John L. Lewis, the President of the United Mine Workers since 1919, became President of the Committee of Industrial Organizations in 1935. He soon became embroiled in arguments with the A.F. of L. leadership and was expelled from the A.F. of L. by then President William Green because they had flouted procedures and rules in organizational activities.

The C.I.O., name was changed after the break to Congress of Industrial Organizations, began a remarkable and rapid success in organizing over the next few years (through sit-down strikes, etc.), with major corporations in steel, auto, rubber, glass, maritime, meat-packing, and other mass production industries, where heretofore no unions existed.

The growth in union strength of both the A.F. of L. and C.I.O. throughout the period, coupled with Roosevelt’s New Deal program, led to passage of a number of national social programs long advocated by the Labor movement. Among them:

All of these programs were bitterly contested by Republican associations such as the National Association of Manufacturing, the Chamber of Commerce and all the way up to the Supreme Court. In April 1937, the Court, in a series of decisions, by a narrow 5-4 vote ruled that the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was constitutional. This took some of the steam out of Franklin Roosevelt’s move to revamp the Court.