Having lost in the vote contests, the anti-Left forces were preparing for an alternative method of taking power.

In October 1949 the CIO expelled eleven unions that were charged with being "Communist-dominated" and set up rival unions in their place.

The International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) was now the CIO-affiliated union, backed by an enormous amount of money and support from the national CIO federation.

Above: Stuart Symington, now Secretary of Air, and President Truman appeal to Wagner workers to eliminate the UE as the bargaining agent, to replace it with the "legitimate" union sanctioned by the CIO and the President.

In this context, the argument that workers who remained allied with the Left would endanger their economic livelihood became extraordinarily powerful.

“Red meat on the table or red negotiators!!” one leaflet shouted. Now workers would have to choose between remaining in an ostracized union or a union sanctioned and supported by the CIO and the government.

The Left had emphasized the need for joint action with other CIO unions. Now it would have to persuade workers otherwise.

Hershel Walker years later was certain of the key factor in the defeat of the UE related to workers' jobs, which was “impossible” to counter.

Wagner Electric, now the largest employer of the St. Louis independents, had come to rely on defense work in the postwar, and when the company and the CIO showed workers evidence that the government would deny defense industry subcontracts if they did not vote for the IUE, it was too powerful to counter

UE survived in reduced form until 1955, and still showed the fighting spirit it had developed during this period.

But without a cohesive base, any hopes to staunch the runaway shop campaigns that were shaping up as the leading corporate policy died on the vine or amidst an organizing budget shortfall.