1860’s - people
striking, not receiving recognition
1866 - National
Labor Union formed
o lasted 6 years
o some 600,000 members
o key note was social reform
- 8 hr day
- arbitration of industrial disputes
1869 - Knights of
Labor formed
o very secret society w/ crazy long
name
o open to everyone : 90,000 joined
o refused to enter politics
o campaigned for economic/social
reform
o leader = Terence V. Powderly
o won many strikes for 8-hr day
1872 - 32 unions
w/ hundred thousand + members
1877 - wage
reductions set off RR strikes so violent to verge on civil war
1880’s - labor
market absorbs unskilled laborers b/c industrialization
- “scabs” used to break strikes
- courts ALWAYS on side of owners
- “ironclad oaths” and “yellow
dog contracts”
o
if hired, no join union
- “black list” of trouble-makers
- have to buy everything at
over-priced “company town”
o
workers in perpetual debt
- public deaf to laborers’ cause
o
“gospel of wealth sentiment”
o
unions = socialism = bad
1886 - May Day:
strikes begin to fail (50%)
o Hay Market Square episode (May 4,
1886)
o riots in Chicago
o dynamite kills several dozen
o 8 anarchists rounded up
o everything blamed on unions
** o this killed the Knights of Labor
- American Federation of Labor
formed
- leader =
Samuel Gompers (Jewish!)
-
association of self-governing Nat’l unions
- kept to
conservatism (socialism = bad)
-
objective = “more”
o better wages & hours
o authorization of “closed shop”
- let unskilled
workers, women & African Americans fend for themselves
1890’s - Knights of
Labor melted away
-
shouldn’t have allowed unskilled labor
1894 - Labor Day
declared by Congress (changing times)
1900’s - public
beginning to concede
1919 - blood steel
strike broken by exploiting racial/ethnic differences
1922 - RR Labor
Board
o wage cut by 12%
- Daugherty broke strikes
o
unions dropped 30% from 1920 to 1930
1923 - Adkins vs.
Children’s Hospital
o no min. wage law for women
-
industrialists free to set up trusts
1935 - Wagner Act
= godsend to labor
o right to bargain collectively
o right to engage in
self-organizations
- CIO formed, leader = J.L. Lewis
o sympathy for the unskilled
laborer
1936 - sit-down
strike in General Motors, Michigan
o CIO recognized by GM as sole
bargainer
- US Steel
voluntarily granted union rights, if CIO
1938 - Fair Labor
Standards Act
o set up min. wage & max. hours
o under 16 no work, 18 if dangerous
- southern
textile manufacturers bitterly opposed to FLS Act
** - “Roosevelt wants you to join a union!”
- unions
more concerned w/ civil war (CIO vs. AfoL) than original causes
1942 - War Labor
Board imposed ceiling on wage increase
- unions
increase to 13 million members
- United
Mine Workers quite prominent
1943 -
Smith-Conally Anti-Strike Act
o gov’t can control tied-up
industries
o strike against gov’t industry =
illegal
o gov’t took over coal mines &
RR’s for a time
o people still commended for their
war effort
Information
Source: Bailey, Thomas and Kennedy, David. The American
Pageant, 8th edition. D.C. Health and Company, 1987
Why: Essay (notes from) – trace broad outlines of development and growth of the labor movement from 1865 to 1950.
Extra: Read my labor movement essays, one and two.
Contact: Confront Heather
with any questions or comments.