The Rise of Organized Labor: A History

I. Main Labor Strikes to know

a. 1877- Great Railroad Strike
i. First time the government gets involved
b. 1886- Haymarket Square, Chicago Illinois (Haymarket Riot
c. 1892- Carnegie Homestead Steel
d. Pullman Railroad Strike
e. 1902- Coal Mine Strike
f. 1919- Boston Police Strike
g. 1919- Steel Strike
h. 1946- Rail Road Strike
i. 1981- Air Traffic Controllers Strike

I. Begin 1700s:
a. Independent Craftsmen form guilds
i. An association, almost like a club
ii.People who made the same kind of things would work together
iii.Wasn’t a union, they just associated with the people of the same
b. 1776- Three important documents written that express man’s right to life,
liberty, & equality:
i. Wealth of Nations- Adam Smith
1. Increased the amount of respect we should see for workers
ii.Common Sense- Thomas Paine
iii.Declaration of Independence- Thomas Jefferson
c. 1791- Slater’s Mill:
i. “Father of the American Industrial Revolution”
ii.Memorizes the plans and brings the plans to America for textile
industry
iii.Sets up precedent for children workers
II. Begin 1800s:
a. Workers forbidden by law to form unions to increase wages:
i. Saw unions as a conspiracy against construction.
ii.Criminal activity
iii.Almost sounds like treason. That’s why unions were illegal
b. Some attempts at forming unions
c. 1820s-30s- Advent of Jacksonian Democracy:
i. Universal manhood suffrage
1. People who couldn’t initially vote are now able to vote
ii.Workers begin forming “workingman’s” political parties
1. Look primarily at higher wages and lower hours
a. Organized around an economic suffrage(?)
iii.Goals of Workingman’s parties:
1. 10 hour workday, higher wages, better conditions, public
education, and end to debtor prisons
d. 1830s-40s- Dozens of Labor strikes
i. Employers fought back with “scabs”—usually “fobs”
1. Scabs are paid to work in the jobs that the strikers were paid to
do
2. Labor will always want a limit on immigration
a. Supply and demand
i. Increased in workers = decrease in wages
ii.By 1830 = 30k trade unionists
1. Trade unions still illegal
iii.By 1835 only 24 recorded strikes
 e. 1837- Economic Panic
i. Unions and union membership drop as unemployment increases
f. 1840- Van Buren establishes a 10 hour workday for federal public works
employees
i. Gov’t barely spending any on public works so doesn’t affect too many
people
ii.Unions believe that they might win as a result of this.
g. 1842- Commonwealth v. Hunt
i. “honorable & peaceful” methods
ii.Says you aren’t conspiring against America if you start a labor union
but it is only legal if it is honorable and peaceful
1. No longer illegal to organize
III. 1865 and on…
a. In post Civil War America into the first half of the 20th century:
i. Labor unions were always associated with socialism and communism
ii.Big business worked closely with the gov’t to break unions
1. One way to decrease membership in the union
2. Many cases fed gov’t or state gov’t would send troops to break
strikes, prevent unions from meeting, etc.
b. Generally fought for:
i. Higher wages
ii.Shorter work week
iii.Better/safer conditions
iv.Workers’ compensation for injuries
v.Equal pay for all workers
1. For this time period most stuff is for white men
c. 1866- National Labor Union
i. Leader= William H. Sylvis
1. Pushed for shorter work days but not as much.
ii.Wanted arbitration for industrial disputes
iii.Included skilled and unskilled workers
1. Didn’t exclude groups just didn’t go out of their way to include
others
iv.Dies out with the depression of the 1870s
v.Won 8 hour workday for gov’t workday
d. 1869- The Knights of Labor
i. Leader = Terence Powderly
1. Economic and social reform
2. Sought 8 hour workday
3. Health and safety codes
4. Skilled laborers will for AF of L
a. Excluded non producers (lawyers, etc.)
