Trade union and labor rights - position Flashcards
What are Trade Unions?
An association of workers in a trade formed to protect their rights and interests.
What is Labour?
The workforce, as opposed to the employer or owners of a factory.
What is mediation?
Negotiations between employers and employees to resolve disputes and reach a settlement.
What is capitalism?
An economic system based on private enterprise, rather than state control, of the economy.
What is collective bargaining?
Worker’s representatives join together and negotiate over issues such as pay and conditions.
What were the issues around the position of union and labor rights?
The right for unions to exist.
Recognition of unions.
The involvement of unions in negotiations over pay and working conditions.
The establishment of systems for mediation.
The freedom of workers to withdraw their labour without fear of punishment.
What are the pros of union membership?
Better pay - more money to spend - stimulates the economy.
Better job satisfaction, from better pay, conditions and protection of rights, increases the work rate, and less sick days overall.
Better communication between employers and employees.
Maternity and paternity leave.
What are the cons of union membership?
Less profit, leads to higher prices, so the economy could constrict.
Increased unemployment.
Strained relations - increased strikes.
Less tax - less government spending.
What were the problems with labour up to 1914?
The unions that did exist in 1865 only represented skilled workers in craft industries, but the USA was undergoing rapid industrialisation, so many new workers were excluded - limiting numbers, and their representation and protection.
Employers hired unskilled workers under contracts so they could be laid off.
What were the problems with labour up to 1914 - health?
There were limited safety precautions, and no health and safety standards, as this would reduce profits through more supervision.
There was no support to those who suffered industrial injuries.
What were early unions?
The Knights of Labor, who had a membership of 20,000 in 1881 to 700,000 by 1886.
The American Federation of Labor replaced it and attempted to unite unions, so it had 2 million members in 1914.
How did the Haymarket Affair affect unions?
The violence caused the collapse of the reputation of KOL, and membership fell to 100,000.
The Industrial Workers of the World was established in 1905, but was less effective.
What was the Wobblies?
The Industrial Workers of the World was established in 1905.
Its militancy and violence meant it was disliked by employers, so not very effective.
It had 100,000 members in 1923 but this declined.
What were the divisions in the workforce?
White workers no longer enjoyed a monopoly of the market due to the arrival of ex-African American slaves.
Most accepted lower rates of pay, so employers exploited this and fired white workers.
New immigrants from Europe and Asia added to the available pool of workers.
Unions saw these as a threat and refused them to join unions - further limiting their ability to exert pressure on employers.
What progress was there up to WW1?
Little advancement in rights.
But union membership had grown to over 2 million members.
Unions had begun to pressurise candidates in elections to support worker’s rights.
What examples of no progress up to WW1 is there?
Unions represented only 20% of the non-agricultural workforce.
Many industries did not have unions.
Many unions were not legally recognised and so lacked power over negotiations.
Workers were divided by gender, skill and ethnicity.
The gains made were often limited to white, skilled males.
What happened in the first world war?
The position of workers and unions improved.
There was increased demand for products - textiles for uniforms, steel for weapons - so more opportunity to increase profits.
Employers were more willing to make concessions to the workers.
What happened in the first world war - NWLB?
The government negotiated with unions through the National War Labor Board to maintain production levels.
This limited working hours to 8, but in return, workers signed no-strike policies.
What is the boom of the 1920s?
This saw a rise in real wages and a fall in unemployment.
Employees were offered benefits like reduced working hours, pensions, insurance.
This was usually in return for no-strike agreements and no negotiations over wages.
Employers didn’t want the workers to take advantage of the low rates to demand more.
Some company unions were set up - loss of independence or union membership.
What did Henry Ford do in the 1920s?
Many employers including Ford refused to recognise unions.
He exerted tight control over the workforce, and only until 1941 did he recognise any union.
What were the rights of the Pullman Company porters?
Many were African Americans who:
Had poor working conditions.
Relied on tips for most of their income.
Promotion was denied to non-whites.
The company prevented any efforts to organise unions, they sacked leaders and sometimes assaulted.
What did the Pullman Company porters do?
They set up the Brotherhood of sleeping car porters (BSCP) union, under Randolph.
The company banned their meetings and did not recognise it in 1928.
BSCP only gained recognition in 1935 after Roosevelt passed the Railway Labor Act in 1934.
What is the Great Depression?
It began with the Wall Street Crash in 1929.
High unemployment meant rights suffered as employers could exploit the weak position of workers.
They took tough action against strikers.
Union membership fell, as not being able to strike undermined the position and strength.
What is the New Deal?
In 1933, Roosevelt introduced a range of legislation that benefitted the Labor movement and tackled the economic problems.
NIRA, Wagner Act, Fair Labor Standards Act were passed with varying success.
