AFL-CIO a Year Old
--Has Long Way to Go
news article in a South Carolina newspaper
(December 2, 1956)
One reason for uncertainty is that the state AFL and
CIO organizations have proved more reluctant than the parent AFL and CIO
to blend forces. Primarily, rivals for top jobs at the state level have
been unable to resolve personality conflicts.
Meany points out a two-year period left for voluntary
mergers of state and local AFL and CIO outfits. After that, he said,
"if the boys are still stalling and maneuvering around,"
"the parent organization will step in and dictate the
mergers."
Only 19 of the states with relatively few AFL and CIO
members have merged so far. These states have, together, less than one
half million of the AFL-CIO's members. They are Missouri, Oregon,
Minnesota, Iowa, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arizona, Montana,
Vermont, Colorado, Virginia, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Nebraska, New
Mexico, Alabama, and Maine.
It has dabbled cautiously in organizing in the
textile, tobacco, and chemical industries.
It has made some progress in the direction of
cleaning corruption out of the labor movement, but nothing really
substantial has been accomplished.
It has spent a busy year politically, mostly on the side
of the Democrats in the fall elections. But although claiming "a
large measure" of credit for election "a liberal
Congress," the AFL-CIO also supported President Eisenhower's
Democratic opponent, Adlai Stevenson.
