Trade Union and Labour factors Flashcards
Congress and the president right to unionise and take industrial action progress
Yes
Roosevelt and the New Deal
- The Wagner Act, guaranteeing the right to unionise and ending corporate interference in Unions
But
- The New Deal was the only time the Federal Government engaged with the right to unionise and take industrial action
Congress and the president right to unionise and take industrial action regress/hinderance
Yes
- Across the period
- Firstly with the laissez-faire policies of the Gilded Age allowing big cooperations to ignore the rights to unionise, using Federal Acts like the Sherman Anti Trust Act 1890 to use against Unions
- Then in the second half of the 20th century with acts such as Smith Connally 1943, Taft Hartley 1947 and Landrum Griffin 1959 erroding the right to unionise by putting in place federal control
- PACTO in 1981, Reagan comes down hard on strikers imprisoning some and banning others from federal employment for life, this is a turning point showing the federal government has little tolerance to disruptive strikes, , 11,400 fired
But
- Only counter with other factors
Congress and the president fair working standards and wages progress
Yes
- Instances of progress
- The New Deal with the Fair Labour Standards Act 1938 establishing a $25 minimum wage
- The Social security act supplying unemployment benefits and pensions
- Johnson’s Great society with 100,000 disadvantaged men being helped with the Jobs corps and training groups helping some 200,000 men and women
But
- General disinterest in the rest of the period, historically congress and the president has always favoured capitalism complying to the american dream that someone can make a prosperous life with hard work and now handouts
Congress and the president fair working standards and wages regress / hinderance
Yes
- General disinterest, especially with the laissez faire policies of the Gilded Age and the free market capitalism of the 20s
- Reagan’s opposition to increase the minimum wage
But
- No significant evidence of presidential or congressional attacks on fair working standards and wages
- This is to be expected in a system of democracy, lack of interest is therefore the biggest hinderance
Congress and the president rights to equality progress
Yes
- The Equal Pay Act 1963
- The Civil Rights Act 1964
- Affirmative Action 1969
- The 60s was a key time of Congress and the President addressing wage disparities between genders and races
But
- The rest of the period is marked by inaction
Congress and the president rights to equality regress/ hinderance
Yes
- The New Deal’s Social Security Act of 1935 excluded domestic and agricultural workers, fields dominated by women, African Americans and migrants
- The New Deal’s fair labour standards Act 1938 cementing a gender wage disparity
- In action, allowing states and businesses to practice racist and sexist attitudes
But
- Progress towards the end but not enough provision
The supreme court rights to unionise and take industrial action regress/hinderance
Yes
- As part of the Lochner Era the Adair Case 1908 upholds the constitutionality of yellow dog contracts
But
- Limited period of being actually regressive in this way
The supreme court working conditions and wages regress/hinderance
Yes
- Lochner Era 1897 Allgeyer v. Louisiana marking the start of Supreme court efforts to uphold the rights of employers at the cost of workers
- Lochner v. New York 1905 upheld the removal of a maximum hour contract at a bakery in New York on the grounds that it inhibited the rights to work
But
- Only active in this way in this period
Political context rights to unionise and take industrial action progress
Yes
- Post WWI in the first ‘red scare’ unions were highly active, winning workers rights that had been kept from them
- By 1920 30% of the workforce was unionised and 4.2 million workers were involved in strike action in 1919 alone
- Equally post WWII
- 35% of the workforce was unionised in 1945 with 4.6 million workers striking
But
- Each of these periods were contained to two or three years, ended by backlashes like the free market capitalism and yellow dog contracts of the 1920s and Taft Hartley in 1947
- In a longer term picture the political context is a negative force to workers rights due to the backlashes
Political context
rights to unionise and take industrial action regress/ hinderance
Yes
- The backlashes to red scares for example fears of communism in the Cold War lead the federal government to really limit the rights of unions which were seen as communist agitators
- 1949 federal pressure causes the CIO to expel 10 communist lead groups, seriously damaging its power
- 1947 Taft Hartley and the 1959 Landrum Griffin limiting union rights and placing federal control due to fears of communism
- Political context sees unions also become unpopular with PATCO strikers 1981 being seen as so unpopular
But
- Use other factors
Economy wages and working conditions progress
Yes
- Economic times of wealth may historically increase inequality but to an extent trickle down theories hold
- Instances like the 1920s saw unemployment being taken down to 3%
- During WWI real wages increased by 20% due to the industrial boom
But
- This is a mixed picture boom bring inequality as much as depressions bring unemployment
Economy wages and working conditions regress/ hinderance
Yes
- Booms can lead to mass inequality
- Inequality between skilled an unskilled, in the 1870s a bricklayer was paid $3 a week whilst an unskilled factory worker was paid $1.30 a week
- 1970s the wages of executives rose by 340%, whilst the real wages of unskilled labourers fall to 80% of their original wage
- Increase in the economy can lead to exploitation when there is an over demand of labour, poor working conditions cost the lives of 2,000 railworkers in 1889 alone
But
- Mixed picture of the boom trickle down vs inequality (see card about progress in this area)
Political context rights to equality progress
Yes
- The cold war and WWII period where the US claimed to be fighting for a higher moral conduct then totalitarian regimes lead to an increase in equality of workers of different genders and ethnicities
- The 1963 equal pay act, 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1969 policy of Affirmative action all helped minorities and gender equality
- These changes were carried by a more progressively minded society for the rest of the 20th Century
But
- This is a period of progress which did not exist before the Second World War
Political context rights to equality regress/hinderance
Yes
- The Jim Crow attitudes to segregation impacted rights to employment throughout the Gilded Age and early 20th century
- Separate spheres ideologies did the same for women, it was this that inspired the progressively minded Roosevelt to establish a gender wage disparity in his 1938 Fair Labour Standards Act
But
- This is certainly significant but a rather abstract factor (say that more active facts did more)
Divisions in the workers movement right to unionise and take industrial action regress/ hinderance
Yes
- Competition between skilled and unskilled labourers dominated the movement
- The CIO splitting from the AFL in 1935, massively weakened the AFL who lost 3.7 million members, this was damaging to the strength of collective bargaining
- The more unions the less effective bargaining can be
But
- By 1955 and the merging of the CIO and AFL there was a unified movement with 85% if the organised labour under one union group, 16 million members
