Portland Mayor Joseph K. Carson intervened in an increasingly violent jurisdictional conflict between rival American Federation of Labor and Committee for Industrial Organization unions competing for control of Portland’s sawmill workers. Carson warned representatives of both labor factions that city authorities would act if assaults and destruction continued. His intervention marked an important moment in a labor struggle that reached far beyond a dispute between individual unions. The Portland confrontation reflected the national division between craft unionism represented by the AFL and industrial unionism promoted by the CIO, while demonstrating the economic importance of lumber to Portland and Oregon during the Depression.
The roots of the conflict extended to the major Pacific Northwest lumber strike of 1935. Lumber workers had sought union recognition, wage increases, shorter hours, overtime compensation, and paid holidays. The strike ended with important gains, including recognition of AFL organization in mills and logging camps. Internal disagreements remained, however, as many woodworkers favored industrial organization rather than the AFL’s traditional craft structure. In July 1937, dissident woodworkers established the International Woodworkers of America under CIO sponsorship. The organization selected Portland as its international headquarters and declared its intention to organize workers throughout the wood-products industry, from logging operations to finished lumber.
The split quickly affected Portland. In August, Portland lumber workers severed their AFL affiliation and accepted a CIO charter. AFL organizations responded by placing pickets at mills employing CIO labor and refusing to handle lumber produced by CIO workers. On August 16, two Portland plants closed immediately when the AFL Building Trades Council dispatched pickets to ten mills. Approximately 600 workers were displaced at the Inman-Poulsen mill alone. Employers also reported cancellations of lumber orders as the jurisdictional struggle spread through transportation and construction unions capable of blocking the movement and use of CIO-produced lumber.
By early September, the dispute had become a municipal public-order problem. Portland officials summoned representatives of the opposing organizations after confrontations between AFL and CIO supporters. On September 4, the city council instructed Police Chief Harry Niles to call police reserves if ordinary forces proved insufficient. Labor representatives exchanged openly combative statements before the council. Despite municipal efforts to restrain the conflict, confrontations continued.
On September 9, Carson met again with representatives of the rival factions. Contemporary reporting identified assaults, overturned trucks, damaged equipment, broken windows, and one shooting among the incidents associated with the struggle. Carson informed the unions that further violence would bring direct city intervention. The meeting itself did not resolve the jurisdictional dispute, and another conference was scheduled for the following morning. The mayor’s action therefore represented an attempt to maintain public order rather than a settlement of the underlying disagreement over union representation.
The economic effects continued. AFL restrictions on log transportation produced shortages at Portland mills, while refusal by AFL workers to handle CIO lumber disrupted shipping. Portland shipping executive Charles E. Dant reported that vessels were being diverted to British Columbia because lumber could not be handled normally. The conflict therefore affected mill workers, log transportation, waterfront operations, lumber exports, and businesses dependent on the city’s timber trade.
Federal labor law became another contested element. The National Labor Relations Board became involved in determining representation questions, but AFL officials disputed its jurisdiction and criticized the actions of regional director Charles W. Hope. Hearings followed in September. The conflict remained unresolved into November, when Carson appealed directly to the NLRB in Washington, declaring that Portland’s lumber industry had been paralyzed by the AFL-CIO jurisdictional struggle and demanding federal action or withdrawal so local authorities could address the situation.
The September 9 confrontation is historically significant because it captures the extraordinary institutional upheaval within organized labor during the late 1930s. Portland became a major battleground in the national contest between AFL craft unionism and CIO industrial unionism. The lumber industry gave that struggle exceptional importance in Oregon, where timber production, milling, transportation, shipping, and construction were closely connected. The violence and economic disruption forced municipal officials into a dispute whose origins lay within organized labor but whose consequences affected the entire city.
The conflict also helped establish the International Woodworkers of America as a lasting force in Pacific Northwest labor history. Although AFL-CIO rivalry continued through 1937 and 1938 and Portland mills experienced prolonged disruption, the IWA survived and expanded across Oregon and the wider timber region. Carson’s September 9 intervention thus stands as a documented local episode within a larger transformation of American labor organization, federal labor relations, and Oregon’s timber economy during the New Deal era.
References / More Knowledge:
Allen, Cain. “IWA Membership Card.” The Oregon History Project, Oregon Historical Society. https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/iwa-membership-card/
Capital Journal. “Carson Delivers Ultimatum to Union.” Salem, Oregon, September 9, 1937. Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon Libraries. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn90066132/1937-09-09/ed-1/seq-1/ocr/
Capital Journal. “Lumber Mills Forced to Close.” Salem, Oregon, August 16, 1937. Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon Libraries. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn90066132/1937-08-16/ed-1/seq-1/ocr/
Capital Journal. Portland AFL-CIO Lumber Dispute Coverage. Salem, Oregon, September 4, 1937. Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon Libraries. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn90066132/1937-09-04/ed-1/seq-1/ocr/
Capital Journal. “Woodworkers Pick Portland.” Salem, Oregon, July 23, 1937. Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon Libraries. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn90066132/1937-07-22/ed-1/seq-14/ocr/
Oregon Historical Society. “Labor Unrest between the Wars.” The Oregon History Project. https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/narratives/the-oregon-coastforists-and-green-verdent-launs/unions-and-hard-times/labor-unrest-between-the-wars/
The Oregon Statesman. Portland Sawmill Labor Relations Board Hearing Coverage. Salem, Oregon, September 19, 1937. Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon Libraries. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn85042470/1937-09-19/ed-1/seq-1/