Ben Gold - Presidency

Presidency

Gold was elected president of the International Fur Workers Union in May 1937. Immediately after his election, Gold disaffiliated the IFWU from the American Federation of Labor and joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The change in affiliation was driven almost solely by Gold, and shocked the members of the union. He was elected to the CIO executive council.

CIO affiliation did not, however, protect the IFWU or Gold from political attacks. John L. Lewis, then the president of the CIO, was a strong anti-communist. In late January 1938, Lewis publicly announced that he would pursue a policy barring communists from membership in the CIO. Moderates within the IFWU denounced Gold for using "Hitler methods" to retain power, and pleaded with Lewis to intervene. In May 1938, the U.S. House of Representatives established the House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities as a successor to the Special Committee on Un-American Activities (which had spent the last three years investigating Nazi Germany's attempts to influence American public opinion). Rep. Martin Dies, Jr. was named chair of the committee, and charged with continuing the investigations into Nazi propaganda and initiating new investigations into the activities of the Ku Klux Klan. When committee members voiced support for the Klan and ignored the Nazi threat, Dies concentrated the committee's work on communist infiltration of the labor movement. Dies eagerly permitted the AFL time before the committee to denounce the CIO and the IFWU as riddled with communists and communist sympathizers—accusations CIO representatives called "nonsense" and Gold denounced as redbaiting.

Gold continued to pursue an aggressive collective bargaining policy until the beginning of World War II. Within weeks of taking over as president, he authorized a sympathy strike of 13,000 fur workers in New York City to support striking fur workers in Canada. The protests, rallies and spot strikes continued as Gold pushed to organize the remaining fur shops in New York City. Signed contracts were reached with newly-organized employers in July 1937.

Employers, however, often fought back, and in the spring of 1938 a lengthy strike nearly ended in defeat for the union. The U.S. economy had risen to its pre-depression levels by the spring of 1937, but a strong recession began in late summer (triggered in part by large reductions in federal spending, higher bank reserve requirements, and reductions in disposable income brought about by implementation of the Social Security Act). Between August 1937 and May 1938, industrial production fell by 30 percent, the economy contracted by more than 6 percent, and unemployment rose from 5 million to over 9 million. The steep recession led many employers to resist union demands. On February 11, 1938, employers locked out 4,000 fur workers as the IFWU contracts expired. Gold hesitated calling a strike for seven weeks, seeking peace with the manufacturers, but finally called all fur workers out in a general strike on March 30. Hoping for a quick end to the strike and alarmed by the lockout, Gold initially kept pickets and rallies small. But locked out workers attacked a fur dealer on April 1, and police retaliated against the pickets with clubs and beatings. Infuriated, Gold ordered all the union's members out into the streets. The police responded by attempting to use violence to intimidate the strikers, and the union responded in kind. For seven weeks, the fur district in New York City was in a state of near-riot. The union filed unfair labor practice charges against the employers, and the NLRB moved on May 6 to investigate. Mass picketing and mass rallies continued, and the employers asked Mayor LaGuardia and the police to end the strike. On May 13, the parties agreed to submit their disputes to Dr. Paul Abelson, an impartial arbitrator with the National Recovery Administration. Thirteen days later, Dr. Abelson announced a tentative agreement, and IFWU members ratified the contract on May 26. Although Gold publicly characterized the strike as a victory for the union, he privately conceded that the strike had been a very near thing.

Determined to expand the union, Gold merged the IFWU with the National Leather Workers' Association (NLWA). The IFWU had organized leather workers over the years but never concertedly. The NLWA was formed by four local unions in Massachusetts in 1933, and affiliated with the CIO in 1937. By 1939, however, the NLWA had only 14 locals (half of which actually functioned) and only 5,000 dues-paying members. The two unions agreed to merge in March 1939. The NLWA approved the merger during its 5th National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, April 29 to May 2, and the IFWU approved the merger at its annual convention in New York City on May 14. Ben Gold was elected the president of the newly amalgamated union, which adopted "International Fur and Leather Workers Union of the United States and Canada" (IFLWU)as its new name. The new union maintained distinctly separate fur and leather divisions. Each division had its own executive board and conventions and maintained its own finances. But the amalgamated union was nonetheless effective: Within a year, the union had organized 25,000 new workers into 42 new locals.

Gold was a staunch supporter of CIO President John L. Lewis. In 1940, when other left-wing unions challenged Lewis' handling of CIO finances, Gold defended him. He also applauded Lewis' refusal to endorse Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, but unlike Lewis did not endorse Wendell Wilkie or Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler (whom Lewis supported as a third party candidate).

After the United States entered World War II, Gold proved an ardent patriot. As war approached, in November 1941, he led large rallies in New York City urging union members to buy war bonds. When the CIO advocated a no-strike pledge for all American unions, Gold wholeheartedly and strongly supported the pledge. He readily agreed to the seven-day work week after the United States declared war on Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan, sent aid to the Republic of China, and implemented a campaign to donate 50,000 fur-lined vests to British sailors as part of the war effort.

As the war came to an end, however, Gold began to press for major salary and benefit increases for IFLWU members. Refusing to break the union's no-strike pledge, Gold submitted the union's demands to the National War Labor Board in February 1944. The War Labor Board subsequently granted the union a minimal wage rise in line with its "Little Steel Formula," but granted it substantial fringe benefit increases and ordered employers to end seasonal layoffs. The Board's order was vigorously opposed by employers, and Gold used the dispute as leverage to win a new collective bargaining agreement. The new agreement did not without a price, however, as Gold was forced to threaten to break his union's war-time pledge not to strike.

Gold also strongly advocated a third political party which would more strongly support unions and working-class Americans. Gold first backed a third-party candidate in 1947 when he asked former Vice President Henry A. Wallace to form a third party. In 1948, Soviet leaders ordered American communists to support the third party candidacy of Wallace against incumbent President Harry S. Truman, and Gold actively supported Wallace despite the CIO's refusal to do so.

Gold was a strong supporter of statehood for Israel. He was president of the American Jewish Labor Council in 1948. In March 1948, Gold led a parade of 10,000 people in a parade and rally to support the emerging Jewish state. When American recognition of Israel drew protests in April 1948, Gold defended the Truman administration's actions.