Tobacco Workers International Union

Former trade union of the United States For the union based in the United Kingdom, see Tobacco Workers' Union.

The Tobacco Workers International Union (TWIU) was a labor union representing workers in the tobacco industry in the United States and Canada.

History

The union was founded on May 25, 1895, at a conference in St. Louis, which brought together ten local unions. Initially named the National Tobacco Workers' Union, it became the TWIU in 1899.

The union immediately faced opposition from the American Tobacco Company. In response, it promoted a boycott of the company, while encouraging independent companies which permitted it to organize to place union labels in their products. It also fought to end the use of child labor in the tobacco industry, and to improve working conditions.

In 1916, workers in various factories across New York and the Mid West walked out to demand wage increases. This led the union to become more militant, and it had particular success in recruiting workers in North Carolina. By 1920, membership had risen to 15,200, but reversals in North Carolina reduced this figure to only 1,500 in 1925, and the union came close to bankruptcy. However, it recovered through organizing workers in the Axton-Fisher Tobacco Company, which experienced rapid growth.

Working conditions in tobacco factories of Richmond, Virginia were very poor in the 1920s and 1930s, with two writers stating that conditions had "changed very little since the days of slavery." These writers also claimed that Tobacco Workers International Union (TWIU) in Richmond at that time was "entirely ineffective and openly collaborated with the employers." Eventually, in 1937, the Southern Negro Youth Congress, a wing of the CIO's National Negro Congress, established the Tobacco Stemmers' and Laborers' Industrial Union (TSLIU) in Richmond, and these unionization efforts spread to other local workplaces.

The union's leading figure from its formation until 1940 was E. Lewis Evans, who opposed strikes. In order to consolidate his power, he discouraged the arrangement of any conventions; none were held between 1900 and 1939, in which year he was ordered by a court to permit one to be run. At the convention, his perspectives were defeated, and all but one of the executive board were replaced.

The TWIU organized at the Liggett and Myers tobacco plant in Durham, North Carolina for many years around issues of seniority and civil rights.

On August 17, 1978, the TWIU merged into the Bakery and Confectionery Workers' International Union.

Leadership

Presidents

1895: John Fischer

1908: A. McAndrews

1921: W. R. Walden

1926: E. Lewis Evans

1940: W. Warren Smith

1943: Radford G. Powell

1944: John O'Hare

1968: Howard W. Vogt

1970: Rene Rondou

Secretary-Treasurers

1895: E. Lewis Evans

1940: Robert J. Petree

c.1970: Homer Cole

References

^ "Inactive Organizations" (PDF). UMD Labor Collections. University of Maryland. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
^ Northrup, Herbert R. (1942). "The Tobacco Workers International Union". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 56 (4): 606–626. doi:10.2307/1883412. JSTOR 1883412.
Tobacco Workers International Union. (1915). Abolish child slavery, make union conditions by purchasing union labeled tobacco, snuff and cigarettes. Louisville, KY: publisher not identified.
^ Fletcher, Bill, Jr., and Peter Agard. "The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the CIO." The Dispatcher, February 2000
Dries, M. E. (1999). Into the lion's den: TWIU Local 208's fight for seniority rights and civil rights in the Liggett and Myers tobacco plant in Durham, North Carolina, 1937–1968.
^ Notable Names in American History. Clifton, New Jersey: James T. White & Company. 1973. p. 559. ISBN 0883710021.

External links

The Tobacco Worker. St. Louis, Mo.: National Tobacco Worker's Union of America, 1897–1943.
Tobacco Workers International Union (TWIU) archives, 1896–1979. 136.00 linear feet. University of Maryland Libraries, Labor History Collection, Special Collections and University Archives.

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