Congress of Industrial Organizations

The Congress of Industrial Organizations was formed through a split in organized labor led by John L. Lewis. Its brief account in the novel’s historical material links the organization’s creation to Lewis’s leadership, his changing political commitments, and a later conflict between labor and the federal administration.

Formation and Break with the AFL

In 1935, Lewis, then president of the United Mine Workers, broke with the American Federation of Labor and formed the Committee for Industrial Organization. The new body became the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938. The sequence presents the CIO as the institutional outcome of a major division within organized labor, rather than as an organization that appeared fully formed under its later name.

Lewis’s Political Shifts

Lewis initially supported Franklin D. Roosevelt, but backed the Republican candidate in the 1940 election. After that candidate’s defeat, Lewis resigned as president of the CIO. His departure follows a political reversal: the labor leader who had first supported the administration moved into opposition, then left the organization’s presidency after the election.

Wartime Conflict and Significance

Strikes by the United Mine Workers during the war further intensified the enmity between Lewis and the administration. The account distinguishes those strikes from the CIO itself while placing them within the broader political history associated with Lewis. In this compressed institutional portrait, the organization’s development is inseparable from disputes over labor leadership, electoral allegiance, and the relationship between unions and government.