ionism in the shop, so a similar committee, formed for organizing non-union workers, may employ some of the methods of industrial unionism in recruiting new members and conducting a strike. It was William Z. Foster who first used this idea, in order to gain the advantage of industrial action without at the same time having to fight the old craft unions who claimed jurisdiction over the workers to be organized.
The first such committee was formed to organize the Chicago stockyard workers, with Foster as Secretary, and it succeeded for the first time in forming these low-paid workers into unions, and winning recognition for them. While each worker joined the union of his particular craft, a joint council of all the unions governed industrial action.
It was precisely this plan which Foster adopted to organize the steel industry; in this case the organizing committee being formed of delegates from twenty-four separate unions. A uniform initiation fee was adopted, and the organizing campaign was carried on much as if it were the work of one great industrial union. The result was the successful organization of a majority of the steel workers, and the first general strike in the history of the American steel industry—a strike in which greater numbers were involved than in any previous strike in the country. Although the strike was unsuccessful and the A. F. of L. allowed the organization to fall to pieces, Foster claims that the effort came so
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