International Typographical Union - Fragmentation

Fragmentation

Technological developments in the late-19th century such as the development of lithography and photography led to diversification and specialization among printers.

Further fragmentation in the printing labor movement led to the establishment of the International Printing Pressmen Union of North America (IPPU), in 1889. In 1892, the ITU authorized membership for mailers and for newspaper writers. Pressure mounted for a separate pressman's union, and in 1892 the International Brotherhood of Bookbinders (IBB) was formed. Many pressmen left the ITU for the Bookbinders. At the same time as mailers joined, two thousand pressmen members seceded to form the International Printing Pressmen Union Assistants, (IPPUA) in 1897 and the International Stereotypers' and Electroplater's Union, (IS&EU) in 1902. At the start of the 20th Century, ITU membership was primarily compositors and mailers.

In 1894, the Louisville convention sought to have president W.B. Prescott examine ways to have newer technology under the ITU. Then, the ITU chartered a photoengravers' union in New York City. Over the next few years, the ITU organized photoengravers in several other cities as well. However, many photoengravers felt that the leaders of the ITU were indifferent to their needs.

In 1899, photoengravers in New York City went on strike to demand a 48-hour work week. ITU President S.B. Donnelly refused to support the local, fearing employers might retaliate. The New York City photoengravers won their strike, but the lack of ITU support led most of the union's photoengraver locals to seek disaffiliation. A national convention in Philadelphia in November 1900 saw the photoengravers leaving the ITU and establishing the International Photo-Engravers' Union of North America. ITU President James M. Lynch, pressured the AFL into refusing to recognize the photoengravers' union until May 1904.

In 1893, the ITU struck Harrison Gray Otis's Los Angeles Times. In 1896, the union began a boycott that ran until 1908. In 1903, ITU President James M. Lynch, persuaded William Randolph Hearst to start a rival paper, the Los Angeles Examiner.

On October 1, 1910, James B. Mc Namara, an ITU member and his brother. Joseph J. Mc Namara, secretary-treasurer of the International Union of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers placed a bomb in the L.A. Times building, killing 21 people. Famed attorney Clarence Darrow defended the brothers. They were convicted of the bombing and murder. Despite various job actions that lasted into the 1920s, the L.A. Times remained a non-union shop. This was a major defeat for both the ITU and other trade unions; Los Angeles and Southern California would be lost to trade unions except in the case of the entertainment industry.

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