Myth #3 - The IWW doesn't negotiate contracts with employers

This misconception results from the fact that during the early years of the IWW, union contracts had no legal force in the United States of America. In fact, union contracts did not become federally protected agreements until the passing of the National Labor Relations Act in 1937. Prior to that, many union contracts were attempts by the employing class to limit economic direct action and class based solidarity by unions. As such, the IWW argued against sell out agreements.

According to long time IWW member Fred Thompson:

"Originally the IWW had put no restrictions, except requiring GEB approval, on contracts, and much of the discussion at the founding convention as to what constituted an industry proceeded on the assumption that industry-wide action would depend on the structure of the industrial union making contracts. The tradition of no contracts with specified duration had come from the Western Federation, and persisted until changed in 1938 to permit each Industrial Union to make its own regulations on the matter. Some Industrial Unions have persistently forbidden such agreements. Provisions adopted in 1946 ended the requirement of GEB approval, but stipulated that no agreement should provide for a check-off or obligate members covered by it to do any work that would aid in breaking any union's strike."

That does not mean, however, that the IWW refused to agree to union contracts even then. If the IWW could organize sufficient resistance to capitalist exploitation and convince the employing class to accept conditions favorable to the workers in a given shop or industry, and that agreement resulted in a contract, the IWW would indeed sign it. That has always been the case. In the present day, contracts are much more widely accepted documents, but conditions for the working class are not especially progressive, even with their existence. A contract is only as good and as strong as the union that signs it. If the working class were truly organized enough to abolish wage slavery, it would not want to be held back from doing so by a contract!

Next page: Myth #4 - The IWW is violent and plans to overthrow the government.