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Ten Men vs. J&L Steel: How a Supreme Court case rooted in Beaver County forever changed America’s labor movement; Jared Stonesifer; Beaver County Times; September 4, 2016.
Below is a critique of this column.
“Many battles have been fought in western Pennsylvania in the last 300 years, but one in particular had far-reaching consequences that forever shaped the labor and workers-rights movement in the United States.”
[RWC] A story of this quality shouldn’t have been published by any credible newspaper, yet the BCT made it a front-page article.
As you read the article, you likely will find yourself asking, “who fact-checked this thing?” It reads like something a stenographer would write after interviewing people on one side of a story.
“Indeed, workers’ rights might not even exist today if it weren’t for a U.S. Supreme Court case that unfolded in Aliquippa in 1937. The case was the last to challenge the legality of labor unions, mostly because the Supreme Court had the final word and deemed the practice constitutional.”
[RWC] This case didn’t “challenge the legality of labor unions.” As you will read below, labor unions were deemed legal nearly a century earlier. National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation (NLRB v. J&L) was about perhaps the most abused provision of the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 [aka the Commerce Clause (CC)]. The NLRB sued J&L to preserve its power, not to “help” J&L employees.
The CC reads, “[The Congress shall have Power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” Related to the CC, Article I, Section 9, Clauses 5 & 6 read, “No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State” and “No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another,” respectively.
It’s fairly obvious the intent of these provisions is to keep the states from getting into interstate trade wars, not to insinuate the federal government into every aspect of commerce. It becomes even more obvious in the context of Federalist Paper #45 (written by James Madison, a Founding Father and fourth President) and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.
Getting back to NLRB v. J&L, J&L contended the relevant portions of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) were unconstitutional because they gave the NLRB the authority to regulate intrastate commerce, a power not provided by the Constitution. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of J&L. The NLRB appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the NLRB.
“Generations of workers have benefited since, but many have forgotten the significant role played by Beaver County workers to ensure those rights.
“While residents celebrate Labor Day, it’s important to remember and pay homage to those who came before us, those who fought for their rights and won them in the highest court in the land.
“Ten men vs. Jones & Laughlin
“It was in 1935 when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act, commonly referred to as the Wagner Act. Among other things, the legislation guaranteed the basic rights of private-sector employees to organize into unions, to engage in collective bargaining and to strike.
“The act also created the National Labor Relations Board.
“But just because Congress passes a law doesn’t mean everyone adheres to it. Such was the case with Jones & Laughlin Corp., the gigantic steel company located along the Ohio River in Aliquippa.”
[RWC] J&L was a “gigantic steel company?” J&L was about the ninth largest U.S. steel company at the time, part of “Little Steel.” United States Steel was “Big Steel.”
For those who don’t know, the Aliquippa Works was not J&L’s only plant. At the time LTV bought controlling interest in 1968, J&L’s other facilities included the Pittsburgh Works, a wire rope plant in Muncy, PA, and a finishing plant in Hennepin, IN. There may have been others. Headquarters was in downtown Pittsburgh in 3 Gateway Plaza.
“Less than a year after the Wagner Act passed, a group of J&L employees decided to join the emerging Steel Workers Organizing Committee, a group of steelworkers who organized in Pittsburgh in 1936.”
[RWC] The CIO formed the SWOC, not “a group of steelworkers.”
“That action didn’t go unnoticed by J&L officials, who promptly fired the 10 employees who worked at the Aliquippa plant.
“However, the newly formed National Labor Relations Board was there to advocate for the workers and ruled the company had to reinstate the fired employees while also giving them back pay.”
RWC] The NLRB sued J&L to preserve its power, not “to advocate for the workers.”
“J&L officials vehemently rejected that opinion, however, and said the company would not conform to the laws laid out in the Wagner Act, because those officials considered the act unconstitutional.”
[RWC] As noted above, so did the lower courts including the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“So set the stage for a court battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It didn’t take long for the court to hear the case in 1937, and it also didn’t take long for the justices to return their verdict.”
