Union Labor Party (California)
Encyclopedia
The Union Labor Party was a San Francisco
, California
working class
political party
of the first decade of the 20th century. The organization, which endorsed the doctrine of nativism
, rose to prominence in both the labor movement and urban politics in the years after 1901, electing its nominee as Mayor of San Francisco
in 1909.
to prohibit trade unions
from engaging in strikes
to win recognition for themselves and wage-and-hour gains for their members. This so-called "open shop drive
" put organized labor, concentrated in an array of local and international craft unions
joined under the umbrella of the American Federation of Labor
on the defensive.
In San Francisco, one of the most heavily unionized cities in the country, matters came to a head in the summer of 1901 when a local employers' association, the Draymen's Association, locked out the city's unionized teamsters
on July 21. The lockout spread to the entire waterfront, which saw the city's transportation essentially shut down.
Strikebreakers
were imported by the employers, who were met by force, leading to calls by the employers for police assistance. When police were deployed by the Chief of Police, the city's 14 maritime
unions joined together in the City Front Federation voted to initiate a mass sympathy strike
in support of the locked out teamsters, rather than see the teamsters' union crushed. Some 16,000 longshoremen, clerks, packers, and warehouse workers joined the work stoppage, thereby increasing the volatility of the situation.
San Francisco's Democratic mayor, James D. Phelan
, who had been elected thanks in large measure to the support of organized labor, sided with the employers in the battle and gave the Chief of Police authorization to smash the strike. Extreme violence followed, in which picketing workers were clubbed and even shot, resulting in 5 deaths and 336 reported cases of assault. Hundreds more strikers were arrested.
The perceived "treachery" of Mayor Phelan caused San Francisco's organized labor movement to rethink its previous strategy of attempting to elect and influence its "friends" in the Democratic and Republican parties. Instead, the unions sought an independent political organization to elect their own people to positions of power so that the violence of the state would not be turned against them in a future replay of the strike of 1901.
The Union Labor Party was the result of this change of perspective.
including a call for the revision of the city charter to curb future intervention by the city administration in labor disputes, a demand for municipal ownership of all public utilities
, erection of more schools and the initiation of the merit system in the promotion of teachers, and the abolition of the poll tax
. The platform also contained a frankly nativist
demand for the restriction of Asian immigration and the creation of segregated
schools for Asian children.
The new political party nominated Eugene E. Schmitz
, president of the Musicians' Union
, as its candidate for Mayor. The ULP put up a slate of its candidates for all other elected positions. The organization was ultimately endorsed by every San Francisco union with the exception of the local Building Trades Council and was bitterly opposed by every newspaper with the exception of the San Francisco Examiner, owned by William Randolph Hearst
.
The election of November 1901 proved a great triumph for the ULP, with its mayoral candidate winning election by a plurality of over 20,000 votes. Three of its members were elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
and the group fell just 50 votes short of electing 3 more.
Immediately after the election, the teamsters' strike was finally settled in favor of the trade unions. Strikebreakers were discharged and the striking unionized workers were reinstated. The Teamsters Union was recognized, the union wage scale initiated, and the 48-hour week established. While the union demand for a closed shop
was not immediately granted, the year 1901 nevertheless marked a major victory for organized labor and marked a high water mark for the trade unions of San Francisco and their Union Labor Party.
to carry firearms. Eight days later, the company signed a contract with its employees which granted all of the union's demands.
Despite some misgivings on the party of Samuel Gompers
and other national officials of the American Federation of Labor, the ULP continued its electoral success in 1903, when Eugene Schmitz was renominated for Mayor of San Francisco and won re-election by more than 26,000 votes.
Anti-union forces may have been defeated in the elections, but by no means was there an end to their own organizing. In 1904 there came to San Francisco a new organization known as the Citizen's Alliance, headed by Herbert George
, one of the city's leaders of the open shop movement. George initially launched the Citizens' Alliance in Denver, Colorado
with great success before importing the organization to the less hospitable soil of the city by the bay. By the end of 1904, George's organization claimed a membership of 16,000, including employers pledged to restore "the Americanism
of the Open Shop in San Francisco."
In the election of 1905, the Citizens' Alliance sought to fragment the union opposition by launching a puppet organization called the United Labor League. The Citizens' Alliance counted on a split of the labor movement, centered around the conservative Building Trades Council headed by P.H. McCarthy, against which would be pitted a fusion candidate combining the forces of the Republicans and the Democrats under the slogan of "Law and Order."
Contrary to the best-laid plans of the open shop advocates, McCarthy and the previously resistant Building Trades Council united behind Schmitz and the Union Labor Party in the election of 1905, helping him to win a third term of office.
and corruption in municipal administration, culminating in an investigation showing that the Union Labor Party and the city's Mayor were in the control of political boss Abe Ruef, who received financial kickbacks in the guise of legal fees from public utilities, gambling houses, and houses of prostitution
. The fall of Mayor Eugene Schmitz
in the midst of the San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907
undermined the strike effort, which ended in utter failure after months of violence between the Carmen's Union and out-of-town mercenary strikebreakers.
