Harold J. Ruttenberg

Harold J. Ruttenberg (May 22, 1914 – August 15, 1998) was an American labor activist for the Congress of Industrial Organizations's Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) and later United Steel Workers of America (USWA), who in 1946 left labor for management and became an "outspoken" business executive in the steel industry.

Background

Harold J. Ruttenberg was born on May 22, 1914, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He had a younger brother, Stanley. He spent his childhood in Greene County, Pennsylvania, where his father owned grocery stores.

In 1938 and again from 1942 to 1944 during World War II, he served as assistant director for steel in the War Production Board, which included the "Steel for Victory" drive in Pittsburgh (Summer 1943). By 1946, he had added chair of the CIO's wage research committee to USWA research director. The committee challenged U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures on fallen labor productivity 1939–1944, used by industry to justify refusals to grant adequate wage increases. In 1949, he left Portsmouth to head Stardrill-Keystone Drilling Machine Company, Humanation Associates, and United Steel and Wire Company. His specialty was to rescue companies in financial difficulty. Later in May, during testimony before an SEC board of inquiry, Pressman declared he had "absolutely nothing to do with" the suit. "I have not been requested by anyone to suggest the name of a lawyer who would file a lawsuit against the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation." He stated, "I demand that I be given the opportunity to examine Mr. Lund under oath on the stand to determine who gave him that inaccurate information." The trial's examiner Milton P. Kroll informed Pressman, "You have been given the opportunity to state your position on the record. Your request is denied."

In 1958, Ruttenberg said in speech that steelworkers needed "steady jobs with 52 regular pay checks a year" over higher hourly wages. He also criticized David J. McDonald, USWA president, for "sidetracking the dynamic concept of the annual wage" and for resisting ties between wage increases and heightened industrial efficiency. He also criticized steel executives for lack of leadership.

In 1968, the Ruttenbergs lived part-time in Israel through 1993.

Works

The Strategy of Industrial Peace (1939) "War and the Steel Ghost Towns," Harper's with Stanley H. Ruttenberg (January 1940) The Dynamics of Industrial Democracy with Clinton S. Golden (1942) Self-Developing America (1960) My Life in Steel: From CIO to CEO (2001)