A Short History of the Harvard Program 1942-2012

The Labor Education “Experiment”

During the founding era of the Harvard Trade Union Program, it was commonly called “an experi- ment.” For much of the early twentieth century, workers’ educational movements had themselves greeted the idea of study at elite universities with A member of the Women’s Trade Union League and a union card-carrying member of the American Newspaper Guild, skepticism and sometimes derision. Eleanor Roosevelt as First Lady became a strong advocate for worker education programs during the 1930s and 1940s. At the turn of the century, Great Britain had education projects, with one of the programs based pioneered one of these eff orts, with the founding of at the Harvard Summer School. Esther L. Swensen, Ruskin College near Oxford University. Though nei- who led the Affi liated Summer Schools for Workers ther controlled nor fi nanced by Oxford University, at Bryn Mawr and Barnard Colleges, helped coordi- Ruskin College sent some workers to the university nate the Harvard eff ort to train teachers in worker to attend lectures, and others could undergo the education. As a member of the Women’s Trade exam for the University Diploma in Economics and Union League, Eleanor Roosevelt worked closely Political Science. Fred Bramley (1874-1925), the Sec- with one of the founders of the Affi liated Schools retary General of the British Trades Union Congress for Workers, Hilda Worthington Smith. A former (TUC), warned the Ruskin College principal not to dean at Bryn Mawr, Smith persuaded FERA director expect much from his medieval neighbors: “Oxford Harry Hopkins to put signifi cant eff ort into worker is a center in which university training has been education after she had learned that some Euro- the monopoly of the sons of the rich.” J. Ramsay pean governments funded worker schools. Accord- MacDonald (1866-1937), the fi rst Labour Party Prime ing to historian Brigid O’Farrell in her biography of Minister, once equated the venerable university Eleanor Roosevelt called She Was One of Us , “By the with rank whoredom: “Oxford is a painted lady spring of 1935, almost 45,000 men and women were of whom labor can expect nothing.” [Marius Han- attending 1,800 classes taught by 480 instructors in some would later reply in World Workers’ Educa- 570 communities.” tional Movements (1931): “This opinion, be it noted, did not deter MacDonald from sending his own son Certain political currents greeted the news to become educated in that institution.”] with outrage. Headlines shrieked in the Washington Herald (24 February 1935) that “Reds Rule FERA In the , Franklin Delano Schools.” Soon Congressman Martin Dies, Jr. and Roosevelt and the New Deal early on promoted the early version of the House Un-American Activi- worker education partly as a means of putting un- ties Committee made accusations that the worker employed teachers back to work as well as helping education programs were dens of subversion. Nev- workers to become better citizens and trade union- ertheless, the ongoing growth of the labor move- ists. In 1934, in response to the Great Depression, ment during the Depression kept up momentum for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) worker education initiatives, despite the backlash gave support for 16 educational training units from anti-New Deal forces. targeting teachers planning to carry out worker

