NLRB election, 1951 Yet in the contentious Bay State, even Meany's generous timetable proved a challenge. Despite entering into negotiations on a wave of optimism, with seemingly the best of intentions, long-simmering disputes and political rivalries soon took their toll. Notoriously tough negotiators with management, the organizations demonstrated how tough they could be with one another, postponing merger until almost ten months after Meany's deadline had passed.

Celebrating after an NLRB election, 1951 Although the call went out from the national office to begin work on merging the state organizations immediately, serious negotiations in Massachusetts did not even begin until April 1956. In that month, John Callahan, President of the AFL's State Federation, wrote to J. William Belanger of the state CIO to announce his delegates to the Merger Committee. Belanger's prompt reply, naming his own delegates, might have offered hope that things were getting off to a fine start, but the details revealed in the minutes of merger meetings suggest an altogether different story. From the first meeting on May 4, 1956, negotiations were rife with dispute, particularly over the question of who -- or more precisely, which organization -- would supply the bulk of the new leadership. From the outset, the AFL's State Federation requested a staff including a full-time president, two executive vice presidents, and a secretary-treasurer, insisting that both the president and the secretary-treasurer be filled by AFL loyalists. The CIO disagreed. Vehemently. Objecting to what they perceived as an AFL power play, the CIO insisted on holding the presidency themselves, although in a rare act of flexibility, they softened their insistence by conceding the secretary-treasurer. The sides also struggled over the issue of pay for the president, with the CIO arguing that the position should remain unpaid for at least a year until the financial position of the combined state AFL-CIO could be better known.