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Stern (Todes), Charlotte (audio interview #3 of 7)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the third interview of seven interviews with Charlotte Todes Stern, conducted in her Columbia University apartment by Ros Baxandall for the Feminist History Research Project. Stern was a friend of Baxandall's parents and because she and the interviewer shared a similar world, they maintained good rapport and enjoyed each other's company. This interview focuses on the Workers Health Bureau and, unfortunately, features Stern mainly reading from prepared remarks. The interviewer was not as familiar with this material as others and found it a bit difficult to follow. 4/19/1976
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- 2021-01-27
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- *** File: refcstern6.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-6:20)... Stern reviews the history of the Workers Health Bureau, which was founded in 1921 by Grace McDonald and Harriet Silverman to protect workers' health and safety. The first union to support the WHB was the Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Crafts. These workers were often exposed to dangerous conditions and toxic materials. By July 1922, all local unions from the New York City Painters District Council supported the WHB. (6:20-11:40)... For .25 cents per union member, the WHB would conduct a study of the union's working hazards and perform medical examinations of workers. The information gathered in these reports would be used to promote legislative changes for health and safety and workman's compensation. Many leading physicians were involved in the WHB. The WHB was not associated with the Communist party. (11:40-16:57)... The clinics run by the Workers Health Bureau included a physician, dentist, nurse, and laboratory technician. It provided affiliated union members with physical examinations, urinalysis, blood tests, and dental examinations. The physicians could also determine if an illness was caused by hazardous working conditions. An overwhelming amount of workers visiting the clinic suffered from work-related illnesses, and only 5.2 percent were in good health. 1923, the Painters' Agreement was signed, marking the achievement of the first health agreement included in a painters union labor contract. (16:57-20:03)... Stern joined the Workers Health Bureau in 1923 for just six weeks to see if she wanted to work in the labor movement. After the six weeks, she married and went to Europe with her husband. While in Europe, she kept in contact with Grace McDonald of the WHB. She returned in 1924 and rejoined the WHB in June. (20:03-25:54)... Stern charts the development of the Workers Health Bureau. After the Painters' Agreement in 1923, the WHB circulated the results of their health studies and spread information about protection against poisonous materials. In Australia, the Painters Union successfully negotiated a 44-hour works week using arguments based on evidence from the WHB. By 1924, the WHB had union affiliates in several northeastern states. Throughout 1924, the WHB worked for safety codes in the New York State Legislature and US Public Health Service hearings. (25:54-36:23)... Stern's role in the Workers Health Bureau involved addressing local unions and educating them on dangerous working conditions and industrial diseases, and encouraging support for legislative action. She also conducted research and writing on medical issues and developments. Employers launched their own campaigns in response to prevent labor reform. Often, the WHB would spend much time and energy in exchange for little or no results. (36:23-46:11)... Stern's involvement with the Workers Health Bureau included pressing for state legislation, but not not federal legislation. Stern traveled in different states recruiting unions to become affiliated with the WHB. IN 1925, the WHB director was a delegate to the AFL Labor convention, but there was little attention given to the WHB because the AFL feared having its authority undermined. (46:11-52:54)... Stern and the Workers Health Bureau supported strikes throughout 1925. In 1926, during the Passaic strike, the WHB examined textile workers. It found high rates of tuberculosis and exposure to dangerous materials and hazardous physical conditions. The WHB did not take direct legal action against the industries, instead providing the unions with information and facts to determine their own course of action. Stern's husband was supportive of her travels and activity with the WHB. End of tape. *** File: refcstern7.mp3 (0:00-7:23)... In 1926, Stern was still working for the Workers Health Bureau, which by this time had gathered support from 180 labor organizations in 23 states and three International unions. The WHB outlined a number of health and safety issues and encouraged all unions to demand health agreements in their negotiations. Health issues were often overshadowed by concerns over adequate wages, work hours, and unemployment. While working with the WHB, Stern did not encounter discrimination against women, although most labor organizers were men. (7:23-17:14)... Stern details the safety recommendations of the