US Labor History
1950-1959
1950
- United States enters Korean War
- CIO expels nine unions for alleged Communist domination
- United Auto Workers and General Motors sign a contract that provides for pensions,
automatic cost-of-living wage adjustments, and guaranteed increases over the life of the
contract
- "Salt of the Earth" Strike of New Mexico Miners begin
1951
- UAW president Walter Reuther elected president of CIO
1952
- President Truman seizes the steel industry when the steel companies reject the Wage
Stabilization Board recommendations. Supreme Court rules the action unconstitutional
- George Meany becomes president of the AFL
- Walter Reuther becomes president of the CIO
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected
- Steel Strike
1953
- AFL and CIO agree to a "no raiding" pact. AFL expels the International
Longshoremen's Association for corruption
- Louisiana Sugar Cane Workers' Strike
1954
- Kohler Strike begins
1955
- United Auto Workers win supplementary unemployment benefits in bargaining with Ford
- AFL and CIO merge with George Meany as first president, UMWA remains independent
- Southern Telephone Strike
1956
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower is reelected
- East Coast Longshoremen's Strike
- Steel Strike
- Canadian Labour Congress founded
1957
- AFL-CIO expels Teamsters, Bakery Workers, and Laundry Workers for corruption
1959
- Congress passes the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Landrum-Griffin),
which regulates the internal affairs of unions
- Steel Strike
