Leo Wolman
Encyclopedia
Leo Wolman was a noted American
economist
whose work focused on labor economics
. He also served on a number of important boards and commissions for the federal government.
, Maryland
, in 1890 to Morris and Yetta (Wachsman) Wolman, first generation Polish
immigrants to the United States. He attended Johns Hopkins University
, receiving his A.B.
degree in 1911 and his Ph.D.
in political economy
in 1913.
After receiving his doctorate, Wolman worked as a special agent for the Commission on Industrial Relations
, a U.S. federal government commission which investigated industrial working conditions in the United States from 1912 to 1915. Returning to academia after the Commission ended its work, he taught at Hobart College
, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Michigan
. After the United States entered World War I
in 1917, he served on the Council of National Defense
(a U.S. federal government agency which advised the President
on economic production issues) and later was appointed head of the section on production statistics of the War Industries Board
. In 1919, he served six months with the American Peace Mission which negotiated the Treaty of Versailles
.
(ACWU), resigning in 1931. During this time, he was a director of the Amalgamated Bank of Chicago
and the Amalgamated Bank of New York, banks owned by the ACWU, and Amalgamated Investors, Inc., an ACWU-owned investment trust
. He became a freelance researcher for the National Bureau of Economic Research
(NBER) in the mid-1920s, and formally joined the staff in 1931, directing its labor research programs and in time becoming director-at-large for research. A number of studies he authored for NBER became the subject of national attention and debate, including a 1925, he report on the size and strength of labor unions in the United States, a 1929 study on changes in patterns of consumption and the effect on standards of living, and a 1930 report on the role of public works in helping reduce unemployment. Although he increasingly disassociated himself from the labor movement after the early 1930s, he still supported unions in certain circumstances. For example, he was one of many educators who signed an open letter denouncing violence against labor union members in the "Harlan County War
" in 1932.
He was appointed a lecturer at Harvard University
in 1930. But in 1931, he was appointed a full professor of economics at Columbia University
, remaining there until his retirement in 1958. Wesley Clair Mitchell
, a highly influential economist and colleague at NBER, lobbied heavily for Wolman to be added to the faculty.
His association with the trade union
movement led to a lengthy career in government service. In 1921, Secretary of Commerce
Herbert Hoover
appointed Wolman to the Conference on Unemployment, a federal conference charged with studying unemployment during the Post-World War I recession. His service led to additional work for labor unions. Wolman helped the ACWU negotiate unemployment benefits for its members in the mid-1920s, and with the onset of the Great Depression
he was lecturing union audiences on unemployment in 1930. Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt
appointed him in October 1930 to a committee to recommend solutions to the unemployment problem facing that state, and he was chair of a seven-state commission on unemployment in 1931. He became a strong advocate for federal unemployment insurance, and co-authored a major study of European economies in 1932 which linked dropping standards of living to lack of unemployment benefits.
(NRA), which led to a critical role in the regulation of labor relations. His initial appointment was as an expert on labor to NRA Administrator Hugh S. Johnson
in the industrial section. Four days later, Labor Secretary
Francis Perkins appointed him chair of the NRA Labor Advisory Board, with authority to meet with the NRA Industry Advisory Board and representatives of labor and industry to set codes for minimum wages and maximum hours of work and to establish fair trade practices. On August 1, 1933, Wolman was appointed (along the Hugh S. Johnson and Deputy NRA Administrator Nelson Slater) to a board to mediate disputes arising under the newly-approved cotton textile code. Three days later, Wolman and Walter C. Teagle
, chair of the NRA's Industry Advisory Board, established (with President Roosevelt's agreement) the National Labor Board
(NLB) to help resolve strikes
and other industrial disputes arising under NRA codes. The National Labor Board was led by Senator
Robert F. Wagner
, and Wolman was one of six members appointed to the Board on August 5.
Less than a week later, Wolman (acting as chair of the NLB while Senator Wagner was overseas) and the other members of the NLB established a key policy of New Deal
labor policy. The Full-Fashioned Hosiery Workers Union launched an organizing drive in the summer of 1933 in the silk stocking mills around Reading, Pennsylvania
. The employers refused to recognize the union, and 10,000 workers went on strike. On August 10, 1933, the NLB mediated a settlement. Known as the "Reading Formula," the settlement consisted of four parts: (1) That the union call off the strike; (2) That all employees be rehired immediately, without retaliation; (3) That the NLB hold elections in which the workers would vote by secret ballot for their own representatives, and that both parties would negotiate a collective bargaining agreement covering wages, hours and working conditions; and (4) That in the event of any disagreement on any matter, the parties would submit the dispute to the NLB for binding arbitration.
