Truman and the Unions: When Push Comes to Shove
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Harry Truman didn't really have an easy row to hoe. Vice President to FDR, he was basically ignored for most of his term. On FDR's death things sped up - quickly. The war was ended on both fronts. The peace brought internal and external confrontations. Returning soldiers wanted normalcy. Europe needed re-building, as did Asia. Russia was expanding ominously. What to do wasn't always very obvious for Truman. Sometimes he didn't look like a very good leader.
One of the reasons Truman was Roosevelt's nominee for VP was his leadership in the Senate. When he needed to, Truman studied a subject until he was the expert on it. Truman began to impress the other Senators with his preparation and passion. His second big speech to Congress was on greed, attacking Wall Street with a New Deal slant. He had a position on civil rights before others were willing to recognize it as a problem (McCullough. 235-245). Other Senators proved their regard for Truman by appearing at fund raisers and campaign stops in a hard fought primary.
As President, Truman had his ups and downs. Finally, however, the downs were in complete control, what with the rail road strike on top of a coal strike. The union leaders weren't going to give, in fact didn't give, until Truman made up his mind to act.
Clark Clifford showed up at the White House as a speech writer (McCullough, 502), having never met Truman before or visited the White House at all. His job? Draft a speech to Congress announcing he would call out the Army and do whatever it took to break the strike. He would control the workers before he would allow them to control America. Truman had a speech all ready to go, a speech everyone said couldn't be presented. Truman was too angry. Clifford had to craft a deliverable speech that got the support of the Congress, and the workers back to work.
Ultimately, the speech was immaterial. Truman announced that the trains were going to run and coal was going to be mined. Period. The unions realized they had better get on board with the President or things would get really ugly. So they did. Everything was fine. (Full disclosure: the Senate finally decided not to support the federalization of the rail system. It was too late. The workers were back to work (McCullough, 506).)
Without Truman's willingness to be a confrontational leader, nothing would have happened. An interesting by-product of the process: Clark Clifford began a long careen in government, playing a large role early-on in the creation of the Marshall Plan (McCullough, 564).
And what are the attributes of a Truman-like leader? Listening abilities, greed averse, a knowledge of history, and, finally, the ability to conduct yourself according to your own high standards (Harvard Business Review, 48).
Reference
McCullough, David. Truman. Simon & Schuster. 1992.
Harvard Business Review. Timeless Leadership. The great leadership lessons don't change. A conversation with David McCullough. March 2008. 45.