John
Llewellyn Lewis,
the son of immigrants from Wales, was
born in Iowa on 12th February, 1880. At fifteen he found work as a
miner in Illinois. He joined the United Mine
Workers of America (UMWA) and eventually was elected branch secretary.
In 1911 Lewis left the mines to become an organizer for the American
Federation of Labour (AFL). In 1917 he was elected vice president
of the UMWA. Three years later he became
president of what was then the largest trade
union in America.
In 1921 Lewis, with the support of William
Z. Foster, failed in his attempt to challenge Samuel
Gompers for the presidency of the American
Federation of Labour.
With growing unemployment, membership of the UMWA
fell from 500,000 to less than 100,000 in the 1930s. In 1935 Lewis
joined with the heads of seven other unions to form the Congress
for Industrial Organisation (CIO). Lewis became president of this
new organization and over the next few years attempted to organize
workers in the new mass production industries.
This strategy was successful and by 1937 the CIO
had more members than the American Federation
of Labour.
Lewis had been a Republican but supported
Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932
and 1936 presidential campaigns. Although Lewis favoured many aspects
of the New Deal, he was opposed to Roosevelt
standing again in 1940. Lewis threatened to resign as president of
the Congress for Industrial Organisation
if Roosevelt was elected. He carried out this threat but retained
his leadership of the United Mine Workers of
America.
In the 1940s Lewis led a series of strikes that resulted in increased
wages for miners. This resulted a growth in union members to 500,000.
Congress responded to the success of unions such as the UMWA by passing
the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) that placed
new restrictions on trade unions. Lewis
held the post of president of the United Mine
Workers of America until 1960.
John Llewellyn Lewis, who served as chairman of the UMWA's Welfare
and Retirement Fund after his retirement, died in Washington
on 11th June, 1969.
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