The "Reading Formula" proved useful in settling large numbers of labor disputes, including strikes in silk mills in Paterson, New Jersey
; silk mills in Allentown, Pennsylvania
; tool and die factories in Detroit, Michigan
; and coal mines in Illinois
. By the end of August, however, the "Reading Formula" was being opposed by employers, whose company union
s were losing representational elections to worker-controlled unions. Wolman and Teagle, chairmen of the NRA's Labor Advisory Board and Industry Advisory Board (respectively), worked out an agreement to accommodate industry concerns regarding implementation of Section 7(a) of the National Industrial Recovery Act, but President Roosevelt rejected this agreement on September 15. But the situation deteriorated through December, to the point where major employers were not longer taking their labor disputes to the Board. To strengthen the NLB's powers vis-a-vis employers, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6511 on December 16, 1933. The order ratified the Board's prior activities, including its decisions and representational elections. The order also authorized the Board to "settle by mediation, conciliation or arbitration all controversies between employers and employees which tend to impede the purpose of the National Industrial Recovery Act." But E.O. 6511 said nothing about elections, and did not address the Board's enforcement powers. Roosevelt issued a new order, E.O. 6580, on February 1, 1934. The order gave the Board explicit power to authorize, upon a showing by a substantial number of employees, representational elections to determine majority status, and appeared to give the winning organization exclusive representation for employees in the bargaining unit (although this interpretation was widely contested). Upset with the increasingly regulatory approach being taken toward national labor relations policy, Wolman attempted to resign from the NLB on February 24, 1934, but was persuaded by Roosevelt, Johnson and Wagner to withdraw his resignation.
The NLB's interpretation of Section 7(a), however, increasing diverged from that espoused by Johnson. On March 1, 1934, the Board issued its decision in Denver Tramway Corporation. The Board held that, where a union had obtained a majority of the votes cast in a government-sponsored representational election, any collective bargaining agreement would have to cover all employees in the bargaining unit. Until Denver Tramway, unions had bargained only for their own members. A union which represented only half the bus drivers in a company, for example, would bargain a contract only on behalf of its members. Another union could represent the other bus drivers. In many cases, several unions represented the same workers in one company, each union bargaining a different contract for however many members it represented. Denver Tramway was a major turning point in American labor law because it established the rule of exclusive representation. This rule said that a union which won the majority of votes in an election would win the right to represent all workers. Even when several unions competed against one another and no union won a majority of the votes, the union with the most votes still won the right to represent all workers.
The American Federation of Labor
(AFL) had attempted to organize auto workers since the early 1920s with little success. After the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933, the AFL again spearheaded a major drive in automobile manufacturing, this time organizing workers into federal labor unions
. By March, more than 32,000 workers (representing about 17 percent of the total automotive manufacturing workforce) had been organized. On March 4, 1934, auto workers at Buick
, Fisher Body
, and Hudson
voted to strike unless the employers recognized their unions, rehired all workers fired for union activity, and raised wages 20 percent. The AFL had accepted accepted severe restrictions on union organizing in the auto industry code (accepted by the government in early fall 1933), did not do much organizing under the code, utilized craft
rather than industrial
organizers whose main role appeared to be to suppress worker militancy rather than organize unions, and acquiesced when Hugh S. Johnson reinterpreted Section 7(a) in February 1934 to require proportional
rather than exclusive representation. Worried that the auto worker unions might actually strike, the AFL negotiated with the government to find a way to avoid a strike.
With Wolman's support, NLB Chairman Wagner intervened in the strike on March 6. AFL President William Green
sought a compromise under which auto workers would be able to air their grievances and company unions would be banned but no additional organizing rights would be sought. Wolman, who had long supported company unions, pressed for the retention of these entities as a means of giving workers a voice during the Great Depression without empowering unions (which he felt would overreach themselves and inhibit economic recovery). The strike deadline passed without any action as talks continued. For a time the talks seemed to be making progress, but when the automakers refused to deal with the NLB President Roosevelt intervened personally in the negotiations. The strike was postponed to give the President time to broker a deal. Relying heavily on Wolman's advice, Roosevelt negotiated a deal on March 23, but the deal collapsed and negotiations resumed. At Wolman's suggestion, Roosevelt agreed on March 25 to establish an Automobile Labor Board which endorsed Johnson's reinterpretation of the auto industry code of February 1934 and would hear grievances and cases of discrimination against workers.
