X-Nico

10 unusual facts about Congress of Industrial Organizations


Bolesław Gebert

In 1936 he went to work for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in charge of efforts to organize fraternal organizations of foreign-born Americans.

Charles I. Krause

One of the first 1,000 men recruited to join the nascent United Auto Workers (UAW) in 1935 by John L. Lewis, then-president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), Krause participated in the famed sit-down strike at a General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan in 1936.

Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election, 1938

Drew's candidacy was considered controversial by some Conservatives as he had quit the party and run as an Independent Conservative in the 1937 provincial election in protest of the pro-labour stance of leader Earl Rowe during the Ontario government's conflict with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in Oshawa.

Huguette Plamondon

In 1953, she becomes member of the Montréal Labour Council (Conseil du travail de Montréal), which at that time was affiliated to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

Industrial Congress

A labor organization with a similar name, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or the CIO, was founded in 1935 by eight unions that were a part of the American Federation of Labor.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union

Harry Bridges was elected President of the new union, which quickly affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Mr. and Mrs. America

Mr. and Mrs. America contains a series of pre-taped messages from leading figures in American life, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, the presidents of the AFL, CIO, US Chamber of Commerce, and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr..

Rules for Radicals

Alinsky believed heavily in collective action as a result of the work he did with the C.I.O and the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago where he first began to develop his own, distinct method of community organizing.

Talking Union

"Talking Union" was written in 1941, while the Almanac Singers were working to organize Congress of Industrial Organizations unions.

William Earl Rowe

In the public mind, the cause of labour was identified with the American Congress of Industrial Organizations and communism.


Angelo Joseph Rossi

In an extended strike late in the late 1930s, Rossi lashed out at Harry Bridges, West Coast C.I.O. leader, saying the city is "sick of the alien" in a telegram to President Roosevelt, asking for federal intervention.

Boake Carter

After achieving fame, he was a familiar radio voice, but his commentaries were controversial, notably his criticisms of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and the powerful Congress of Industrial Organizations.

George H. Moore

Unions, 1947. Supporters of G. Vernon Bennett, backing Bennett for the council presidency, charged Moore with being dominated by the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and members of the rival American Federation of Labor leaped to defend Moore.

Ruth Milkman

First, Milkman argues that emergence of relatively innovative unions such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), UNITE HERE and the United Food and Commercial Workers from the conservative AFL-CIO is as noteworthy as the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1935.