While little different than the corruption in other major American cities, such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, and New York, the San Francisco city graft scandal drew deafening wails of criticism from the local and national press, which sought to emphasize an inevitable connection between labor unions and official dishonesty.
The ULP's 1909 platform advocated public ownership of utilities, a new civic auditorium, extensive public works, and a U.S. citizen-only hiring policy. The ULP nominated and elected the conservative P.H. McCarthy of the San Francisco Building Trades Council in the 1909 mayoral election. While McCarthy's administration was largely scandal-free, it suffered from a number of political failures.
Businessmen chose James Rolph, Jr.
, known as "Sunny Jim", to run against him in 1911. Rolph won that election and the ULP faded from the scene.
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
of the first decade of the 20th century. The organization, which endorsed the doctrine of nativism
Nativism (politics)
Nativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. It may also include the re-establishment or perpetuation of such individuals or their culture....
, rose to prominence in both the labor movement and urban politics in the years after 1901, electing its nominee as Mayor of San Francisco
Mayor of San Francisco
The Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of San Francisco's city and county government. The mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch....
in 1909.
Preliminary overview
During the first decade of the 20th Century, employers across America made effective use of judicial injunctionsInjunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
to prohibit trade unions
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...
from engaging in 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...
to win recognition for themselves and wage-and-hour gains for their members. This so-called "open shop drive
Open shop
An open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join or financially support a union as a condition of hiring or continued employment...
" put organized labor, concentrated in an array of local and international craft unions
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...
joined under the umbrella of the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
on the defensive.
In San Francisco, one of the most heavily unionized cities in the country, matters came to a head in the summer of 1901 when a local employers' association, the Draymen's Association, locked out the city's unionized teamsters
Teamster
A teamster, in modern American English, is a truck driver. The trade union named after them is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters , one of the largest unions in the United States....
on July 21. The lockout spread to the entire waterfront, which saw the city's transportation essentially shut down.
Strikebreakers
Strikebreaker
A strikebreaker is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organisation running...
were imported by the employers, who were met by force, leading to calls by the employers for police assistance. When police were deployed by the Chief of Police, the city's 14 maritime
Sea
A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...
unions joined together in the City Front Federation voted to initiate a mass sympathy strike
Sympathy strike
Secondary action is industrial action by a trade union in support of a strike initiated by workers in another, separate enterprise...
in support of the locked out teamsters, rather than see the teamsters' union crushed. Some 16,000 longshoremen, clerks, packers, and warehouse workers joined the work stoppage, thereby increasing the volatility of the situation.
San Francisco's Democratic mayor, James D. Phelan
James D. Phelan
James Duval Phelan was an American politician, civic leader and banker.-Early years:Phelan was born in San Francisco, the son of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy during the California Gold Rush as a trader, merchant and banker. He graduated from St...
, who had been elected thanks in large measure to the support of organized labor, sided with the employers in the battle and gave the Chief of Police authorization to smash the strike. Extreme violence followed, in which picketing workers were clubbed and even shot, resulting in 5 deaths and 336 reported cases of assault. Hundreds more strikers were arrested.
The perceived "treachery" of Mayor Phelan caused San Francisco's organized labor movement to rethink its previous strategy of attempting to elect and influence its "friends" in the Democratic and Republican parties. Instead, the unions sought an independent political organization to elect their own people to positions of power so that the violence of the state would not be turned against them in a future replay of the strike of 1901.
The Union Labor Party was the result of this change of perspective.
Formation of the ULP
ON September 5, 1901, approximately 300 delegates representing 68 of San Francisco's unions gathered together in a convention to establish the Union Labor Party of the City and County of San Francisco (ULP). The convention approved a platformParty platform
A party platform, or platform sometimes also referred to as a manifesto, is a list of the actions which a political party, individual candidate, or other organization supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said peoples' candidates voted into political office or...
including a call for the revision of the city charter to curb future intervention by the city administration in labor disputes, a demand for municipal ownership of all public utilities
Public utility
A public utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service . Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to state-wide government monopolies...
, erection of more schools and the initiation of the merit system in the promotion of teachers, and the abolition of the poll tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
. The platform also contained a frankly nativist
Nativism (politics)
Nativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. It may also include the re-establishment or perpetuation of such individuals or their culture....
demand for the restriction of Asian immigration and the creation of segregated
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
schools for Asian children.
The new political party nominated Eugene E. Schmitz
Eugene Schmitz
Eugene Edward Schmitz was an American politician and the 26th mayor of San Francisco, who became notorious for his conviction by a jury on charges of corruption.-Life and career:...
, president of the Musicians' Union
American Federation of Musicians
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada is a labor union of professional musicians in the United States and Canada...
, as its candidate for Mayor. The ULP put up a slate of its candidates for all other elected positions. The organization was ultimately endorsed by every San Francisco union with the exception of the local Building Trades Council and was bitterly opposed by every newspaper with the exception of the San Francisco Examiner, owned by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
.
