By: Charles Wowkanech and Laurel Brennan

 

Fifty years ago, on September 25, 1961, George Meany, President of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, symbolically “tied the knot” linking the hands of Vincent Murphy, the AFL leader who would become the first president of the merged New Jersey State AFL-CIO, and Joel Jacobson, the CIO chief who would serve as executive vice president of the new federation.

 

More than 3,000 delegates gathered in a Newark armory to cheer the “shotgun wedding” that united the New Jersey labor movement after 25 years in which the two rival federations had raced to organize hundreds of thousands of mostly first and second-generation immigrants in the steel, auto, rubber and electrical factories that covered the state.

 

It was a battle that had started in New Jersey, when John L. Lewis, the fiery United Mine Workers leader, had thrown the most famous punch in state history, flooring William “Big Bill” Hutcheson of the Carpenters at the 55^th national AFL convention held in the old Atlantic City Convention Center. Lewis then led his miners and textile workers in a walkout and launched the CIO and an era of sit-down strikes and massive organizing drives.

 

And it was a battle that ended in New Jersey, when Murphy and Jacobson finally merged their respective federations under direct orders from Meany. The New Jersey merger took place five years after the national AFL and CIO federations had decided to merge – a decision made after a right-wing Republican Congress overrode Democratic President Harry Truman’s veto to pass the Taft-Hartley Act, which had sharply restricted the rights of workers to strike, boycott and picket, and allowed the creation of “right to work” states throughout the South. 

 

Besides, it was hard to argue that “in unity there is strength” when the labor movement itself remained divided. With Murphy nodding his approval, Jacobson seized upon that theme in his remarks to the convention, expressing “his sincere hope that New Jersey’s united labor movement will make possible the greatest degree of progress for the cause of the workers of this industrial state.”

 

For 50 years, the New Jersey State AFL-CIO and the men and women who make up their member unions have fought to make that vision a reality. We strive to live up to the legacy not only of Murphy and Jacobson, but of their predecessors, Louis Marciante and Carl Holderman, and of early giants of the New Jersey labor movement like John W. Hayes , founder of the New Jersey Federation of Labor; P.J. McGuire and Matthew Maguire, the fathers of Labor Day; of ground-breakers like Carrie Golzio and Hannah Silverman , who proved that a woman’s place is on the picket line; and of migrant workers like Jerry Brown, who understood that the best way to fight discrimination on the job is to form a union.

 

It is a history too rarely taught in our schools, which is shameful because the struggles of workers to attain the eight-hour day and the five-day workweek, to make our workplaces safe, to stop child labor abuses and sweatshops, to end discrimination and achieve pay equity is the story of one of the great social movements of American history.

 

It is also a shame because the clear lesson of labor history is that union contracts make life better not only for union members, but for all working families. Unions and collective bargaining strengthen the middle class and provide working families with upward mobility. That was what happened when unionization was at its height from the end of World War II through the 1970s when the real wages of American workers – union and non-union alike –grew by the same 160 percent that the economy grew, guaranteeing economic prosperity for all Americans – not just the wealthy.

 

We are proud of our achievements of the last 50 years. New Jersey building trades unions worked with researchers to expose the dangers of asbestos, saving lives not only on construction sites, but in our schools and office buildings. We worked with government workers and teachers to pass a Public Employment Relations Act that gave them the right to unionize, and public employees soon swelled the ranks of the state AFL-CIO.

 

Under the leadership of former President Charles Marciante, the state AFL-CIO worked cooperatively with Republican Governor Tom Kean to pass the first Transportation Trust Fund in the nation, building the infrastructure that fueled almost two decades of economic growth. New Jersey maintained one of the highest minimum wage rates in the nation – an achievement more important for the working poor than for those who enjoy the benefits of union membership. Similarly, we worked with Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman on a $12 billion school construction referendum and on “needle-stick” legislation that made New Jersey the fourth state in the nation to mandate worker and patient safety to protect against contracting infectious and often fatal diseases. 

 

Under our leadership, we created the first Labor Candidates School in the nation to groom union members to run for political office. We watched with pride as Senator Stephen Sweeney, a business agent from the Ironworkers of the old AFL, and Assemblyman Nelson Albano, a shop steward for the United Food and Commercial Workers of the old CIO, teamed up with Democratic Governor Jon Corzine to pass the second paid Family Leave Act in the country, giving New Jersey workers the invaluable gift of spending time with sick children or dying parents. It was accomplished through a combination of political action and legislative initiative, and it proves that the merger of the AFL and CIO continues to work for everyone.

 

We were the first state in the nation to enact Project Labor Agreements into law. We launched the innovative Women in Leadership Development (WILD) program to prepare women for leadership in the union movement, and we created the landmark New Jersey PLACE program to give union members in apprenticeship programs a path to a college degree.

 

Both of us started out as union organizers, and we pushed hard to make New Jersey one of the only states in the nation to provide card-check recognition for unionization drives in the public sector – the advantage that the private sector used to enjoy nationwide under the Wagner Act provision granting unions automatic bargaining status as soon as a majority of workers signed union cards.  We also created one of only two state-level Organizing Institutes in the nation, recognizing that one of our most important jobs is to work hard to expand the labor movement – an effort that is bearing fruit today in workplaces as divergent as casinos and nursing homes.

 

It has not been easy. Certainly, the labor movement has been under attack. However, New Jersey is fortunate to have a vibrant, active labor movement and to have workers who are proud union members and believe in their community, their state and their unions.

 

We are proud that despite political opposition and economic challenges, New Jersey ranks sixth in the nation both in the number of union members and in the percentage of union membership. New Jersey’s union members last year earned a median wage of $917 a week – exactly $200 more than the median wage for non-union workers. We believe that is a statistic every union member should be proud of. To those who are not union members but would like to belong, we extend an invitation to join us in making history for the next generation.

 

As we celebrate this day, we remember those who went before us and we look toward the future. What was true fifty years ago is true today: In our unity – in our solidarity – is our strength.  Join us as we celebrate 50 years of making a difference in the lives of so many workers and their families.