1 With the Ruskin experiment at Oxford several de- 1942, labor union offi cials and Harvard educators an- cades old and the various New Deal eff orts having nounced the Harvard Trade Union Fellowship Plan borne fruit, proposed a new ap- as “a momentous fi rst step in the direction of better proach to labor education. In Fall 1942, Harvard and American labor-management relations.” Paul H. labor union offi cials announced what was fi rst called Buck, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, told “the Harvard University Trade Union Fellowship the Christian Science Monitor (23 September 1942) Plan.” Initially designed to bring 15 labor leaders that he hoped the program would contribute to to Harvard for nine months, the Plan had several bringing labor and industry together in the even- unusual features, including no formal academic re- tual aftermath of World War II. In formulating the quirements such as a high school diploma. Accord- early curriculum, Harvard investigators fanned out ing to a Harvard statement at the time, “[the] more throughout the land during a two-month period, important qualifi cations are general intelligence, “gathering background information on scores capacity for leadership, of strikes, some routine, some and devotion to the labor spectacular, and including the movement.” Indeed Allis-Chalmers layoff of defense labor unions would select production workers in 1941,” the fellows to insure that explained the correspondent for the recipients are people the Christian Science Monitor. “who have proven their ability to serve the labor Secondly, labor unions had movement.” grown in complexity, a reality conveyed by Fannia Cohn, Secre- Labor unions tary of the Educational Depart- greeted the news with ment of the International Ladies’ high hopes. Kenneth Tay- Garment Workers’ Union: “The lor, Secretary-Treasurer of trade union no longer confi nes the Massachusetts Feder- itself to purely trade union prob- ation of Labor, called the lems: it is entering the fi elds of Plan “very, very good – if banking, insurance, health work, the men don’t come out research, building, co-operative of there with a Harvard housing, etc.” The ILGWU had a accent.” In fact, Robert strong presence in the Harvard J. Watt, the former Secre- Trade Union Fellowship Plan Hope Mendoza Schecter, HTUP Class of 1948. tary of the Massachusetts ILGWU member. of the 1940s, including several Federation of Labor and a women: Bernice (Taylor) Segal, reputed socialist, had fi rst Frances DiMartino, Maxine Rose fl oated the plan in Spring 1941. Watt had previously Mungal, Hope Mendoza, and Gertrude Van Nort. taught at the Harvard Summer School program While overall the HTUP had only a few women, for worker education. Sumner H. Slichter, Lamont these female pioneers were a courageous reminder University Professor at Harvard and one of the that in most of Harvard University, women were most infl uential economists of his era, then played fl atly locked out, denied the right to admission. a crucial role in galvanizing support throughout the university. Finally, the proponents of the program noted that labor had surged in power during the Slichter and his academic allies stressed New Deal. According to Walter Galenson, a leading several themes. In the fi rst place, 1941 had been a labor scholar who taught in the Trade Union Pro- year of escalating strikes and labor unrest, and the gram before moving to the University of / intensifying international crisis called attention to Berkeley: “Some of the leading statesmen of the the need for higher productivity via more harmoni- AFL were high in New Deal counsels.... The fact that ous labor-management relations. In late September a dozen American trade unionists had ready access

2 to the president of the United States, that they privilege of teaching in it. According to Reich, the could call upon him in an emergency, was a critical instructors often gathered in so much knowledge element in organizing success.” Between 1934 and from the union leaders that it was not always so 1939, union density had spurt from 11.5 percent of clear who was the pupil in the arrangement. the U.S. workforce to 27.6 percent. After a mild slide, the spurt resumed in the war years between Curriculum Reform over the Decades and Interna- 1942 and 1945, with unionization advancing from 25 tionalization percent to 34.2 percent of the workforce. Donald K. David, Dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Busi- One of the fi rst major debates over the ness, openly conceded in September 1942 that the program surrounded its nine-month length. Several Fellowship Plan represented “recognition of the labor leaders expressed that the long session had major role labor is playing in the world today.” aff orded them the opportunity to achieve intellec- tual growth and mastery of new skills. However, Thus Dean David and the Harvard Business other unions judged that it was not possible to lose School decided to host the program. A segment key leaders for so long a period. Certain prospec- of the HBS leadership of the era tive students feared that they understood that the institution had would lose infl uence within their been training an army of MBAs who unions if they were gone for most would hold senior management po- of the year. Enrollments dropped. sitions in heavily unionized manufac- A major turning point came with turing industries, such as steel and the U.S. Congress’s passage of the automobiles. It would be important Taft-Hartley bill in 1948. Explicitly that HBS faculty and key students designed to curtail the gains unions understood the role of unions in had achieved during the New Deal an advanced economy. During the era, Taft-Hartley put labor lead- 1950s, union leaders participated in ers on a heightened state of alert. joint classes with corporate manag- Serving as a regional director for ers in the Advanced Management the United Steel Workers of Ameri- Program. The assistant secretary- ca, William Donovan regretted in a treasurer of the International letter to Harvard offi cials that Association of Machinists M.R. Archibald Cox (left), special procecutor in the Water- he simply could not “spare gate case, taught Labor Law at the HTUP in the 50’s. He Stearns explained in 1955 that is pictured here with Elliot Richardson waiting for the one of his staff .” Fannia Cohn the labor leaders had a dif- start of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in 1973. of the ILGWU also started fi cult challenge in seeking to to throw her weight behind enlighten corporate managers about the working proposals for a more compact training program. reality of most unions: “We were told that many of these top management men had never before met Breaking with the formula of a nine-month a labor offi cial. From some of the questions asked fellowship that had prevailed from 1942-1948, Har- about the ‘goon squad’ tactics of labor, etc., I am vard switched to a single annual session of 13 weeks sure that all they knew about labor was what they in 1948 and then to two annual sessions of 13 weeks read in our reactionary papers.” by 1952. Despite lingering resistance before the TUP’s advisory committee from Frank Fenton of the In other words, there was a certain expecta- AFL and Harold Ulrich of the Brotherhood of Rail tion that the labor leaders would deliver valuable Clerks, the change went through and soon met with knowledge to the professoriate, research fellows, success. The new intensive session of 13 weeks fea- and the rest of the Harvard community. During tured these courses and faculty by the mid-1950s: the 1990s, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich expressed this notion of academic reciprocity • “International Labor Problems” – Taught by more graphically when he joked that this was the Clinton S. Golden (1888-1961), a former eastern one program in which the faculty should pay for the regional director for the Steel Workers and the

