Montana labor news., 1944-09-14
SAN FRANCISCO
.BLAZES new
LABOR TRAIL

SAN FRANCISCO.-FP)- San Fran
cisco, labor trail blazer Of the nation
That has a funny sound, especially to
employers, who We're accustomed to
think of San francisco as a hotbed of
strikes before the war put an end to
strikes for the duration But it's true.
nevertheless.
Take what are called industrywide con-
tracts agreements between a union or
a group Of unions (often Of different
affiliations and all the employers in
the industry in the city-often in the
entire bay area, sometimes on the whole
coast. San Francisco was a pioneer in
these.
At present such contracts are in force
covering the International Longshore-
mems & Warehousemen's Union (CIO),
the Hotel & Restaurant Employees init
Alliance (AFL), the San Francisco-Oak-
land Newspaper Guild (CIO), the Retail
Clerks Init Protective Assn. (AFL), the
Init. Ladies Garment Workers Union
(AFL), the Elevator operators & Start
ers (AFL), the Building Service En-
ployes Int. Union (AFI), the Bakery &
Confectionery Workers init Union
(AFL), the Theater Janitors (AFL), the
Init, Bro of Teamsters (AFD and its
many affiliates and others too numerous
to mention-irrespective Of shipyard and
war plant contracts.
san Francisco has been first in other
unions activities too 1t was the first
city to establish labor school sponsored
entirely by unions of all affiliations. 1t
was the first to back free farmers
market. It was the first to propose
in the amous ILWU preamble-that the
no-strike pledge be extended beyond the
duration.
In fact, it has been known as a pioneer
good union town ever since it became
an American city The first waterfront
union in the city was founded in 1853
when longshoremen organized to handle
the shipping abandoned by masters and
crews of 1870 ships in an exodus to the
gold fields. Its first industrywide con-
tract was signed in 1902 with the Dray-
men Assn. after the 1901 teamsters'
strike.
And in one other way San Francisco
is unique-it was the first city where
employers, reading the writing on the
wall and realizing that collective bar
gaining was here to stay, decided to or
ganize for collective bargaining them
Selves. The result was the demise Of
the union busting Industrial Assn and
the birth of the present San Francisco
Employers Council, the first tenet of
which is to take for granted the right Of
workers to organize in unions and to
margain collectively.
On its formation in 1889 the new
employer council announced Immediately
that the most important cause of labor
disturbances arose from refusal on the
part of employers to bargain collective
ly with their employees" In the same
statement the SFEC pointed out:
even before the Wagner act was
passe drnore than 88 labor unions in San
Francisco had established the right Of
collective bargaining and were operat-
ing under collective bargaining agree
iments." There are now nearly 250
The net result of San Francisco's trail
blazing is a situation in which more good
feeling and harmony exist between en-
ployers and workers than in any other
large industrial city in the country.
There are few cities where business
leaders atten dthe open house of a
labor school, as they did that of the
California Labor School; where men like
Pres. Harry Bridges Of the mWU and
Pres. Adrien Falk of the Chamber Of
Commerce speak amicably from the
same platform; where the Labor Day
edition Of a labor paper carries a full
page ad, paid for half by a union and
half by big wholesale company, boost
ting the Red Cross blood bank-as the
CIO Labor erald did in 1914.