Trade Union Civil Rights Flashcards
How much did factory production increase between 1914 and 1918?
35%
How much did real wages increase by between 1914-1918?
20%
What happened following the WW1?
Upsurge of unrest, accompanied by outbreaks of extreme violence that resulted in death, injury and destruction of property.
Riots racially motivated, fuelled by influx into the labour market of returning soldiers and irrational fear of communist infiltration (peaking in 1919-20)
Red Scare (1919-1920)
A brief wave of fear over the possible influence of Socialists/Bolsheviks in American life.
Effects of Red Scare for employers relations?
Manifested itself in extreme reactions by employers to any kind of industrial protest which was viewed as subversive even when labour unions were exerting their recognised rights.
Labour unions in Seattle
Organised general work stoppage.
Orderly protest.
Mayor of Seattle accused union leaders of attempting to cause anarchy and called for federal troops to deal with strikes.
How many strikes were there in 1919 with how many strikers?
1919- 3,630
4,160,300 involved.
Nativism
A policy of favoring native-born individuals over foreign-born ones
Why were people suspicious of union leaders and industrial action in the 1920s?
Upsurge of nativism and fear of Communist infiltration.
Giant corporations of the 1920s?
Ford, GM and Chrysler (automobiles).
General Electric’s and Westinghouse (electricity production).
US Steel (steel industry).
Real wages
What wages can actually buy or pay for in any given economic situation.
Yellow dog contracts
Describes the contracts signed by workers that prevented them from joining a union.
Common since the end of the 19th century.
What reduced causes of industrial unrest in the 1920s?
Rise in real wages and fall in unemployment
Welfare Capitalism
Conciliatory action by employers (improved working conditions, reduction in working hours, benefits like insurance and pension plans) to avert strikes and industrial unrest.
Company Unions
Unions organised, supported or run by employers.
Not allowed to call strikes and did not have power to negotiate wages.
Henry Ford & Welfare Capitalism
1914- reduced length of working day to 8 hours, doubled daily wage to $5 and introduced profit sharing.
1927- new factory opened, workforce remained tightly controlled and closely supervised.
Ford’s Protection Department
Employed strong-armed security men who watched over potential union organisers, intimidating and adulting them.
When did the Ford Company recognise labour unions?
1941 for the purpose of collective bargaining
How many strikes were there in 1921 compared to 1929?
1921- 2,385
1929- 921
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids (BSCP)
Labour union organised by mostly AA Pullman porters.
Began 1925 by Philip Randolph.
First AA led labour organisation to be accepted into the AFL
Why was the campaign for the BSCP as a Company union lengthy?
Opposed by both the Pullman Company, but also by many AA themselves.
Who was one of the arrest employers of AA in the 1920s and 30s?
Pullman Company
What made up most of the porters income whilst working for the Pullman Company?
Tips- humiliating in that it made them dependent on the condescension of white passengers.
How much time did porters spend on setting up and cleaning up duties at the beginning and end of journeys?
10% and it was unpaid
What accounted for half of the porters wages?
Food, lodging and uniforms which they had to pay for themselves.
If things were stolen they had to stand the cost.
Pullman coaches
More comfortable and luxurious passenger carriages on a train occupied on lengthy journeys
How did the Pullman Company stop unionisation during the first decades of the 20th century?
Isolating or sacking union leaders.
Employed large number of employee spies who informed the company of employees’ activities; sometimes agents assaulted union organisers.
When was there another effort to unionise by the porters?
25 August 1925
500 porters
Launched campaign in secret and chose an outside, Philip Randolph, to lead it.
Motto, ‘Fight or Be Slaves’
Resistance from the Pullman Company
Denounced new union as outside agency influenced by foreign ideologies.
Sponsored own company union (Employee Representation Plan/ Pullman Porters and Maids Protective Association) to represent loyal employees.
Company had support from local authorities to ban meeting of BSCP, continued to be undeterred.
How many porters were in the BSCP?
Around half the porters within the Company
How did the BSCP defeat the Company?
1934- because of a law change the BSCP was in a position to claim that it was the only legitimate union to represent porters.
Randolph demanded that the NMB should certify it as the representative of these porters.
BSCP defeated the company union and was certified on 1 June 1935.
When did the BSCP sign its first collective bargaining agreement with the Pullman Company?