Wolman was appointed the chair of the Automobile Labor Board (ALB) the next day. But Wolman refused to bar company unions, and from the ALB's outset unions complained that they did not get a fair hearing from Wolman. Wolman proceeded to implement a plan to hold a series of elections throughout the auto industry beginning in late 1934. But the disenchanted AFL withdrew from the ALB on December 13, 1934. Wolman and the ALB proceeded with the elections all the same, and although only about 19,000 workers had elected to form unions a plan was drawn up in April 1935 to guide the anticipated collective bargaining process.
held in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
, 295 U.S. 495
(1935) that Title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933
was unconstitutional. The passage of the National Labor Relations Act
into law on July 5, 1935, abolished the ALB. These two events led to the end of Wolman's career as a public servant, as President Roosevelt did not appoint him to any new positions in government.
Wolman returned to the faculty at Columbia University. He repeatedly voiced strong criticism of the new National Labor Relations Act, and argued that organized labor's goal was totalitarian control over the economy. His criticisms of labor unions led directly to the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act
in 1947, and he testified before the Senate Banking and Currency Committee
in 1949 on the monopolistic practices
of trade unions.
He also became a strong critic of the New Deal. On June 3, 1936, he co-authored a letter with Newton D. Baker
and Lewis Williams Douglas
which appeared in The New York Times
and which attacked the New Deal as dictatorial and communist
. The letter was widely condemned as self-contradictory, and largely ignored in the nation's capital. He argued that the federal minimum wage
laws, unemployment benefits, eight-hour day
rules, and overtime
requirements hindered economic recovery.
Wolman died at Mount Sinai Hospital
in New York City on October 2, 1961, after a long illness. He was survived by his wife, Cecil (Clark) Wolman, and his son, Eric.
in Palestine
. He issued a report on ways to improve economic conditions in the area, and joined the newly-formed Friends of Palestine in 1929 to support Jewish institutions of culture and higher education in the region. He was listed in the annual "who's who" of influential Jewish leaders in 1931.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
whose work focused on labor economics
Labour economics
Labor economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the market for labor. Labor markets function through the interaction of workers and employers...
. He also served on a number of important boards and commissions for the federal government.
Early life
Wolman was born in BaltimoreBaltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, in 1890 to Morris and Yetta (Wachsman) Wolman, first generation Polish
Polish American
A Polish American , is a citizen of the United States of Polish descent. There are an estimated 10 million Polish Americans, representing about 3.2% of the population of the United States...
immigrants to the United States. He attended Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, receiving his A.B.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in 1911 and his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
in 1913.
After receiving his doctorate, Wolman worked as a special agent for the Commission on Industrial Relations
Commission on Industrial Relations
The Commission on Industrial Relations was a commission created by the U.S. Congress on August 23, 1912. The commission studied work conditions throughout the industrial United States between 1913 and 1915...
, a U.S. federal government commission which investigated industrial working conditions in the United States from 1912 to 1915. Returning to academia after the Commission ended its work, he taught at Hobart College
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, located in Geneva, New York, are together a liberal arts college offering Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees. In athletics, however, the two schools compete with separate teams, known as the Hobart Statesmen and the...
, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. After the United States entered World War I
World 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...
in 1917, he served on the Council of National Defense
Council of National Defense
The Council of National Defense was a United States organization formed during World War I to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort, including the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial support for the war, and public...
(a U.S. federal government agency which advised the President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
on economic production issues) and later was appointed head of the section on production statistics of the War Industries Board
War Industries Board
The War Industries Board was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies. The organization encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to increase efficiency and urged them to eliminate waste by...
. In 1919, he served six months with the American Peace Mission which negotiated the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
.
Academic and public career
Returning to the U.S. in late 1919, Wolman joined the faculty at the New School for Social Research, where he remained for 19 years. In 1920, he became director of research for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers UnionAmalgamated 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...
(ACWU), resigning in 1931. During this time, he was a director of the Amalgamated Bank of Chicago
Amalgamated Bank of Chicago
The Amalgamated Bank of Chicago is a commercial bank headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to its downtown Chicago office, the bank has a branch office in Warrenville, Illinois....
and the Amalgamated Bank of New York, banks owned by the ACWU, and Amalgamated Investors, Inc., an ACWU-owned investment trust
Investment trust
An Investment trust is a form of collective investment found mostly in the United Kingdom. Investment trusts are closed-end funds and are constituted as public limited companies....