[RWC] More cheerleading for dramatic effect without fact-checking. According to the opinion syllabus, “it also didn’t take long” really means two months. The case was “Argued February 10, 11, 1937” and “Decided April 12, 1937.”
“The court ruled by a 5-4 vote that the Wagner Act was indeed constitutional. The Steel Workers Organizing Committee flourished, and in 1942 it disbanded and became the United Steelworkers of America.”
[RWC] Regardless of the SC’s opinion, the NLRA is unconstitutional.
“It was the birth of a labor movement that still exists and is stronger than ever today.”
[RWC] As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (1/28/16), only 6.7% of private-sector employees belonged to a union in 2015. That figure was 24.2% in 1973. The rate for government employees was 35.2% in 2015.
“Ramifications of the decision
“For Hopewell Township resident Gino Piroli, the 1937 Supreme Court decision was more than just a blurb in history books. It changed his life, and the lives of countless other Beaver County residents.
“Piroli was only 10 years old when the decision came down, meaning he remembers a time before labor unions were even legal.”
[RWC] Complete BS! What grade school did the author attend? Though labor unions existed before the Revolutionary War, the Massachusetts Supreme Court affirmed the legality of labor unions in 1842 and Samuel Gompers became the first president of the AFL in 1886.
“‘It gave the working man dignity,’ Piroli, 90, said. ‘Companies had abused workers ethnically, by race when it came to job promotions. That was a big thing.’”
[RWC] “It gave the working man dignity … [and] that was a big thing?”
Apparently it was still “a big thing” in 1974. The saintly United Steelworkers of America union, along with nine steel companies, was slapped with a federal consent decree in 1974 to address “discriminatory hiring, promotion, assignment, and wage policies directed against women and minorities.” The discrimination was determined to have affected 40,000 minority and women employees. If union management doesn’t have respect for its members, how can anyone claim membership provides “the working man dignity?”
Mr. Piroli noted “Companies had abused workers ethnically,” but failed to note labor unions did as well. For example, one of the reasons for the Davis-Bacon Act (1931) was to exclude companies who employed blacks because labor unions tended to exclude non-whites.
“Unfortunately, Piroli said it got worse than that.
“Workers were routinely assaulted or fired at even the first signs of trying to unionize, and Piroli said company police officers would often arrest people if they stood on the street in more than groups of three.
“Those same police officers would work undercover in the mills to learn about workers’ intentions and would eavesdrop on conversations held by people outside of work.”
[RWC] Mr. Piroli wrote of allegations against J&L, but omitted the SWOC. Contrary to Aliquippa mythology, unionists were not little angels. Unionists employed tactics every much as bad as those they claimed of J&L. My grandfather opposed the formation of a union at J&L in 1937, and the following didn’t help his opinion of unions. Grandpa (60 years old at the time) wasn’t an anti-union activist and didn’t lobby others to oppose the union, but when asked his opinion he gave it. Grandpa’s position wasn’t popular with the union organizers and resulted in thinly-veiled threats against my grandmother and mother (16 years old at the time). The gutless wonders didn’t make the threats directly to Grandpa, of course; instead they relied on their wives to convey warnings to my grandmother. Fearing for my mother’s well-being, Grandma asked Grandpa not to comment when asked about his position and he agreed. To summarize, despite my grandfather being an “unskilled” laborer, my grandparents owned their own home on Main Street and put my mother through a top-notch secretarial school during the Great Depression, all without a union. This was a union organizer’s nightmare and probably why unionists felt they had to silence Grandpa. There are more details here.
