Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 410-422).

The present study has several purposes in mind. First, the increasing teacher militancy from January, 1940, to July, 1968, will be delineated. Second, possible causes of increasing militancy since World War II will be evaluated. Special emphasis will be given to the current period of teacher strikes. Third, the historical roles of the NEA and AFT, with emphasis on their respective positions with respect to the improvement of teacher welfare, will be surveyed. Fourth, the impact of increasing teacher militancy on the NEA and AFT, will be investigated.

No description available.

James Caesar Petrillo, President of the American Federation of Musicians, called a strike effective July 31, 1942, prohibiting union members from making any disc recordings or electrical transcriptions. The present study recounts the history of that strike, including efforts to end it, reactions to it by various government and trade organizations and the circumstances under which it finally did end. The study focuses on the effect of the strike on radio broadcasters, both directly (through recordings they used) and indirectly (through the strike's effects on the recording and related industries), and concludes that it changed the character of radio's music somewhat, but had little detrimental effect on radio's profits.

The purpose of this study is (1) to determine the fundamental differences in the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association and (2) to evaluate these organizations in terms of criteria basic to the organization of any group. It is hoped that a microscopic analysis and evaluation of these two teacher organizations, representing both union and non-union groups, will cast some beneficial light upon weaknesses and strong points of both groups and result in recommendations which will be of benefit in the work of individual teachers as well as to the organizations.

Although the German-American Bund received extensive press coverage during its existence and monographs of American politics in the 1930's refer to the Bund's activities, there has been no thorough examination of the charge that the Bund was a fifth column organization responsible to German authorities. This six-chapter study traces the Bund's history with an emphasis on determining the motivation of Bundists and the nature of the relationship between the Bund and the Third Reich. The conclusions are twofold. First, the Third Reich repeatedly discouraged the Bundists and attempted to dissociate itself from the Bund. Second, the Bund's commitment to Deutschtum through its endeavors to assist the German nation and the Third Reich contributed to American hatred of National Socialism.

This dissertation explores the boundaries of industrial unionism within and outside of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in the struggle over what direction the American labor movement would take in the Progressive Era. The experiences of Iowa button worker and labor activist Pearl McGill in two nationally significant strikes between 1911 and 1912 enable us to see more clearly the nuances and ambiguities of these boundaries as industrial workers sought to build more inclusive unions. McGill’s advocacy for both the AFL-affiliated and industrially organized button workers in Iowa and the campaign of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, assisted by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), to organize on an industrial basis, shine a light on the conundrum faced by AFL leaders. The AFL and its craft union affiliates held fast to an anachronistic approach to organizing in an environment of rapid and technologically transformative industrialization in which the labor of women and ethnic and racial minorities was critical. The AFL’s early federal labor unions, for which Iowa button workers provide a case study, exemplify the strength of the impulse for unionization among mass production workers and show how AFL leaders fostered an institutional response to the growing demand for industrial unions while ensuring that craft unionists continued to dominate the AFL. The Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) walked a fine, and sometimes precarious, line between its loyalty to the AFL and the demand of working women—notably in the garment and textile industries—for new, inclusive forms of organization. The strikes of women button workers and Lawrence textile workers illustrate the predicament faced by WTUL leaders. Pearl McGill’s short but prominent career as a youthful leader of the Muscatine button workers, a spokesperson for the WTUL, an advocate for women strikers, and a prominent activist with the IWW in Lawrence illuminates these tensions and the appeal of industrial unionism for young working women. This study elevates the importance of Progressive Era federal labor unions as a bridge connecting the local assemblies of the Knights of Labor of the 1880s to the industrial unions that would emerge in the 1930s. It examines the institutional history of the AFL and its bitter struggle with the Knights and establishes the link between the local assemblies of the Knights and the first generation of AFL-affiliated federal labor unions that provided a precedent for later industrial unions. The arc of industrial unionism in the United States can thus be seen as a long, interconnected movement rooted in the principles of general unionism embodied by the Knights and animated by the vital impulse for industrial unionism carried forward by industrially-organized workers of which Iowa button workers provide an important example.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Issued also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Bibliography: p. 305-307.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.