e. 1877- The Great Rail Road Strike
i. Part of the economic downturn, they decreased the wages of railroad
workers
1. Workers weren’t going to stand for it
ii.Federal troops go out to restore order and make sure that the railroads
work
1. Hayes decided to send in troops, that’s why it’s revolutionary
f. 1878- Greenback Labor Party Forms
i. Wanted inflation as well as things friendly to the working class
ii.Got together because they would be stronger in terms of their political
voice
iii.James Weaver was the leader
g. 1886- American Federation of Labor is formed
 i. Leader = Samuel Gompers
ii.“closed shop”
1. One in which every single person who works there is in the
labor union
iii.Supported the notion of capitalism but worker’s rights
1. Revolved around worker’s wages
2. Increased pay for business owners if there was a set work day
iv.Only allowed white skilled males
v.By 1900- 1.5 million members
h. 1886:
i. Haymarket Square Riot, Chicago
1. Closely related to the Knights of Labor
a. Part of the reason why K of L died
2. Bunch of anarchists in Chi town
3. Protest by K of L on Police brutality on strikers
ii.American Federation of Labor forms
iii.Knight of Labor splits- peaks out and begins decline
i. 1890:
i. Sherman Anti-Trust Act
1. Labor unions were broken up as a result of this act because
they might have been big
ii.United Mine Workers (UMW) forms
j. 1892- Homestead Steel Strike
i. Carnegie goes off on vacay and Frick works on plant
ii.Had huge union, Carnegie says he won’t negotiate
iii.Frick says “aite, we’re chill”
1. Puts together contract so that union will strike
2. Then hire pinkertons to break down strike
3. Violence breaks out before they even get to the plant
4. Strike breakers are brought in
iv.Factory is continue with the strike breakers under the protection on
the state militia
1. People go back to work for lower wages
v.Shows a defeat of unions
vi.Shows gov’t taking the side of big business as opposed to labor
k. 1894- Pullman Strike
i. Mail truck incident
ii.Another econ downturn
iii.Pullman cars- luxury railway cars
1. Desire for it decreases
iv.Tells workers that their wages would decreases but their rent would
stay the same
v.Eugene Debs is leader
1. Later gets put in prison as a result of opposition
l. 1895- In re Debs- Supreme Court Case
i. Question supreme court is looking
1. Ability to file the injunction against strikers
ii.Federal gov’t has right to file an injunction against strikers
iii.Significant: supreme court enforces the federal gov’t right to regulate
trade
IV. Begin 1900s
a. 1902-’03:
i. Pennsylvania Coal Miners Strike:
1. TR arbitrates a settlement
2. Striking for unsafe working conditions
 ii.US Dept. of Commerce and Labor established
1. Secretary of Labor has power to “mediate” labor dispute
b. 1903- International Brotherhood of Teamsters Chauffeurs, Warehousemen,
and helpers of America or Teamsters Union
i. Early strong centers = Chi town, NYC, Boston, St. Louis
ii.Associated with organized crime/mob in 50-70s
iii.Expelled from AFL-CIO
iv.Notorious leader Jimmy Hoffa disappeared ‘75
v.Big deal because they were good with sympathy strikes
1. A group says they want to strike with you even though it’s not
their issue
c. 1905 Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
i. Migrant and unskilled laborers- all colors
ii.Actually agitated for socialist revolution
iii.Dies out with the social tensions in the 20s
d. 1906- Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle published
i. Aimed for America’s heart but got her stomach
ii.Sinclair was a socialist
e. 1908- Muller v. Oregon:
i. Female workers max hours
f. 1913- Federal Reserve Act
i. Monetary Security of the nation
ii.Attempts to keep an economy that is stable
iii.Significant: stable econ = more econ growth as opposed to economic
down turn.