3 • “Problems in Labor Relations” – Exploring unionization and labor relations at the plant level, James J. Healy, the director of the Trade Union Program from 1942-1950, brought cor- porate elites from the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School into the classes with the union members. His course sought to explain “the social, psychological, and interpersonal” ways in which unions transform the workplace.

• “Economic Analysis” – Stanley Jacks provided both basic economics and a presentation of the shortcomings of many commonly cited labor, business, and government indices.

• “Labor Law” – Harvard Law School professor Archibald Cox handled the intricacies of the legal system for the program and developed a reputation as the nation’s top expert on labor law. Formerly a clerk for the legendary judge Learned Hand and chair of Harry Truman’s Wage Stabilization Board, Cox later became the Solici- tor General for JFK and then the in some of the most important cases on civil rights to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed Economist John T. Dunlop, taught for the HTUP beyond its 60th anniversary. He was also Secretary of Labor for the Special Prosecutor during Watergate, Cox found Ford administration. himself sacked by Richard Nixon in the legend- TUP Executive Director from 1950-1955, this ary “Saturday Night Massacre,” orders imple- course sought to “acquaint union representa- mented by a then obscure federal judge named tives with the labor movements of other coun- Robert Bork tries and their role in fostering international cooperation.” In the climate of the early cold • “” – Saul Wallen presented the his- war, Golden took up the challenges confronting tory of arbitration and even served as an arbitra- “Labor Attaches to the various U.S. Embassies tor in class as he had the trade unionists prepare abroad and as Labor Advisers to foreign eco- cases based on real problems in their various nomic and technical aid missions and in other industries. capacities.” He had served as Chief of the Labor Division of the American Mission for Aid to • “Methods of Wage Determination” – Economist Greece. Co-author of The Dynamics of Industrial Donald J. White explained the methods for job Democracy (1942) and co-editor of Causes of In- evaluation, wage increases, and pension plans. dustrial Peace under Collective Bargaining (1955), Later a popular dean at Boston College, White he also addressed the “ever increasing impor- also happened to be a leading expert on the tance of the International Labor Organization, fi shing industry. the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the International Confederation of • “American Labor History” – Economist John Christian Trade Unions in preserving and foster- T. Dunlop delivered this instruction, but soon ing freedom throughout the world....” switched in the late 1950s to teaching “Adminis- tration and Organization.” Joseph P. O’Donnell (see below) then provided the course on “Labor

