John Brophy (labor) - The CIO

The CIO

Brophy was outside the labor movement for the next few years until 1933, when Lewis brought him back to work for the UMWA as it regained its membership in the early days of the New Deal. Lewis made him the CIO’s first National Director from 1935 to 1938, then reassigned him in favor of one of his own loyalists. Brophy remained with the CIO after Lewis left it in 1941; his open disagreement with Lewis' opposition to Roosevelt's candidacy in 1940 probably would have led to his departure from the CIO if Lewis himself had not left it.

Lewis' successor as CIO President, Philip Murray, named Brophy the Director of Industrial Union Councils. That position proved to be an important one in the expulsion of CP-led unions from the CIO following World War II. He was one of the strongest advocates for centralized control of the CIO's political action committees and the industrial councils, which were made up from delegates from the more or less autonomous unions affiliated with the CIO but which were themselves creations of the CIO, obliged to follow CIO policy imposed from above. In 1948 he led the crackdown on local labor councils and state bodies within the CIO that had endorsed Henry Wallace or opposed the Marshall Plan in contravention of national CIO policy.

Brophy also served as a CIO representative to international labor organizations such as the World Federation of Trade Unions and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and as a labor representative on a number of government agencies, such as the National War Labor Board, the Committee on Fair Employment Practice established by Executive Order 8802 and the Wage Stabilization Board. He continued serving with the AFL-CIO after the CIO reunited with the AFL in 1955.