. He became a freelance researcher for the National Bureau of Economic Research
National Bureau of Economic Research
The National Bureau of Economic Research is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community." The NBER is well known for providing start and end...
(NBER) in the mid-1920s, and formally joined the staff in 1931, directing its labor research programs and in time becoming director-at-large for research. A number of studies he authored for NBER became the subject of national attention and debate, including a 1925, he report on the size and strength of labor unions in the United States, a 1929 study on changes in patterns of consumption and the effect on standards of living, and a 1930 report on the role of public works in helping reduce unemployment. Although he increasingly disassociated himself from the labor movement after the early 1930s, he still supported unions in certain circumstances. For example, he was one of many educators who signed an open letter denouncing violence against labor union members in the "Harlan County War
Harlan County War
The Harlan County War was a violent labor dispute between the United Mine Workers union and strikebreakers in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1932.-External links :* by Katie Rorrer...
" in 1932.
He was appointed a lecturer at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1930. But in 1931, he was appointed a full professor of economics at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, remaining there until his retirement in 1958. Wesley Clair Mitchell
Wesley Clair Mitchell
Wesley Clair Mitchell was an American economist known for his empirical work on business cycles and for guiding the National Bureau of Economic Research in its first decades....
, a highly influential economist and colleague at NBER, lobbied heavily for Wolman to be added to the faculty.
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...
movement led to a lengthy career in government service. In 1921, Secretary of Commerce
United States Secretary of Commerce
The United States Secretary of Commerce is the head of the United States Department of Commerce concerned with business and industry; the Department states its mission to be "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce"...
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
appointed Wolman to the Conference on Unemployment, a federal conference charged with studying unemployment during the Post-World War I recession. His service led to additional work for labor unions. Wolman helped the ACWU negotiate unemployment benefits for its members in the mid-1920s, and with the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
he was lecturing union audiences on unemployment in 1930. Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
appointed him in October 1930 to a committee to recommend solutions to the unemployment problem facing that state, and he was chair of a seven-state commission on unemployment in 1931. He became a strong advocate for federal unemployment insurance, and co-authored a major study of European economies in 1932 which linked dropping standards of living to lack of unemployment benefits.
National Recovery Administration
In June 1933, Wolman was appointed to the staff of the National Recovery AdministrationNational Recovery Administration
The National Recovery Administration was the primary New Deal agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. The goal was to eliminate "cut-throat competition" by bringing industry, labor and government together to create codes of "fair practices" and set prices...
(NRA), which led to a critical role in the regulation of labor relations. His initial appointment was as an expert on labor to NRA Administrator Hugh S. Johnson
Hugh Samuel Johnson
Hugh Samuel "Iron Pants" Johnson American Army officer, businessman, speech writer, government official and newspaper columnist. He is best known as a member of the Brain Trust of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932-34. He wrote numerous speeches for FDR and helped plan the New Deal...
in the industrial section. Four days later, Labor Secretary
United 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....
Francis Perkins appointed him chair of the NRA Labor Advisory Board, with authority to meet with the NRA Industry Advisory Board and representatives of labor and industry to set codes for minimum wages and maximum hours of work and to establish fair trade practices. On August 1, 1933, Wolman was appointed (along the Hugh S. Johnson and Deputy NRA Administrator Nelson Slater) to a board to mediate disputes arising under the newly-approved cotton textile code. Three days later, Wolman and Walter C. Teagle
Walter C. Teagle
Walter Clark Teagle , was responsible for leading Standard Oil to the forefront of the oil industry and significantly expanding the company's presence in the petrochemical field.-Biography:...
, chair of the NRA's Industry Advisory Board, established (with President Roosevelt's agreement) the National Labor Board
National Labor Board
The National Labor Board was an independent agency of the United States Government established on August 5, 1933 to handle labor disputes arising under the National Industrial Recovery Act .-Establishment, structure and procedures:...
(NLB) to help resolve strikes
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...
and other industrial disputes arising under NRA codes. The National Labor Board was led by Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Robert F. Wagner
Robert F. Wagner
Robert Ferdinand Wagner I was an American politician. He was a Democratic U.S. Senator from New York from 1927 to 1949.-Origin and early life:...
, and Wolman was one of six members appointed to the Board on August 5.