V. 1913-1916
a. Wilson’s administration institutes progressive labor reforms:
i. 1914- Clayton Act
ii.Gives teeth to the Sherman Anti Trust Act:
1. Legalizes strikes and peaceful picketing
iii.Exempts labor unions from anti trust legislation
b. 1915- La Follette Seaman’s Act:
i. Regulates working conditions for merchant marines
c. 1916-
i. Workingman’s compensation Act
1. Federal civil service workers
ii.Adamson Act
1. 8 hour workday for rail workers
iii.Keating- Owens Act
1. Protects kids
2. Prohibits child labor on products sold interstate
3. Federal gov’t couldn’t outlaw child labor as a whole.
4. Supreme court strikes it down 2 years labor
d. 1917- Federal gov’t takes control of railroads during wartime
i. Due to WWI
e. 1918- National War Labor Board formed: Purpose to head off labor disputes
i. Purpose to head off labor disputes
ii.Refuses to recognize their ability to collectively bargain
f. 1919- Over a quarter million strikers in this year:
i. Nationwide Great Steel Strike:
1. Sets an entire union movement back decades
2. Scabs are brought in
a. These scabs are specifically African American and Latino
3. See a nationwide attempt of strikers
a. Failed completely and nothing happened.
 ii.Boston Police Strike
1. Governor Calvin Coolidge breaks it up
2. First time that public safety workers will go on strike
3. Consensus: public safety workers aren’t allowed to strike
iii.United Mine Workers Strike:
1. Win 27% wage increase in arbitration with the government
VI. Begin 1920s- decade of intolerance and social tension:
a. Red scare used to break unions
b. Back to laissez faire economics
c. Employers play off economic divisions
d. 1920- Esh Cummins Transportation Act
e. 1921- Supreme Court holds that Clayton Act does not protect strikes
i. “Conspiracy to restrain trade”
ii.1922- Railway Labor Board (successor to War Labor Board):
1. Orders wages cut of 12% triggers 2 month strike
2. 1920s- 1930s = Union membership shrivels by nearly 30%
VII. 1930s
a. Begin 1929- 1939- Great Depression:
i. Increase in labor movement
b. 1935:
i. Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) forms:
1. Combines the AFL = AFL-CIO
ii.National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)
1. Legalized unions
c. 1936- CIO sit down strike at GM:
i. Wins and becomes sole bargaining agent for workers of GM
d. 1935- CIO = Congress of Industrial Organization
e. John L. Lewis = leader
f. History
i. Began as a union of unskilled and teamed up with AFL
ii.Known for sit down strikes especially in auto industry
g. 1938
i. Fair labor Standards Act:
1. Minimum wages and Max hours
2. Affects only interstate commerce business
3. Forbids child labor under 16
ii.CIO breaks away from AFL
1. BY 1940 will have 4 million members
2. 200k blacks
3. CIO= unskilled labor, AFL = Skilled labor
VIII. Begin WWII Period- 1939- 1945:
a. 1941- CIO and AFL make “no strike” pledge during war
b. 1942- War labor board imposes ceiling on wages
i. Rash of labor walkouts despite pledges
c. 1943:
i. Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act
1. Authorizes gov’t to seize and operate industries up in
disputes/strikes
2. Gov’t had to briefly take over the coal mines railroads briefly
after this act passed
IX. Begin Post War America- 1945:
a. Immediately following war the economy faltered
b. Operation Dixie
i. Unions will try to get a foothold in the South and the West but fail
c. 1946: Strikes across the nation
 i. 4.6 million workers
d. 1947- Taft- Hartley Act:
i. Dubbed the “slave labor” act
ii.Vetoed by Truman
1. Overruled by Congress
iii.Illegal to have a closed shop
e. 1950- union membership peaks and then declines
i. We’re in the cold war so no one wants to be communist
f. 1950s-‘60s- Labor associated with corruption racketeering, the mob
g. 1955- AFL & CIO combined again
i. 85% of all union members
h. 1959- Landrum-Griffin Act:
i. Designed to make labor leaders accountable
1. Labor unions = mafia
i. 1964- Civil Rights Act:
i. Prohibits discrimination in employment base on race, color, religion,
sex, or national origin
j. 1981- Air Traffic Controllers Union Strike
i. Reagan fires almost 12k
1. Banned for any civil service job ever
ii.Union decertified