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Employers Group was founded as the Merchants and Manufacturers Association (M&M) in 1896 in California. It has become a worldwide organization advocating for employers and giving guidance about employment laws and regulations, professional development, consulting projects, and compensation and workplace trends surveys. When founded, the organization's goal was to secure the
open shop An open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join or financially support a union ( closed shop) as a condition of hiring or continued employment. Open shop vs closed shop The major difference between an open and closed ...
in all workplaces in the city.Cross, ''History of the Labor Movement in California,'' 1974.Foner, ''History of the Labor Movement in the United States: The AFL in the Progressive Era, 1910-1915,'' 1980. In the latter half of the 20th century, the organization became a
human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ...
consulting firm. In 1993, the Merchants and Manufacturers Association merged with the Federated Group of San Francisco to create the Employers Group. The organization's current president and chief executive officer is Mark Wilbur.


Formation and early history

Employer's Group was founded in 1893 in Los Angeles as the Merchants Association. Its goal was to promote local products, and manufacturing companies, railroads, shipping companies, department stores, breweries and food markets were some of its charter members. One of its most prominent members was the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
.''''The Merchants and Manufacturers Association – Celebrating 90 Years of Service,'' 1986.Deverell, ''Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past,'' 2004. The association launched a number of civic projects early in its history. In 1897, it created the annual Fiesta de las Flores to promote locally produced goods and services. The festival eventually merged with the
Tournament of Roses The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade (or simply the Tournament of Roses), is an annual parade held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, Pasadena, California, United States, on New Year's Day (or on Mon ...
Parade in Pasadena, California.


The open shop battle

M&M's focus over its first three decades was primarily on industrial relations. The Merchant's Association had acted primarily as a promoter of local industry. But when Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
,'' joined the body in 1896, the association underwent a transformation. It adopted a new name (the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, or M&M), and began vehemently promoting the
open shop An open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join or financially support a union ( closed shop) as a condition of hiring or continued employment. Open shop vs closed shop The major difference between an open and closed ...
. The nascent labor movement in Los Angeles collapsed, and Los Angeles remained largely union-free until the 1930s. On October 1, 1910, a bomb exploded at a printing plant owned by the ''Times.'' Twenty-one workers were killed in the fire which followed. Otis declared the bombing the "Crime of the Century" and used his newspaper's large circulation to whip up public sentiment against unions. A second bombing at an iron works in the city on Christmas Day worsened the hysteria in the city. The M&M contributed $50,000 ($1.1 million in 2007 dollars) to a city effort to hire
private detective A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...
s to track down the perpetrators. In April 1911, Ortie McManigal, a staff representative with the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, was apprehended by private detectives in
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
. McManigal confessed to bombing the iron works and implicated the union's national secretary-treasurer, James B. McNamara, and his brother, John J. McNamara, in the ''Times'' bombing. The American Federation of Labor (AFL),
Eugene Debs Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...
and others rallied to the defense of
The McNamara Brothers The ''Los Angeles Times'' bombing was the purposeful dynamite, dynamiting of the Times Mirror Square, ''Los Angeles Times'' Building in Los Angeles, California, United States, on October 1, 1910, by a trade union, union member belonging to the In ...
. The brothers were defended in court by famed attorney
Clarence Darrow Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...
. Darrow was increasingly skeptical of the chance for an acquittal. Darrow attempted to arrange a plea bargain. The state of California was on the verge of accepting the plea bargain when Darrow was arrested for attempting to bribe a member of the jury. The state rejected the plea. James McNamara was sentenced to life, and died in San Quentin State Prison of cancer in 1941. His brother John McNamara served seven years, and died a few months after his brother of a heart attack in Butte, Montana. Darrow was tried for attempted bribery. The first trial ended in a mistrial, the second in a jury deadlock. The state dropped the charges against Darrow. In 1921, the Industrial Relations Committee of San Francisco formed to promote the open shop in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. In time, that organization changed its name to the Federated Employers of the Bay Area and merged with M&M in 1993.


