International Typographical Union - Woodruff Randolph

Woodruff Randolph

Woodruff Randolph (1892–1966), a printer from Chicago #16 and attorney-at-law, served as ITU Secretary-Treasurer (1929–1944) and ITU President (1944–1957). Randolph was very powerful and often usurped the position of ITU president Claude M. Baker. The ITU presidential election of 1944 between Baker and Randolph was one of the most vicious in union history. He loathed the National Labor Relations Board. During World War II, Randolph dealt with the National War Labor Board. He led the Progressive party of the ITU. At the 1949 Oakland ITU convention, he spoke in harsh terms against the Taft–Hartley Act, the act in favor of the open shop. Chicago #16, Randolph's home local, was the first local hit by Taft-Hartley. On November 24, 1947 the Chicago papers went on a strike that lasted 22 months. Newspaper publishers called for aid from the authors of the law, U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft (R - Ohio) and Congressman Fred A. Hartley, Jr. (R - New Jersey) The ITU and Woodruff Randolph won in Chicago. He fought publishers and won in the early 1950s. In 1951, Randolph created Unitypo, the union supported newspaper in struck cities. Unitypo met with mixed results from the public at large. In the mid-1950s, Randolph embodied the ITU; his power was felt in every ITU shop and feared in every newspaper's board room. The printers were shocked during the 1957 ITU convention in New York to find that Randolph would not seek reelection.

Woodruff Randolph hand-picked the Progressives to run for executive council in 1958, which would control the ITU for nearly twenty years. At the same time United States Senator John McClellan (D - AR) was investigating organized crime in labor unions. When Dave Beck, president of the Teamsters, resigned in 1957—near the time of Randolph's statement of retirement—many ITU members wondered about their long-time leader. The new ITU President Elmer Brown meekly appeared before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management. Brown had been ITU second Vice-President (1944–1949) and had served in various offices in his home local, New York Typographical #6 (1945–1957). Brown claimed that during the 1957 ITU convention, Randolph requested Brown run for president of the ITU. Brown told the committee that he had not been aware of events in Indianapolis since he left the Executive Council. Randolph retired to his homes in Indiana and Florida and on October 1, 1966, he died in the Union Printers Home.