4 History.” One of the founding fathers of the many Catholic leaders, and the HTUP was one of HTUP, Dunlop rose to prominence during World the few institutions at Harvard run by someone War II as a staff member of the National War from that faith tradition. In marked contrast, for Labor Board where he worked with such major the fi rst 355 years of Harvard’s history (till 1991), fi gures as Clark Kerr (future president of the Uni- all of the University’s presidents were White versity of California) and Benjamin Aaron (future Anglo–Saxon Protestants (WASPs). director of the Institute of Industrial Relations at UCLA). Dunlop taught in the HTUP beyond • “Collective Bargaining Seminars” – A weekly its sixtieth anniversary until his death in 2003. afternoon seminar hosted by Sumner Slichter, General editor of a distinguished library of books it brought many of the nation’s most powerful on industrial relations for Harvard University labor leaders to Harvard, including in the fi rst Press during the 1950s and 1960s, he shaped the half of the 1950s: Walter Reuther, president of fi eld of industrial relations in the United States. the CIO and the United Automobile, Aircraft, Dunlop went on to become Secretary of Labor and Agricultural Implement Workers of America; in the Ford Administration. A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brother- hood of Sleeping Car Porters; Michael J. Quill, • “Accounting and Analysis of Financial State- president of the Transport Workers Union of ments” – Arthur W. Hanson showed labor lead- America; O.A. Knight, president of the Oil Work- ers how to decode accounting reports, including ers International Union; and David McDonald, income statements, balance sheets, and operat- president of the of Ameri- ing statements. He showed the tricks with de- ca. preciation and how accounting principles could be brought to bear in negotiations. The internationalization of the Harvard Trade Union Program became perhaps the most momen- • “Parliamentary Procedure” and “Public Speak- tous change during the 1950s. Trade unionists from ing” – Roswell Atwood taught labor leaders how Europe, Asia, Australia, and then Africa and Latin they could be more persuasive as well as bet- America arrived, many of whom received help from ter ways of conducting meetings. In an essay the AFL-CIO and the U.S. State Department. The for Labor Age (April 1922), Clinton Golden had HTUP’s tradition of sponsoring talks by leading U.S. criticized unions for leaders who “do not under- labor leaders sometimes had a dramatic infl uence stand the rudiments of parliamentary law. Re- on the international students. David Halberstam in cording secretaries fail to keep an understand- The Reckoning (1986) told the story of Ichiro Shioji, able record of the activities of the local union. HTUP Class of 1960 who went on to lead the Nissan Important communications, resolutions, and autoworkers. According to Halberstam: petitions are often ignored because of the inabil- ity of the secretary, intelligently and eff ectively While he was at Harvard, Walter Reuther to perform his duties.” When Golden took over came to make a speech, and Shioji was awed. leadership of the HTUP, he made better perfor- Reuther was his great hero. A small hall had mance of procedural democracy a priority. been set aside for Reuther’s speech, and it soon became apparent that it was much too small, and • “Contemporary Labor Problems” – A course people soon scurried around and managed to get access to the Harvard gymnasium. The entire presided over by Joseph O’Donnell, who served Harvard gym was fi lled with students.... The as Executive Director of the HTUP from 1955 to idea that a labor leader had so broad a following 1983, it gave students the chance to debate and struck him forcefully. No one in Japan had a fol- discuss the latest issues in the labor movement. lowing like that. A member of the Catholic Labor Guild who would later in the 1960s receive the prestigious After Reuther’s presentation, Shioji met Cardinal Cushing Award, O’Donnell had himself the UAW leader at the reception, and they became been a student in the HTUP Class of 1950. So- good friends. Halberstam continues: ciologically the U.S. trade union movement had