Less than a week later, Wolman (acting as chair of the NLB while Senator Wagner was overseas) and the other members of the NLB established a key policy of New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
labor policy. The Full-Fashioned Hosiery Workers Union launched an organizing drive in the summer of 1933 in the silk stocking mills around Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
. The employers refused to recognize the union, and 10,000 workers went on strike. On August 10, 1933, the NLB mediated a settlement. Known as the "Reading Formula," the settlement consisted of four parts: (1) That the union call off the strike; (2) That all employees be rehired immediately, without retaliation; (3) That the NLB hold elections in which the workers would vote by secret ballot for their own representatives, and that both parties would negotiate a collective bargaining agreement covering wages, hours and working conditions; and (4) That in the event of any disagreement on any matter, the parties would submit the dispute to the NLB for binding arbitration.
The "Reading Formula" proved useful in settling large numbers of labor disputes, including strikes in silk mills in Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
; silk mills in Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...
; tool and die factories in Detroit, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
; and coal mines in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. By the end of August, however, the "Reading Formula" was being opposed by employers, whose company union
Company union
A company union is a trade union which is located within and run by a company or by the national government, and is not affiliated with an independent trade union. Company unions were outlawed in the United States by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, due to their use as agents for interference...
s were losing representational elections to worker-controlled unions. Wolman and Teagle, chairmen of the NRA's Labor Advisory Board and Industry Advisory Board (respectively), worked out an agreement to accommodate industry concerns regarding implementation of Section 7(a) of the National Industrial Recovery Act, but President Roosevelt rejected this agreement on September 15. But the situation deteriorated through December, to the point where major employers were not longer taking their labor disputes to the Board. To strengthen the NLB's powers vis-a-vis employers, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6511 on December 16, 1933. The order ratified the Board's prior activities, including its decisions and representational elections. The order also authorized the Board to "settle by mediation, conciliation or arbitration all controversies between employers and employees which tend to impede the purpose of the National Industrial Recovery Act." But E.O. 6511 said nothing about elections, and did not address the Board's enforcement powers. Roosevelt issued a new order, E.O. 6580, on February 1, 1934. The order gave the Board explicit power to authorize, upon a showing by a substantial number of employees, representational elections to determine majority status, and appeared to give the winning organization exclusive representation for employees in the bargaining unit (although this interpretation was widely contested). Upset with the increasingly regulatory approach being taken toward national labor relations policy, Wolman attempted to resign from the NLB on February 24, 1934, but was persuaded by Roosevelt, Johnson and Wagner to withdraw his resignation.
The NLB's interpretation of Section 7(a), however, increasing diverged from that espoused by Johnson. On March 1, 1934, the Board issued its decision in Denver Tramway Corporation. The Board held that, where a union had obtained a majority of the votes cast in a government-sponsored representational election, any collective bargaining agreement would have to cover all employees in the bargaining unit. Until Denver Tramway, unions had bargained only for their own members. A union which represented only half the bus drivers in a company, for example, would bargain a contract only on behalf of its members. Another union could represent the other bus drivers. In many cases, several unions represented the same workers in one company, each union bargaining a different contract for however many members it represented. Denver Tramway was a major turning point in American labor law because it established the rule of exclusive representation. This rule said that a union which won the majority of votes in an election would win the right to represent all workers. Even when several unions competed against one another and no union won a majority of the votes, the union with the most votes still won the right to represent all workers.
Auto Labor Board
Wolman also played a major role in the initial organizing of the automotive manufacturing industry.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) had attempted to organize auto workers since the early 1920s with little success. After the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933, the AFL again spearheaded a major drive in automobile manufacturing, this time organizing workers into federal labor unions
Directly Affiliated Local Union
A Directly Affiliated Local Union is a U.S. labor union that belongs to the AFL-CIO but is not a national union and is not entitled to the same rights and privileges within the Federation as national affiliates.Legally, the AFL-CIO is the parent union of the DALU, and the AFL-CIO is responsible...
. By March, more than 32,000 workers (representing about 17 percent of the total automotive manufacturing workforce) had been organized. On March 4, 1934, auto workers at Buick
Buick
Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...
, Fisher Body
Fisher Body
Fisher Body is an automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan; it is now an operating division of General Motors Company...
, and Hudson
Hudson Motor Car Company
The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other brand automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, from 1909 to 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form American Motors. The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was dropped.- Company strategy...
voted to strike unless the employers recognized their unions, rehired all workers fired for union activity, and raised wages 20 percent. The AFL had accepted accepted severe restrictions on union organizing in the auto industry code (accepted by the government in early fall 1933), did not do much organizing under the code, utilized craft
Craft unionism
Craft unionism refers to organizing a union in a manner that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade that they work in by class or skill level...
rather than industrial
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...
organizers whose main role appeared to be to suppress worker militancy rather than organize unions, and acquiesced when Hugh S. Johnson reinterpreted Section 7(a) in February 1934 to require proportional
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
rather than exclusive representation. Worried that the auto worker unions might actually strike, the AFL negotiated with the government to find a way to avoid a strike.