Workers Health Bureau to the various unions specific to their trades. The WHB held its third convention in 1927, where the director announced the WHB had support of 1/2 million workers and 181 unions. In June 1927, the National Labor Health Conference was held in Cleveland and the Conference issued a national plan of safety codes. (17:14-25:41)... Stern details the many safety campaigns organized by the Workers Health Bureau in a vast range of industries. The International unions was hesitant to cooperate with many WHB reform initiatives, claiming there were no apparent benefits. The AFL discouraged the International union from giving support to the WHB because it wanted to prevent the WHB from gaining status. Stern and the WHB realized that labor reform was slow and difficult due to politics and pressure from employers. (25:41-36:32)... Following the National Labor Health Conference, Stern headed up a campaign to obtain support for the Workers Health Bureau in the Northwest. As the WHB attempted to expand west, the AFL effectively removed its support of WHB health recommendations. Threatened by the success of the WHB, the AFL began encouraging labor groups to discontinue affiliation with the WHB. The WHB lost most of its funding, and by February 1928 was operating on a skeleton staff. The WHB was shut down in 1928. (36:32-42:30)... In the Workers Health Bureau, Stern worked on research projects and union recruitment campaigns. The WHB cofounders, Grace McDonald and Harriet Silverman shared responsibilities along with Stern in maintaining the Bureau. McDonald was cautious and well-reasoned in her actions. Silverman was more flamboyant and militant. The WHB did not try to influence political candidates and instead sought to provide the State Federations of Labor with medical facts. (42:30-52:42)... Stern devoted a lot of time to the Workers Health Bureau and would drive along the West Coast to promote the WHB. Organizing with the WHB gave Stern experience and helped her better understand world politics. During this time, there was propaganda spreading fear of fascism, socialism, and communism. In her activism in the 1930s, Stern did not strongly advocate workers health issues because there was a more basic problem of organizing unions. After the WHB ended, Stern had little contact with McDonald and Silverman. End of Tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Todes Stern was a radical activist for most her life, beginning with her introduction to YPSL (Young People's Socialist League) during her college years. Much her of activism focused on the labor movement and her membership in the Communist party. The daughter of Jewish immigrant parents, Stern was raised in East Boston. Her mother was obsessed with their her daughter obtaining a good education and Stern spent her high school years at Girl's Latin School before attending Radcliffe College. After Stern graduated from college in 1917, she was employed as a social worker with the Federation of Jewish Charities in Boston, where she worked on housing and welfare issues. In 1923, Stern became a staff member of the Workers Health Bureau (WHB) and when she returned from a two year sojourn in Europe with her husband two years later, she became their Organizing Secretary. She traveled around the US organizing on behalf of the WHB until 1927, when she moved to Seattle with her husband. There, she became the secretary of the International Labor Defense. Her work in the lumber camps during this period resulted in writing Labor and Lumber , published in 1932 under her family name, Charlotte Todes. During the 1930s, when the Sterns moved back to New York, she joined the Community party. In a short autobiographical sketch, Stern notes that her career in the CP was almost entirely devoted to organizing the unorganized. She worked, especially, with the Food Workers Organizing Committee and became the Educational Director when the workers succeeded in establishing a union. In 1945, the president of the union appointed Stern to the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. Later, called before HUAC, Stern, along with others on the committee, refused to turn over their records. In 1947 she was found guilty of Contempt of Congress and in 1950 served a three month sentence. With the politically repressive climate and fear that permeated the labor movement, Stern decided to retool and began working in the medical field. In 1956, at about the time that her husband died, she was fired from her job as a medical researcher as a result of FBI intervention. Eventually Stern found work as a journalist on a medical newspaper, where she remained until her retirement in 1971. Proud of her political history, Stern was very interested in making her oral history accessible. As a result, arrangements were made for the Tamiment Library at NYU to transcribe her oral history. Her edited transcript is on deposit there. TOPICS - Workers Health Bureau, history services; health legislation; AFL; Passaic strikers; and marital relationship;Workers Health Bureau; gender relations; health and safety issues; National Labor Health Conference; AFL; Grace McDonald; Harriet Silverman; and political activism;
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