Employers' Association of Greater Chicago - 1920s and 1930s

1920s and 1930s

The EA pressed its advantage against Chicago's unions. It added building owners as members in 1913, and supported them in their fight with the Building Service Employees International Union. It helped expose efforts to extort money from property owners in 1921, which led to the indictment and eventual imprisonment of BSEIU president William Quesse. In 1921, the EA attacked nascent unions in grocery stores and food industries, accusing them of vandalism, bombings and extortion as well. In the early and mid-1920s, the EA put pressure on unions in the city's milk and ice industries, accusing unions of blackmail, extortion, and establishing anti-competitive trusts and price fixing.

The focus on illegal activities by unions proved so effective that the EA's main priority became attacking labor racketeering. The term "racketeering" was, in fact, coined by the Employers' Association of Chicago in June 1927 in a statement about the influence of organized crime in the Teamsters union. Reports about rackets and other illegal activities by labor unions and employers were issued annually by the EA. In 1928, for example, the Employers' Association claimed that exactly 46 rackets were operating in Chicago. The EA reported on the use of thugs and gunmen by both unions and employers, and excoriated the public and government officials for not prosecuting rackets more often or more successfully. EA reports also focused on bombings in the city. These reports provide statistical documentation of the level of organized crime-related violence in the city (although the EA reports rarely distinguish between union- or employer-instigated violence and violence undertaken by mob-dominated unions or employers). The Association's October 1928 report, which documented an astonishing 727 bombings in Chicago in the previous year, led to the formation of the city's first arson unit.

In October 1928, Employers' Association president James W. Breen was linked to the rackets himself. Chicago police investigators alleged that Breen had helped form a battery makers' cartel, and that this trade group was shaking down non-members. Breen promptly resigned as president of the association. A year later, organized crime figures bombed Breen's home for fear that the ongoing investigation might lead to Breen's indictment and that he might inform on his associates. But Breen was never indicted, however.

The Employers' Association made its first foray into legislative lobbying in 1928 as well. That year, it called for repeal of the state of Illinois' "horse thief law," which permitted posses to form legally so long as they were in hot pursuit of criminals. The EA claimed that the law led citizens and employers to mistakenly believe gangs of union members were legal deputies when they were not. Three months later, the Association campaigned for a new city ordinance which would ban the resale of seized weapons to the public. The sale of the guns, the EA claimed, merely put more weapons in the hands of criminals while inducing law enforcement personnel to seize the weapons of law-abiding citizens.

The Employers' Association campaign against rackets remained strong through 1935. In 1929, the EA issued a report estimating the costs of racketeering in the city of Chicago at $136 million a year (about $1.6 billion in 2007 dollars). In August 1929, the Association reported 67 bombings in the past year, compared to 46 in 1928. The organization also posted a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of any bomber, and a $1,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of any racketeer who assaulted an Employers' Association member. The bombing campaign only intensified, however, with another 30 bombings in August and September 1929. In 1931, the Association went public with a report which estimated the cost of bombings at $500 million ($6.8 billion in 2007 dollars), and the cost of racketeering at $145 million ($1.9 billion in 2007 dollars). By 1932, the Employers' Association was claiming that the bombings and rackets cost the city more than the taxes it paid to fight World War I. Whether the EA's anti-racketeering campaign had any effect is unclear. The Great Depression had caused union membership to drop significantly, and the end of Prohibition in the United States largely ended organized crime's primary motive for engaging in widespread violence. But the EA campaign had also led to strengthened anti-racketeering laws and stronger enforcement as well. By 1934, the number of bombings had dropped to their lowest since 1923.