PAGE 16 | August 21, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the National Labor Relations
Act affirming the right of workers to join labor unions, bargain contracts col-
lectively, and strike. The National Labor Relations Board was given power to cer-
tify unions, and employers were forbidden to engage in unfair labor practices.
dependent federation. The Merchant Marine
Act of 1936 is amended to provide a Federal
Maritime Labor Board. About 800 employees
at eight Portland hotels strike for three
months. Retail Grocery Clerks Union at all
Oregon Safeway stores strike for 56 days.
Portland Central Labor Council urges estab-
lishment of Housing Authority. 1939: AFL
Union Label Show is held in Portland in con-
junction with Oregon Home Show. Paul
Gurske is elected president of the OFL. 1940:
John Lewis resigns and Philip Murray be-
comes CIO president. U.S. Supreme Court
affirms labor organizations’ right to picket.
Warehousemen’s Local 206 wins election at
Montgomery Ward and later Retail Clerks Lo-
cal 1257 and Office Employees Locals 16
and 821 win elections at Wards. Wards re-
fuses to bargain and is placed on the Unfair
List. 1941: U.S. Supreme Court upholds the
constitutionality of the federal wage and hour
law, the last of the major New Deal statutes
to be challenged in court. Portland Office and
Professional Employees Union conducts its
first strike — a two-day walkout that wins a
contract from a small firm in the city. U.S. en-
ters World War II. National War Labor Board
created with union members. Shipbuilding
boom starts in Portland. The AFL backs the
war and adopts the No-Strike Code and
makes a peace offer to the CIO for national
unity. 1942: Portland Industrial Union Council
established. Labor and industry agree to no
strikes during the war, with disputes to be set-
When the restaurant at the old Portland Labor Temple at SW Fourth and Jefferson opened for business in May 1935,
the scene looked like this. The third customer from the left in foreground is C.M. Rynerson, editor of the Oregon
Labor Press.
tled by the War Labor Board. Wayne Morse,
dean of the University of Oregon Law School,
nominated as one of four public representa-
tives on the Board. Labor pledges to win the
war by smashing all production records. La-
bor Day is celebrated with the launching of a
Liberty Ship in Portland. Edgar Kaiser builds
Vanport on the south bank of the Columbia
River; with 35,000 residents, overnight it is
Oregon’s second largest town. 1943: Oregon
becomes 23rd state to adopt an occupational
disease law. The AFL demands price controls
to deal with inflation, and the lifting of sub-
standard wages. CIO forms first political ac-
tion committee to get out the union vote for
President Roosevelt. 1944: At the Portland
Labor Temple, labor officials set a goal of sell-
ing $5 million in war bonds. Nearly 50,000
workers at Boeing produce 16 airplanes a
day. In Portland and Vancouver, Henry J.
Kaiser’s shipyards employ an estimated
100,000 workers. Men and women worked
side by side to build “Baby Flattops” and “Lib-
erty Ships.” 1945: Some 150,000 workers
are engaged in 85 shipyards in Oregon and
Washington. The Union Label Trades spon-
sors a B-17 in the war effort. Labor mourns
death of President Roosevelt and pledges
support for Harry Truman. The Bonneville
Power Administration signs an agreement
with the Columbia Power Trades Council for
collective bargaining. Pacific Coast Lumber
and Sawmill Workers strike and tie up the in-
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