest unions in the United States...
acted as a go-between for the union and management, helping to ease tensions. The union agreed to not enforce Section 2(b) and permit increased automation, with a percentage of the profits from automation going to wage increases. In return, displaced workers would get employer-provided unemployment benefits, retraining, and rehire rights elsewhere in the company. In addition to retaining the cost-of-living wage increase, workers would get an across-the-board 2.2 percent wage hike. McDonald, however, was not involved in the negotiations. He left most of the discussions to subordinates on the various company committees, and to his legal staff.
In May 1962, at the age of 60, McDonald received a bachelor's degree in industrial relations from St. Martin's College.
Union members, however, began to feel that McDonald was not protecting their interests. A brief recession led to layoffs, and McDonald negotiated job security provisions which saved workers' jobs. But when the economy recovered in 1963 and 1964, industry profits did not lead to wage increases.
Under the constitutional provisions forced through by Philip Murray in 1950, McDonald should have retired in 1965. However, he won passage of a constitutional amendment permitting him to serve two additional four-year terms.
In 1965, however, I.W. Abel
Iorwith Wilbur Abel
Iorwith Wilbur Abel , also known as I.W. Abel, was an American labor leader.-Early life and union career:...
challenged McDonald for the president. Abel had served as secretary-treasurer since 1952, and was a long-time McDonald supporter. But Abel strongly criticized the Human Relations Committees, promised a return to militancy in order to win higher wages and benefits for workers. The election was a bitter one. The election took place on February 9. Voting irregularities and challenged ballots delayed a final result until April 30. Abel relied heavily on voting and ballot-challenging procedures established under the relatively new Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act
Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act
The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 , is a United States labor law that regulates labor unions' internal affairs and their officials' relationships with employers.-Background:...
(or "Landrum-Griffin Act"). Without the assistance of the new law, it is unclear that he would have won. But union officials and federal monitors eventually declared Abel the winner by a razor-thin margin of 10,142 votes out of 600,678 cast, and on May 20 McDonald declined to challenge the result. Over 7,000 of those votes came from Canadian locals, and Abel spent a greater amount of time than any of his predecessors protecting the interests of Canadian steelworkers locals. Abel was sworn in as USWA president on June 2, 1965.
McDonald retired to California. In 1969, he published his autobiography, Union Man: The Life of a Labor Statesman. Although union members voted to invite him to their convention in 1966, Abel did not ask for him to come. When the USWA held its convention in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, in 1976, McDonald was not invited to attend.
David McDonald died in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
, on August 8, 1979.
Personality
McDonald was almost universally considered vain and self-important. Many union leaders felt he drank too much and was far too flamboyant.- He often appeared vainglorious and deceitful, masking his lack of contact with rank-and-file workers and his shaky grasp of conditions in the mills with boastful orations and alcohol-enhanced bonhomie. ... he bullied or cajoled wildcat strikers, sweet-talked government officials and corporate executives, and appeared endlessly at rallies, bond drives, broadcasts, and press conferences...
He enjoyed classical music, purchased high-end electronic stereo equipment, patronized jazz clubs, and was a member of Pittsburgh's expensive and fashionable Duquesne Club.