We Always Had a Union

One of New York Citys most powerful unions, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, AFL-CIO, represents almost 40,000 workers. Shaun Richmans history places the labor organization within the context of American industrial and craft unionism and reveals how it came to influence politics and economic development in the city and beyond. From the start, New Yorks organized hotel workers experimented with and adapted how they organized and governed members and related to other labor unions. Richman follows union fortunes from early IWW activity through the Communist-led affiliates of the American Federation of Labor in the 1920s and 1930s, the shaping of breakthrough negotiating strategies, and the postwar era. As Richman shows, workers adopted a radicalism and militancy seldom associated with an AFL organization while openly negotiating the Communist Partys power and influence within the union, until the Partys eclipse in the 1950s. An inspiring story of action and perseverance, We Always Had a Union profiles a foundational American labor union and offers lessons for todays workers and organizers.