5 Elaine Bernard, Executive Richard B. Freeman. Faculty Co- Director, Labor and Worklife Director, Labor and Worklife Program Program at at Harvard Law School & Herbert As- Harvard Law School. cherman Chair in Economics, Harvard University Benjamin Sachs, Faculty Co-Director, Labor and Worklife National Secretary, That summer, after leaving Program at Harvard Law School & Professor of Law. Transport Workers Union Harvard, Shioji went to Detroit Australia; Jo-Ann Davidson, and stayed with the UAW National Secretary, Flight people at Solidarity House, and the Americans Attendants Association of Australia; Paul Nowak, became his friends – Reuther and Leonard Wood- Head of the Organisation and Service Department cock and Pat Greathouse and Doug Fraser.... of the Trades Union Congress UK; Manuel Cortes, They were the top people in the union, and General Secretary, Transport Salaried Staff Associa- they had all treated him as an equal.... When he tion UK; Simon Weller, National Organiser of the returned to Japan his confi dence was greater; he was now a good friend – an equal – of the most Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and important labor leaders in the world. Firemen; Karl Walsh and Jim Christie, presidents of the Ontario Provincial Police Association, Nancy The Trade Union Program continued to Hutchison, Secretary Treasurer, Ontario Federation thrive in the decades ahead. Besides Shioji of Japan, of Labour; and Stephanie Smith, Secretary Trea- it could claim among its alumni the leaders of some surer, British Columbia Government and Services of the most powerful U.S. unions and labor federa- Union). tions (i.e., Gerald McEntee, president of AFSCME; John J. Flynn and James Boland, presidents of the Time of Troubles and the Program’s Resurgence International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craft- workers; John Lyons Jr., president of the Iron Work- But by the early 1980s, the program fi nally ers; Harold A. Schaitberger, General President of the began to enter into a time of troubles. The U.S. International Association of Fire Fighters; Michael labor movement had continued its slow but largely E. Monroe, president of the International Union of uninterrupted decline in density since the mid- Painters and Allied Trades; Thomas J. Scotto and 1950s. Throughout the 1980s, the Reagan Admin- Michael Palladino, presidents of the Detectives’ istration adopted a much more combative posture Endowment Association; Carolyn Doggett, Execu- towards unions. Many infl uential theorists of tive Director of the California Teachers’ Association; management such as Peter Drucker began declaring Russ Burns, Business Manager of the International that unions were dinosaurs, the fossilized remnants Union of Operating Engineers Local 3; and closer of an industrial stage of development that was giv- to home, Robert Haynes and Steven Tolman, presi- ing way to a post-industrial epoch. dents of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO), as well as some international political leaders of note (Ankur This atmosphere undoubtedly infl uenced Henrik Jorgensen, Prime Minister of Denmark, and the new leadership of the Harvard Business School, Barrie Unsworth, Premier of New South Wales) and the institution that for decades had hosted the major international labor offi cials (i.e., Mark Lennon, program. The HBS came to recognize that relatively Secretary, Unions NSW Australia; Tony Sheldon, few MBAs were going into manufacturing and other industries with a heavy union presence. Harvard 6 MBAs increasingly gravitated into The Business School no and Worklife Program at Harvard fi nancial services, consulting, and longer saw a rationalle Law School (see below). high-tech; that is to say, those sec- tors conspicuous for the absence of for the program, and its unions. The Business School no lon- leadership politely asked The Founding of the Labor & ger saw a rationale for the program, it to move elsewhere. Worklife Program, and The HTUP and its leadership politely asked it to in the Twenty-fi rst Century move elsewhere. HBS chose to keep much of the program’s endowment, however, a cir- The Harvard Trade Union Program under- cumstance that became a major fi nancial challenge went an historic transformation. Seeking to meet for those seeking to save the HTUP enterprise. the challenges of labor education for the twenty- fi rst century, the HTUP became part of a broader By the late 1980s, the program began to institution for understanding labor issues, the Labor fi nd a new direction and vitality, developments & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. signaled by the appointment of a new Executive Director Elaine Bernard. Previously the director of a The Labor & Worklife Program (LWP) is labor program in Canada and president of the New Harvard University’s forum for research and teach- Democratic Party of British Columbia, she tightened ing on the world of work and its implications for the program to an intensive ten-week and then society. Located at Harvard Law School, the LWP six-week session. With Bernard working closely brings together scholars and policy experts from a with faculty co-chairs Richard Freeman, generally variety of disciplines to analyze critical labor issues regarded as the nation’s premier labor economist, in the law, economy, and society. The LWP provides and Paul Weiler, the emerging doyen of sports, unique education for