Another reason for Grandpa’s position could have been the communist connection with the SWOC. Agitprop Carl Davidson (KD) once wrote, “[Aliquippa] had been a battleground, a very militant battleground for the Communist Party. It had organized there and there was a Communist cell in town.” Elsewhere, KD wrote, “There was a communist party in Aliquippa then, and during one of these mass rallies, one worker passed out copies of the Soviet Constitution up and down Franklin Ave, thinking the revolution was on the way.” I know it’s mean, but I hope if KD’s “one worker” existed, he eventually got to experience firsthand the real “workers’ paradise” the way ordinary Soviet and other Iron Curtain citizens did. Though communists are and were attracted to labor unions and I would not doubt some lived in Aliquippa, I found nothing to support KD’s claim Aliquippa was ever the hotbed of communism he portrayed.
“Piroli worked at J&L for 22 years before starting a new career as postmaster of Aliquippa.
“‘In 1956 we went on strike for 119 days, and it nearly bankrupted all of us,’ he said. ‘We ended up signing a contract that was nearly the same as the first one introduced by the company. It was nearly the same, but at least we had the right to protest.’”
[RWC] According to the Chicago Tribune of 7/28/56, the 1956 steel strike was 27 days, not 119.
Mr. Piroli likely meant the 1959 steel strike. President Eisenhower (R) used a provision of the Taft-Hartley Act and ordered the steelworkers back to work. At 116 days in (11/7/59), the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the feds and ordered the steelworkers back to work for a “cooling-off period.” The strike wasn’t settled until over two months later on 1/15/60. The damage would continue, however.
Among company management, labor union management, government, and the employees themselves, there was more than enough blame to go around. As early as the mid-1950s, everyone who should know knew the high steel demand/low supply bubble after World War II would be temporary. After all, pent-up consumer demand from the Depression and the war, and the need to rebuild, caused the bubble. All of these people, however, chose to “kick the can down the road,” opting for immediate gratification instead of long-term viability.
Enter the 1959 strike during which four months of production was lost. Though I was only a kid at the time, I remember Dad (a Tin Mill industrial engineer) telling Mom everyone would eventually realize what a huge mistake they were making because it would open the floodgates for imported steel to replace domestic production lost during the strike. Sure enough, domestic and foreign steel consumers got their first taste of post-WWII imports from Europe and Japan and they liked it. As a result, imports began in earnest during the strike, a clear sign the post-WWII supply shortage ended. Even worse, imports continued to rise - and exports continued to fall - after domestic production resumed because both domestic and foreign consumers liked the quality and price relative to U.S.-produced steel. This would have happened eventually anyway, but the strike hastened the process.
“Mike McDonald, president of the Beaver County Building Trades organization and a lifelong union member, said it’s unfortunate that many of today’s local workers don’t realize the rights they have were won right here in Beaver County.
“‘I’d say a majority don’t know at all, and, probably more amazingly, many of them don’t understand what (the Supreme Court decision) really meant or why it was so valuable,’ he said. ‘It actually means something to a lot of us.’
“The matter hits home for McDonald. He said his uncle worked in the mills at the time and was one of the very first people to organize into a union once they became legal.”
[RWC] As mentioned above, labor unions were legal at least 95 years before NLRB v. J&L.
“‘I would always hear stories when I was a kid, and I didn’t understand (the ramifications) until I got into my 20s and comprehended just how important it was,’ he said.
[RWC] Mr. McDonald still “[doesn’t] understand (the ramifications).”
“McDonald has been a union member for more than 40 years and doesn’t go a single day without being thankful for the life it’s afforded him.
“Perhaps most important, he said, are the benefits that were won in the Supreme Court case. Those benefits include health care coverage, pensions and overtime.
“‘People had their heads beat in to get these rights we still enjoy today,’ he said with emotion.”
[RWC] More BS! NLRB v. J&L had nothing to do with benefits. For example, Mr. McDonald’s “health care coverage” was a result of FDR’s wage controls during WWII.
Regarding pensions, “The American Express Company established the first private pension plan in the United States” in 1875. I don’t know about J&L, but “U.S. Steel Corp. (1911)” and “Bethlehem Steel Co. (1923)” had pension plans long before NLRB v. J&L. Though the same WWII controls that spawned “health care coverage” also encouraged pension plans, pensions didn’t become a labor union issue until 1946.
