James P. Mitchell

James Paul Mitchell ( born November 12, 1900 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, † October 19, 1964 in New York City ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party.

Biography

James Mitchell was born the nephew of Oscar Award winner Thomas Mitchell. Mitchell was first Special Adviser for work with the Director of the Employment Promotion administration of New York State and then subsequently from 1942 to 1945 director of the department for industry personnel the United States Army. On April 6, 1953, he was appointed assistant ( Assistant Secretary ) of the Army Secretary of State ( Secretary of the Army ) Robert Ten Broeck Stevens appointed and as such was responsible for personnel and reservists affairs.

On October 9, 1953, the Republican U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him as successor to Martin Patrick Durkin as labor minister ( Secretary of Labor ) in his cabinet. In this role, he spoke from on 20 September 1954, the trade union organization American Federation of Labor ( AFL) to be able to make an objective evaluation of the performance of the Eisenhower administration in terms of the U.S. labor market. The relationship between Mitchell, the AFL and the other major trade union center Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO ) was then strained. His opponent on the part of the union were there the president of the AFL, George Meany, and the President of the CIO, Walter Reuther. On February 1, 1955 he accused the Executive Council of the AFL to tolerate labor violations through low wages at construction sites the government. However, Mitchell dismissed the accusations directly. On the other hand, he called for the introduction of a minimum hourly wage of 90 cents, while officials of the AFL and CIO demanded a minimum hourly wage of $ 1.25. In August 1955, the U.S. Congress set the minimum wage finally fixed at 1 U.S. dollar.

In 1958 presented by the Eisenhower administration a draft Labour Code was written mainly by Mitchell. In it he called for reforms in the trade unions. In particular, he called for the introduction of annual financial and accounting reports, the election of local union officials by direct and secret ballot, and the election of the national trade union leaders also by direct and secret ballot or by delegates. The bill was rejected on 18 August 1958 under the House of Representatives of the United States.

After the end of Eisenhower's term in office Mitchell resigned from the government on 21 January 1961. In November of the same year he joined, now switched to the Republicans as their candidate in the election for governor of New Jersey. He scored a vote share of 48.7 percent, ranking it narrowly beaten into second place behind the Democrats Richard J. Hughes.