This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our trade departments. The series will run weekly until we’ve covered each of the departments. Next up is the Metal Trades Department (MTD).
Name of Department: Metal Trades Department
Mission: The Metal Trades Department is a trade department of the AFL-CIO. It was chartered in 1908 to coordinate negotiating, organizing and legislative efforts of affiliated metalworking and related crafts and trade unions. Seventeen national and international unions are affiliated with the Metal Trades Department today. More than 100,000 workers in private industry and federal establishments work under contracts negotiated by Metal Trades Councils. Workers retain membership in their own trade unions.
Current Leadership: Dale M. Troll serves as president. Members of the Metal Trades Department Executive Council are Mark McManus (1st vice president), James A. Williams Jr. (2nd vice president), Terry Larkin (3rd vice president), Kenneth Cooper (4th vice president), Kevin Sexton (5th vice president), Brent Booker (6th vice president), Michael Coleman (7th vice president), Brian Bryant (8th vice president), Timothy Simmons (9th vice president), John L. Downey (10th vice president) and Kevin Bryenton (11th vice president).
Affiliated Unions: Boilermakers (IBB); Electrical Workers (IBEW); Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers-USW (GMP-USW); Heat and Frost Insulators (HFIU); International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART); International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT); International Chemical Workers Union Council-UFCW (ICWUC-UFCW); International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE); Ironworkers; Laborers (LIUNA); IAM Union (IAM); Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU); Operating Engineers (IUOE); Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT); Plasterers and Cement Masons (OPCMIA); National Association of Government Employees/SEIU (NAGE/SEIU); and United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA).
History: On June 15, 1908, the AFL Executive Board closed out a busy session—officially chartering four new departments for the federation, including the Metal Trades, the Building Trades, the Union Label and the Railroad Department. When the Metal Trades charter was officially issued, IAM President James O’Connell was elected its first president. He was joined by Secretary-Treasurer A.J. Berres, and vice presidents James W. Kline, Joseph A. Franklin, John R. Alpine, J.J. Hynes, Joseph F. Valentine and W.W. Britton. The Metal Trades Department’s first affiliates were the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers’ International Alliance; International Association of Blacksmiths; Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders of America; International Federation of Draftsmen’s Unions; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; International Union of Steam Engineers, International Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen and Oilers; International Brotherhood of Foundry Employees; International Association of Machinists; Metal Polishers, Buffers, Platers, Brass and Silver Workers’ International Union; International Moulders’ Union of North America; Pattern Makers’ League of North America; International Union of Stove Mounters; and United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters of the U.S. and Canada.
The department held its founding convention in Cincinnati in February 1909. The department has been consistently vigorous and active in support of the United States’ defense against foreign aggression. At its founding, the department’s president intervened with the secretary of the Navy to bring about industrial peace in U.S. shipyards as the United States was rapidly expanding its Navy to assume a role as a young superpower at sea.
The department and many of its affiliates were involved in the construction and operations of the 41-mile Panama Canal. At a cost of $380 million, the canal project employed 70,000 workers over the 10 years it took to complete it (in 1914); 5,600 workers died on the job.
After World War I, as world leaders responded to calls for disarmament, President Woodrow Wilson initiated a downsizing of the U.S. defense establishment, which consisted primarily of a vast naval arsenal. One of the unexpected consequences of that action was massive unemployment in U.S. shipyards. The situation became acute as some 10,000 shipyard workers had been laid off by 1922. The situation prompted John J. O’Connell, accompanied by AFL President Samuel Gompers, to convene a meeting with Navy Secretary Edwin Denby and his then-assistant secretary, Franklin Roosevelt, to suggest that the shipyard workers be put back to work to dismantle some 120 surplus Navy vessels.
The Metal Trades Department remained the primary collective bargaining organization for trade unions in shipbuilding and armament manufacturing through the Roaring ’20s, confronting many of the same industrial developments that unions in manufacturing faced.
After more than a quarter-century of frustration over corporate domination of government, the New Deal ushered in a period of reform and regulation that began to level the playing field for workers and their unions. With the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, the establishment of the National Labor Relations Board and widespread organizing success that followed, the prestige of labor leaders was on the rise. Even during the New Deal, when labor acknowledged a strong ally with Roosevelt in the White House, unions still had to fight hard to keep corporate power and greed in check. For the Metal Trades, a good deal of that struggle involved maneuvering around the bureaucracy of the National Recovery Act.
By Dec. 7, 1941, the U.S. shipbuilding industry was bustling as it constructed Liberty ships as part of the Lend-Lease Act intended to fend off Germany’s aggression against the British. Labor’s commitment to wartime production was critical to the eventual Allied victory over Japan and Germany.
New challenges continue to arise and leadership continues to look back on the legacy of the organization for inspiration and direction.