The election of November 1901 proved a great triumph for the ULP, with its mayoral candidate winning election by a plurality of over 20,000 votes. Three of its members were elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco, California, United States.-Government and politics:...
and the group fell just 50 votes short of electing 3 more.
Immediately after the election, the teamsters' strike was finally settled in favor of the trade unions. Strikebreakers were discharged and the striking unionized workers were reinstated. The Teamsters Union was recognized, the union wage scale initiated, and the 48-hour week established. While the union demand for a 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....
was not immediately granted, the year 1901 nevertheless marked a major victory for organized labor and marked a high water mark for the trade unions of San Francisco and their Union Labor Party.
The ULP in power
With City Hall in the hands of the Union Labor Party, San Francisco's trade unions launched a series of successful strikes in 1902. The city's streetcar employees launched a strike to reverse a 1901 wage cut and to win union recognition, an action which snarled San Francisco's Internal transportation. The United Railway Company, employer of the streetcar workers, attempted to import strikebreakers, but this time the ULP Mayor of San Francisco prohibited the company's request for a police guard and ordered that no special permits be granted for security guardsSecurity guard
A security guard is a person who is paid to protect property, assets, or people. Security guards are usually privately and formally employed personnel...
to carry firearms. Eight days later, the company signed a contract with its employees which granted all of the union's demands.
Despite some misgivings on the party of Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...
and other national officials of the American Federation of Labor, the ULP continued its electoral success in 1903, when Eugene Schmitz was renominated for Mayor of San Francisco and won re-election by more than 26,000 votes.
Anti-union forces may have been defeated in the elections, but by no means was there an end to their own organizing. In 1904 there came to San Francisco a new organization known as the Citizen's Alliance, headed by Herbert George
Herbert George
Herbert John George was a Welsh chemist and a lecturer at the University of Oxford.-Biography:George was educated at Cardiff High School and spent one session at University College, Cardiff before matriculating at Jesus College, Oxford in 1911 as a science scholar. He obtained a first-class degree...
, one of the city's leaders of the open shop movement. George initially launched the Citizens' Alliance in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
with great success before importing the organization to the less hospitable soil of the city by the bay. By the end of 1904, George's organization claimed a membership of 16,000, including employers pledged to restore "the Americanism
Americanism
Americanism may refer to:* Americanization* A word or phrase considered typical of American English, English as spoken in the United States* An attitude or conviction which gives special importance to the nation, national interest, political system, or culture of the United States* Americanism ,...
of the Open Shop in San Francisco."
In the election of 1905, the Citizens' Alliance sought to fragment the union opposition by launching a puppet organization called the United Labor League. The Citizens' Alliance counted on a split of the labor movement, centered around the conservative Building Trades Council headed by P.H. McCarthy, against which would be pitted a fusion candidate combining the forces of the Republicans and the Democrats under the slogan of "Law and Order."
Contrary to the best-laid plans of the open shop advocates, McCarthy and the previously resistant Building Trades Council united behind Schmitz and the Union Labor Party in the election of 1905, helping him to win a third term of office.
The ULP in retreat
The year 1907 marked the watershed for the Union Labor Party. In that year, a series of revelations took place detailing graftGraft (politics)
In general graft is an unscrupulous use of one’s authority for personal gain. However, the gain may also end up in party coffers...
and corruption in municipal administration, culminating in an investigation showing that the Union Labor Party and the city's Mayor were in the control of political boss Abe Ruef, who received financial kickbacks in the guise of legal fees from public utilities, gambling houses, and houses of prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
. The fall of Mayor Eugene Schmitz
Eugene Schmitz
Eugene Edward Schmitz was an American politician and the 26th mayor of San Francisco, who became notorious for his conviction by a jury on charges of corruption.-Life and career:...
in the midst of the San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907
San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907
The San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907 was among the most violent of the streetcar strikes in the United States between 1895 and 1929. Before the end of the strike, thirty-one people had been killed and about 1100 injured....
undermined the strike effort, which ended in utter failure after months of violence between the Carmen's Union and out-of-town mercenary strikebreakers.
While little different than the corruption in other major American cities, such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, and New York, the San Francisco city graft scandal drew deafening wails of criticism from the local and national press, which sought to emphasize an inevitable connection between labor unions and official dishonesty.
The ULP's 1909 platform advocated public ownership of utilities, a new civic auditorium, extensive public works, and a U.S. citizen-only hiring policy. The ULP nominated and elected the conservative P.H. McCarthy of the San Francisco Building Trades Council in the 1909 mayoral election. While McCarthy's administration was largely scandal-free, it suffered from a number of political failures.
Businessmen chose James Rolph, Jr.
James Rolph
James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, Jr. was an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was elected to a single term as the 27th governor of California from January 6, 1931 until his death on June 2, 1934 at the height of the Great Depression...
, known as "Sunny Jim", to run against him in 1911. Rolph won that election and the ULP faded from the scene.
Further reading
- Michael Kazin,Barons of Labor. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.