labor leaders throughout the entertainment, and labor law, this team expanded world via the oldest executive training program at a whole series of conferences, seminars, and work- Harvard University, the Harvard Trade Union Pro- shops on issues of special concern to the labor gram. movement in both the United States and abroad. The HTUP developed a summer training institute As a multidisciplinary research and policy for AFSCME funded by the Jerry Wurf Memorial network, the LWP organizes projects and programs Fund. The Mellon Foundation in the mid-1990s that seek to understand critical changes in labor supported a whole range of markets and labor law, and to explorations into societies analyze union, business, and undergoing rapid political government responses to and economic transitions. those changes. By engaging The Ford Foundation pro- scholars, students, and mem- vided the means to develop bers of the labor community, programs on myriad topics: the program coordinates legal, global labor standards; work educational, and cultural activi- and family issues; and the ties designed to improve the future of manufacturing. quality of work life. Current The HTUP hosted the an- faculty co-chairs Richard Free- nual African American Labor man and HLS Professor Benja- Leaders’ Economic Summit, min Sachs continue to pursue which regularly brought research agendas in the social some of the nation’s most sciences and legal thought that distinguished Black labor tackle pressing challenges for leaders to Harvard. All of workers and the labor move- these activities led to the Paul Weiler. Faculty Co-Director Emeritus, Labor and ment. creation of a new, more ambi- Worklife Program at Harvard Law School & Professor . tious enterprise, the Labor of Law 7 The faculty, staff , and research associates of India, , Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Program include some of the nation’s premier Poland, and the UK. The PayWizard provides an scholars of labor studies and an array of internation- internet survey for workers, an information cen- ally renowned intellectuals. The executive training ter for employees, and a free salary checker. program HTUP works closely with trade unions around the world to bring excellence in labor educa- • The Jerry Wurf Memorial Fund -- Founded in tion to trade union leadership. The LWP regularly 1982 and celebrating its 30th anniversary, the holds forums, conferences, and discussion groups Wurf Fund was established in memory of Jerry on labor issues of concern to business, unions, and Wurf, the late President of the American Federa- the government. A vehicle for delivering valuable tion of State, and Municipal Employees lessons and sustained inquiry into the pressing (AFSCME). Its income is used to initiate pro- social questions of our time, the LWP seeks to open grams and activities that “refl ect Jerry Wurf’s some new chapters in the heritage of the Harvard belief in the dignity of work, and his commit- Trade Union Program. ment to improving the quality of lives of work- ing people….” In partnership with the LWP, the In the fi rst decades of the twenty-fi rst cen- United Negro College Fund, and AFSCME, the tury, the LWP has developed the following projects: Wurf Fund since 2003 has supported the Union Scholars Program, which in the summer brings • The Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project – undergraduate juniors and seniors to Harvard Led by Dr. Larry Beeferman, this project focuses to learn about the labor movement as well as on retirement security, including employment- participate in initiatives to help workers. Wurf based retirement plans as well as issues of pen- scholarships have also assisted AFSCME labor sion fund governance and management. leaders in attending the HTUP, as well as helping government administrators study in the Harvard • Science & Engineering Workforce Project Kennedy School of Government’s program for (SEWP) – With the support of the Alfred P. Sloan senior leaders in state and local government. Foundation, the LWP teamed up with the Na- tional Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) to Designed during World War II and the early construct a major network of scholars and policy cold war, the Harvard Trade Union Program has con- experts who are focused on the state of the sci- tinued to evolve. The program’s ongoing reforma- ence and engineering workforce. tion is rendering it more responsive to the changing needs of the contemporary labor movement. • Nanotechnology in Society – With funding from the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), the LWP worked with a variety of university John Trumpbour, programs to advance understanding of this Research Director, expanding fi eld. The LWP is looking at future Labor & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School employment impacts from revolutionary tech- nologies, as well as the possible occupational health eff ects of nanotechnology.

• PayWizard and WageIndicator – The LWP has partnered with the non-profi t WageIndicator Foundation in the Netherlands to create the fi rst U.S. WageIndicator site called the PayWizard (http://www.paywizard.org/main ). The Wage- Indicator Foundation has similar websites in thir- teen languages and sixteen countries in addition to the U.S.: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, Spain, Finland, , Hungary,

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