After World War II, technology for making chemicals shifted from coal-based chemical manufacturing to petroleum-based chemical manufacturing and so the Oil Workers Union and the Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers Union found themselves dealing more and more often with the same employers. In addition, both unions were members of the CIO; their leaders were acquainted with each other; and they took pride in the industrial union heritage of the CIO. Thus, this need to deal with common employers and a common industrial union background led in 1955 to the merger forming the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, shown by the shaking hands of the two symbolic workers.
Both unions had been successful in organizing prior to the merger. However, during the 1920s and early '30s there were hard times aplenty for the workers in the oil fields. Not only did they have to contend with hunger, misery and degradation -- they also had to wage a desperate fight to keep their union alive. At one point, before the union was reborn in the New Deal years, the number of dues-paying members dwindled to a mere 300. Thousands and thousands of workers were organized during and right after World War II and, by 1955, it was reported that the Oil Workers had about 85,000 members.
The Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers, officially formed in 1942, had organized thousands of gas workers prior to the split from District 50. They organized heavily throughout the atomic industry as part of the buildup of the atomic and nuclear industry towards the end of World War II, but floundered somewhat in the post- War era due to internal problems stemming from the prevalent McCarthy-ism of the times. By 1955, they reportedly had about the same number of workers as the Oil Workers -- 85,000. The organizing effort in the atomic industry is represented in the top center of this panel.
All of this ties into other things shown in the panel. The power of the corporations that had become common employers for the Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers and the Oil Workers is depicted by the large tanker that's prominent in the central portion of the panel. That represents the power of the multinational oil and petrochemical corporations. Dealing with that power is portrayed in other parts of the panel.
The "52 for 40 or Fight" sign represents a tremendous battle waged by the Oil Workers in the aftermath of WWII. Harvey O'Connor called it "the great strike of 1945". The Oil Workers led the CIO unions into that struggle and set the pattern for settlement within major industry groups post-World War II. The sign means "52 hours pay for 40 hours worked or there's going to be a fight." During the war, workers put in 48 hours with time and a half for the sixth eight-hour day, making 52 hours pay. After the war, workers wanted to return to the 40 hour, five-day week without losing any of the pay. They felt they deserved this fair deal because the industrial work force had made tremendous sacrifices during the war, while corporations enriched themselves from taxpayers' money.
President Truman called in the U.S. Navy to break the 1945 strike. The Navy escorted tankers across picket lines, as the picket boat symbolizes. The strike was eventually broken, but the union was victorious in other ways. Sinclair Oil, in an effort to repair public image in the aftermath of the Teapot Dome scandal, broke the pattern set by the company unions and offered an 18 percent settlement to the OWIU. The other companies then accepted the 18 percent offer, and according to Harvey O'Connor, the Oil Workers won the '45 strike making the following important gains:
The union survived the company's plan to smash it. Not a
single local caved in under company/Navy pressure, and
the International Union was intact--hardened by the struggle
and bigger than ever.
The OWIU had for the first time wrested wage leadership
from Standard Oil and broke its dictatorship over the
industry.
The Oil Workers Union was not only the first union to win
in the first round of post-War wage increases, but it won
the highest increase, higher than the Steelworkers or the
Auto Workers, and others.
The OWIU proved itself to be a first-rate fighting CIO
union, able and willing to conduct the first national strike
in the industry.
This "Great Strike of '45" would not have been successful had the Oil Workers not organized thousands and thousands of oil workers during the '30s and early '40s. By 1943, for example, President O.A. Knight reported to the convention that the OWIU had won 55 out of 60 elections that year. This success did not come cheaply, however, but both the CIO and the OWIU were up to the challenge in terms of commitment of resources to organizing. Throughout the early '40s, the CIO contributed $10,000 per month subsidy to the Oil Workers organizing campaign and by 1944, the Oil Union itself was devoting half of its income (some $15,000 per month) to organizing. These organizing drives are symbolized by the group at Port Arthur demonstrating in the lower right-hand corner. This represents the Gulf Oil organizing victory at Port Arthur in 1943. It came on the heels of an earlier defeat in 1939 partly due to racist counter-drives by the company.
In 1948, the oil companies once again tried to bust the International Union. Having tried earlier with MidContinent, and having been beaten by the Oil Workers in the nationwide strike of 1945, the companies launched another attack in September of 1948. At that time, the California majors decided to bust the union in California. Initially, the solidarity among the local unions was 100 percent, but they were really not prepared for a long, hard struggle. In addition, the companies had a new weapon in their arsenal with the Taft-Hartley law, and injunctions were used right and left. Standard of California succeeded in busting the union at Richmond, and Union Oil severely weakened the locals at Rodeo and Long Beach.
Representing these attacks by the California oil majors is the worker choking the Union 76 company dummy.
The International lost 6,000 members in California during that fray. But by 1950, through valiant action on the part of the locals in California, the union bounced back and launched a reorganization campaign.
It was in the late 1940s that OWIU became a truly international union. American oil companies had taken over the oil industry in Canada decades before. Although Canadian oil workers organized the United Oil Workers of Canada earlier in the decade, by the late '40s they decided to affiliate with the OWIU to successfully counter the power of the U.S.-based oil companies. The first Canadian local to affiliate with the OWIU in 1948 was in Clarkson, Ontario. By the early 1950s, several thousand Canadians had decided to affiliate with the OWIU. For 25 years, the Canadians were proud and progressive members of the OWIU and then OCAW. By the late 1970s, successive waves of Canadian nationalism made it necessary for the Canadians to seek autonomy. The separation was amicable and relations remain close and harmonious to this day.