“When examining the big picture, McDonald said the Supreme Court case did more than just give basic rights to the working class. Instead, it helped create a middle class that is the backbone of this country.
“‘I honestly believe the middle class, the working class, we make the country go,’ he said. ‘This country wouldn’t be the greatest country on earth without it.’
“Paying respects
“Not only does the general public not understand the significance of the local case, McDonald said, but some go a little further. They blatantly disrespect history.”
[RWC] Perhaps, but based on this article, it appears neither the author nor Mr. McDonald “understand the significance of the local case.”
“It was early in 2015 when officials noticed two historical markers -- the first a monument erected by the United Steelworkers, the second a plaque installed by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission -- were missing.
“The USW monument was dedicated in 1976, and the state plaque was dedicated in 2000, both honoring the Supreme Court decision. Both were stolen; however, only the United Steelworkers monument has been replaced since then.
“Bob Schmetzer, a South Heights councilman who has been involved in local labor for decades, was one of the people who helped install the first monument there in 1976.”
[RWC] The author failed to mention Mr. Schmetzer is/was VP of CommunistProgressive Democrats of America
– PA 12th Congressional District Chapter.
“He said he was shocked when he noticed the monuments were missing in early 2015, and he spearheaded the effort to get them replaced.
“Schmetzer and other officials made sure to make the new monument heavy to deter criminals from stealing it for scrap.
“‘We didn’t put it back in bronze because the scrappers would come back again,’ he said. ‘This time it was stone and close to a ton (in weight).’
“Like others, Schmetzer is dismayed that people would show such a lack of respect for the monuments. And like others, he’s disappointed that many locals don’t know or don’t understand the significance of the Supreme Court decision.
“‘People always take things for granted,’ he said. ‘What we take for granted is the eight-hour work day, minimum wage, health and safety on the job. Just about everything we enjoy today in the workplace all came out of this, and Aliquippa should take an enormous amount of pride in that.’”
[RWC] More BS! Though not universal, the “eight-hour work day” was well entrenched and still expanding in 1937. For example, Henry Ford switched from a nine-hour workday to eight hours in 1914 at the same time he doubled employee pay. Mr. Ford also introduced the 5-day, 40-hour workweek (1926).
At its theoretical best, the minimum wage is a feel-good exercise that does nothing. In practice, however, the minimum wage does harm. In both cases the minimum wage is akin to a dog chasing its tail.
“State Rep. Rob Matzie, D-16, Ambridge, helped in the effort to replace the USW monument and is working to replace the state plaque at its location near the former J&L plant. He said it’s unconscionable that somebody would steal the markers.
“‘The American labor movement made (the Supreme Court case) happen as a result truly of blood, sweat, tears and even lives lost,’ he said. ‘And some people here don’t even know about it.’
“The rights won as a result of the case are nearly too many to list: 40-hour work weeks, child labor laws, collective bargaining, to name a few, Matzie said.”
[RWC] As noted above, NLRB v. J&L had little or nothing to do with “40-hour work weeks.”
“Child labor laws” enacted by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 had nothing to do with NLRB v. J&L.
Given all the claims these guys made, I’m a little surprised one of them didn’t claim NLRB v. J&L was responsible for the discovery of penicillin, the polio vaccine, the eradication of smallpox, and so on.
“The importance of that landmark decision, born out of 10 men from J&L, cannot be understated, he said.
“‘It affects all of us,’ he said.
“The names of those men thankfully aren’t lost to history. Rather, their names are engraved on the large, black granite memorial that sits outside of a tunnel entrance to the old J&L mill.”
“Here are the names of the 10 men who fought against J&L Steel
“Royal Boyer
“Eli Bozich
“Domenic Brandy
“Ronald Cox
“Martin Dunn
“Martin Gerstner
“George Morall
“Harry Phillips
“Angelo Razzano
“Angelo Volpe”
[RWC] In the interest of full disclosure, I am NOT related to Ronald Cox to the best of my knowledge.
© 2004-2016 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.