"A Square Deal?": The Michigan CIO Debates the No-Strike Pledge

Abstract: In a total war like World War II, the question "Was everyone doing his or her 'part'?" inevitably arose. Immediately following Pearl Harbor, the labor movement made an "unconditional no-strike pledge" to help win the war. In turn, labor won some important concessions from the federal government. Some who believed that labor had given up too much responded with "wildcat" (unauthorized) strikes. Others moved to reconsider the no-strike pledge. In 1942 members of the Michigan CIO endorsed the no-strike pledge, but employer attacks on wages the following year caused them to reevaluate. At the 1943 annual meeting, CIO delegates debated and passed a resolution recommending that "unless the assurances that were made to labor at the time we gave up our right to strike" were honored, the pledge should be nullified. This debate provided a sense of the varying positions that workers took on this difficult issue, including the intensity of feeling that the no-strike pledge aroused.

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