Employers' Association of Greater Chicago

(States Twitter)-Employers' Association of Greater Chicago (EA) was a nonprofit association of employers based in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded as the Employers' Association of Chicago in 1903, although it was also known colloquially as the Chicago Employers' Association. Its goal was to oppose the unionization of companies in the Chicago area, and assist unionized companies in deunionization.

Over time, the organization's commitment to union avoidance lessened greatly and the organization became more heavily involved in traditional human resources training and consulting. The organization changed its name to the Employers' Association of Greater Chicago in 1959, and merged with the Midwest Industrial Management Association in 1981.

Founding and early years

The group was founded as the Employers' Association of Chicago (the EA) in 1902 during a strike against telephone equipment manufacturers.

In January 1902, Brass Molder's Union Local 83 struck Stromberg-Carlson and Western Electric, seeking to win the closed shop in collective bargaining negotiations. The employers locked out the workers and brought in strikebreakers. Union members began attacking the strikebreakers. On May 7, 1903, the union struck the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company. Kellogg Switchboard, too, locked out 90 percent of its workforce and hired strikebreakers. The Teamsters Joint Council of Chicago began a sympathy strike on June 24, 1903. The three employers sought injunctions against the sympathy strike, which they won on July 20, 1903. The Brass Molders' strike collapsed soon afterward.

During the summer of 1902, the Employers' Association of Chicago was formed. John G. Shedd, vice-president of Marshall Field & Company, was the primary force behind the organization of the group. Shedd became the first president. Montgomery Ward manager (later president) Robert J. Thorne was the first vice-president; grocery store president Frank H. Armstrong of Reid, Murdoch & Company the second vice-president; and William E. Clow, president of plumbing manufacturer J.B. Clow & Co. Its goal was to secure the open shop, resist unionization, and break unions in workplaces where they existed. The group kept its membership secret for fear of generating strikes by the Teamsters. By the end of the year, the EA's existence had become public knowledge and the organization had hired its first staff person, former labor arbitrator Frederick W. Job. The EA was heavily funded by the city's banks, and by other large companies such as Rand McNally.

1920s and 1930s

The EA pressed its advantage against Chicago's unions. It added building owners as members in 1913, and supported them in their fight with the Building Service Employees International Union. It helped expose efforts to extort money from property owners in 1921, which led to the indictment and eventual imprisonment of BSEIU president William Quesse. In 1921, the EA attacked nascent unions in grocery stores and food industries, accusing them of vandalism, bombings and extortion as well. In the early and mid 1920s, the EA put pressure on unions in the city's milk and ice industries, accusing unions of blackmail, extortion, and establishing anti-competitive trusts and price fixing.

The focus on illegal activities by unions proved so effective that the EA's main priority became attacking labor racketeering. The term "racketeering" was, in fact, coined by the Employers' Association of Chicago in June 1927 in a statement about the influence of organized crime in the Teamsters union. Reports about rackets and other illegal activities by labor unions and employers were issued annually by the EA. In 1928, for example, the Employers' Association claimed that exactly 46 rackets were operating in Chicago. The EA reported on the use of thugs and gunmen by both unions and employers, and excoriated the public and government officials for not prosecuting rackets more often or more successfully. EA reports also focused on bombings in the city. These reports provide statistical documentation of the level of organized crime-related violence in the city (although the EA reports rarely distinguish between union- or employer-instigated violence and violence undertaken by mob-dominated unions or employers). The Association's October 1928 report, which documented an astonishing 727 bombings in Chicago in the previous year, led to the formation of the city's first arson unit.

Attacks on federal labor policy

The passage of the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) in 1935 energized the Employers' Association, and drew it into a new field of activity. Although the EA had long opposed collective bargaining, federal legislation protecting labor unions took the organization by surprise. The Association vociferously attacked President Franklin D. Roosevelt's labor policies. But like many employers, the EA took a "wait and see" attitude until the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled on the Wagner Act's constitutionality. The court upheld the constitutionality of the statute in 1937 in National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation 301 U.S. 1 (1937). The EA rarely attacked the act for the remainder of the 1930s or during World War II.

However, in the post-war period it once more blasted unions and the federal government's labor policies. The EA undertook a campaign to influence Congressional opinion, and pushed strongly for repeal of the Wagner Act. When repeal seemed out of reach, the EA supported the Taft-Hartley Act and the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). It also sponsored a program to take advantage of the provisions of both acts by bolstering the role foremen played in the workplace.

By the late 1930s, labor-related disruptions and violence in Chicago had been greatly reduced. Chicago law enforcement was also cracking down heavily on labor violence and racketeering, which won high praise from the Employers' Association.

Human resources and other initiatives, 1950-1980

The Employers' Association had engaged in its first human resources consulting in 1918. That year, it undertook a very successful campaign to encourage local businesses to hire middle-age managers with experience rather than discharge them.

The EA did little in this field, however, until the 1940s. As its anti-union campaigns flagged, the organization began to become more of a human resources consulting agency for its members. In 1941, it released its first survey of workforce needs. Some of its human resources educational efforts remained linked to its traditional anti-unionism, however. In 1942, it campaigned for a longer workweek—ostensibly to meet wartime production demands, but which also violated union demands for shorter work periods. In 1949, the group denounced fringe benefits such as health insurance, pensions, and life insurance as "unnecessary" and "unwise" and exorbitantly expensive. It also declared unemployment insurance to be too costly and unnecessary, and demanded dismantling of public welfare programs.

The EA also became involved in broader social issues. Its leadership, always concerned with the spread of collectivist ideals, denounced President Harry S. Truman as a socialist and demanded that Congress rein in the president's economic policies. The organization also attacked the publishers of elementary and junior high school textbooks for allowing "communist" influences.

Staff

Frederick W. Job, executive director

Gordon L. Hostetter, executive director

Joseph Nielson, assistant director, 1923-1943

Presidents

The known presidents of the EA are:

John G. Shedd, general manager, Marshall Field & Co.

Mark Morton, president, Morton Salt

James W. Breen, attorney

Earl H. Macoy, president, National Printing and Engraving Co., 1927-1932

Joseph C. Belden

Raymond L. Koch

Gordon L. Hostetter

Roland E. Fulton