1930s

In 1937, M&M was joined in the labor relations field by a new organization, Southern Californians, Inc. Sponsored by the ''Los Angeles Times,'' the group was led by
Paul Shoup Paul Shoup (January 8, 1874 – July 30, 1946) was an American businessman, president and later vice-chairman of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1920s and 1930s, a founding board member of the Stanford University School of Business, and foun ...
, a retired vice chairman of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Southern Californians was founded ostensibly to promote the welfare of Los Angeles, but in testimony before the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
later that year its leaders admitted that its sole goal was the preservation of the open shop.Pichardo, "The Power Elite and Elite-Driven Countermovements: The Associated Farmers of California During the 1930s," ''Sociological Forum,'' March 1995. In less than three years, it had collected more than $523,000 from 12 major Los Angeles companies to fight the city's unions. Southern Californians spent $48,000 to create two other front-groups: The Neutral Thousands (which claimed 109,000 members but had had only 250; it had copied names out of the telephone book and put them on its "official" membership list) and Women of the Pacific (led by a
strikebreaker A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...
from
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
).Pesotta, ''Bread Upon the Waters,'' 1987. M&M and Southern Californians decided the best way to stamp out unions was to remove the unions' most powerful weapons: the strike and picket line. M&M quickly established its own front group, the Employers' Advisory Service, to help employers set company unions. Both Southern Californians and M&M spent more than $123,000 in 1937 to promote a voter referendum which would outlaw the strike and picket line. Their opportunity came when a Republican Party group began digging up dirt on Republican
Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
Frank L. Shaw. Voters were outraged when a private detective employed by the reform group was nearly killed by a car bomb planted by Shaw's organization. Another Republican, Superior Court Judge Fletcher Bowron, began a recall effort against Shaw. M&M and Southern Californians used the recall election to push through their ordinance. The new law explicitly outlawed picketing entirely unless a majority of a firm's employees were on strike, made it illegal for anyone except a striking employee to picket a firm, limited pickets to one person per entrance or pickets at least 25 feet apart, prohibited coercion and intimidation by unions, forbade unions to talk to workers at home, and even outlawed unions' use of abusive or foul language. A compromise referendum pushed by the AFL prohibited public disorder and intimidation, but not picketing. The voters approved the M&M referendum, turned out Mayor Shaw, and elected Judge Bowron (who had flatly condemned the M&M referendum as blatantly unconstitutional)."Sun and Shade," ''Time,'' September 26, 1938. M&M's activities were later exposed before the La Follette Committee in 1937 and 1938.


Notes


See also

* Lloyd G. Davies, Los Angeles City Council member, 1943–51, M&MA public relations representative


References

*''America's New Year Celebration: The Rose Parade & Rose Bowl Game.'' Santa Barbara, Calif.: Albion Publishing Group, 1999. *Cross, Ira B. ''History of the Labor Movement in California.'' Reprint ed. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1974. *Deverell, William. ''Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past.'' Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2004. *Foner, Philip S. ''History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 5: The AFL in the Progressive Era, 1910-1915.'' New York: International Publishers, 1980. Cloth ; Paperback *Kazin, Michael. ''Barons of Labor: The San Francisco Building Trades and Union Power in the Progressive Era.'' Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1987. *''The Merchants and Manufacturers Association – Celebrating 90 Years of Service.'' Los Angeles, Calif.: Merchants and Manufacturers Association, 1986. *Milkman, Ruth ''L.A Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the U.S. Labor Movement.'' New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2006. *Pesotta, Rose. ''Bread Upon the Waters.'' Paperback ed. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1987. {{ISBN, 0-87546-127-1 *Robinson, W.W. ''Bombs and Bribery: The Story of the McNamara and Darrow Trials Following the Dynamiting in 1910 of the Los Angeles Times Building.'' Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1969. *"Sun and Shade." ''Time.'' September 26, 1938.


External links


Employers Group
Companies based in Los Angeles 1896 establishments in California Organizations established in 1896 Business organizations based in the United States History of labor relations in the United States Company unions