With Wolman's support, NLB Chairman Wagner intervened in the strike on March 6. AFL President William Green
William 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:...
sought a compromise under which auto workers would be able to air their grievances and company unions would be banned but no additional organizing rights would be sought. Wolman, who had long supported company unions, pressed for the retention of these entities as a means of giving workers a voice during the Great Depression without empowering unions (which he felt would overreach themselves and inhibit economic recovery). The strike deadline passed without any action as talks continued. For a time the talks seemed to be making progress, but when the automakers refused to deal with the NLB President Roosevelt intervened personally in the negotiations. The strike was postponed to give the President time to broker a deal. Relying heavily on Wolman's advice, Roosevelt negotiated a deal on March 23, but the deal collapsed and negotiations resumed. At Wolman's suggestion, Roosevelt agreed on March 25 to establish an Automobile Labor Board which endorsed Johnson's reinterpretation of the auto industry code of February 1934 and would hear grievances and cases of discrimination against workers.
Wolman was appointed the chair of the Automobile Labor Board (ALB) the next day. But Wolman refused to bar company unions, and from the ALB's outset unions complained that they did not get a fair hearing from Wolman. Wolman proceeded to implement a plan to hold a series of elections throughout the auto industry beginning in late 1934. But the disenchanted AFL withdrew from the ALB on December 13, 1934. Wolman and the ALB proceeded with the elections all the same, and although only about 19,000 workers had elected to form unions a plan was drawn up in April 1935 to guide the anticipated collective bargaining process.
Later career
On May 27, 1935, the Supreme Court of the United StatesSupreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
held in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495 , was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that invalidated regulations of the poultry industry according to the nondelegation doctrine and as an invalid use of Congress's power under the commerce clause...
, 295 U.S. 495
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1935) that Title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933
National Industrial Recovery Act
The National Industrial Recovery Act , officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 (Ch. 90, 48 Stat. 195, formerly...
was unconstitutional. The passage 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...
into law on July 5, 1935, abolished the ALB. These two events led to the end of Wolman's career as a public servant, as President Roosevelt did not appoint him to any new positions in government.
Wolman returned to the faculty at Columbia University. He repeatedly voiced strong criticism of the new National Labor Relations Act, and argued that organized labor's goal was totalitarian control over the economy. His criticisms of labor unions led directly to the passage of 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, and he testified before the Senate Banking and Currency Committee
United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to: banks and banking, price controls, deposit insurance, export promotion and controls, federal monetary policy, financial aid to commerce and industry, issuance of redemption of notes,...
in 1949 on the monopolistic practices
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
of trade unions.
He also became a strong critic of the New Deal. On June 3, 1936, he co-authored a letter with Newton D. Baker
Newton D. Baker
Newton Diehl Baker, Jr. was an American politician who belonged to the Democratic Party. He served as the 37th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 1912 to 1915 and as U.S. Secretary of War from 1916 to 1921.-Early years:...
and Lewis Williams Douglas
Lewis Williams Douglas
Lewis Williams Douglas was an American politician, diplomat, businessman and academic.-Early life and education:...
which appeared in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and which attacked the New Deal as dictatorial and communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. The letter was widely condemned as self-contradictory, and largely ignored in the nation's capital. He argued that the federal minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
laws, unemployment benefits, eight-hour day
Eight-hour day
The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life and imposed long hours and poor working conditions. With working conditions...
rules, and overtime
Overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:*by custom ,*by practices of a given trade or profession,*by legislation,...
requirements hindered economic recovery.
Wolman died at Mount Sinai Hospital
Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States. In 2011-2012, Mount Sinai Hospital was ranked as one of America's best hospitals by U.S...
in New York City on October 2, 1961, after a long illness. He was survived by his wife, Cecil (Clark) Wolman, and his son, Eric.
Support for Jews in Palestine
In the 1920s, Wolman became active in supporting JewsJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. He issued a report on ways to improve economic conditions in the area, and joined the newly-formed Friends of Palestine in 1929 to support Jewish institutions of culture and higher education in the region. He was listed in the annual "who's who" of influential Jewish leaders in 1931.