1937
National Mediation Board (NMB)
Independent agency of the US government established to regulate labour relations in the railway industry.
Purpose to bring speedy settlements to disputes that arose through collective bargaining, arbitration or mediation to avert strike action.
Unemployment in 1929 and 1933
1929- 3%
1933- 25%
Daily increase of 12,000, reaching 13 million by 1933.
The Great Depression effect of labour rights
Increased conflict between employers and workers.
Incidents of strikes, sit-ins and the occupation of factories increased.
Employers called in he police or employed their own strike-breakers as a result.
How much of the workforce was unionised by 1933?
10%
National Industry Recovery Act (NIRA)
16 June 1933
The chief measure to promote recovery.
Set up the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and set prices, wages, work hours, and production for each industry.
Based on theory that regulation of the economy would allow industries to return to full production, thereby leading to full employment and a return of prosperity.
AIM of NRA
Foster co-operation between different sides of industry by developing agreed codes of practise about issues such as production levels, wage rates, working hours, prices and trade union rights.
Most significant law from NRA
Gave workers the right to organise trade unions and take part in collective bargaining
Companies apart of NRA displayed what?
Blue eagle symbol
How many codes had been passed by 1934?
557 codes, covering 23 million workers
Why was Roosevelt nervous of empowering organised labour?
Potential political advantages in increasing Democrat support
Also involved implicit reduction in the control of industrialists over their workforce.
Wagner’s aim with the National Labour Relations Act of 1935 (or Wagner Act)?
To regulate and reduce labour disputes by providing a structure for collective bargaining.
Reducing picket line violence and avoid the disruption to production that was caused by strikes.
Believed legislation was only way to combat the ability of powerful industrialists to subvert attempts to give workers rights.
Significance of the Wagner Act
First piece of national legislation to recognise the right of workers to elect own representatives for collective bargaining.
Gave workers right to join trade unions.
Banned spies and blacklisting ‘agitators’.
Set up NLRB.
National Labour Relations Board (NLBR)
1935
Five man government agency that addresses unfair labour practises in private sector employment.
Had the power to bargain on behalf of the workers, to stop companies from using blacklists and company unions and re-instate unfairly dismissed workers.
Implemented 8 hour day (change from Lochner v New York)
Trade union membership in 1933 and 1938
1933- 3.7 million
1938- 9 million
The Fair Labour Standards Act of 1938
Created $25 minimum weekly wage for industrial workers and a payment of time and a half for hours worked in excess of 40 per week.
Prohibited employment of children under 16 years.
What led to the formation of the CIO?
The AFL was predominantly interested in amalgamating craft unions to the exclusion of unskilled labour.
Did the Wagner Act end disputes?
No- disputes between employers and employees continued.
Divisions within trade union itself continued to deprive the mass of unskilled workers of their rights.
Congress of Industrial Organisations (CIO)
1935
Set about the task of organising labour in the mass-production industries (steel, automobile and glass).
Gathered 3.7 million members
New form of protest by the end of the 1930s
‘Sit-in’ or ‘sit-down’ strikes.
Used effectively in 1937 to gain recognition from car manufacturers of the right of their workers to join a union, only Henry Ford held out until 1941.
CIO and equality
Black workers and other ethnic groups benefited from the opportunity to join the CIO, as did women’s unions.
CIO consistent support for equality of labour gave AA the confidence to take part in strikes.
Which type of workers did the New Deal legislation help?
Skilled workers.
Made a significant impact on the unionisation of workers, thereby extending their rights in the workplace.
Ethnic groups and the Wagner Act
Continued to face discrimination in the workplace.
Exacerbated by agricultural policies of the New Deal which resulted in the eviction of large numbers of black and Hispanic Americans who had migrated to the cities for work.
No new employment opportunities for NAs.
Fair Employment Practices Commission
1941 by Roosevelt.
An attempt to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination in war-time industries.
Women and the Wagner Act
Position of women not improved.
Number of women’s unions had been formed and even though NIRA and the Fair Labour Standards Act (1938) had established a minimum wage, it upheld differentials in pay between men and women.
Welfare reforms and Wagner Act
Helped some of the poorer paid.
Attempts by Fed Govt to help those in need were constantly thwarted by the conflict between states’ rights and federal government.
AA women experienced the harshness of this especially
Number of strikes in 1930 and 1946
1930- 637
1946- 4,985
Union membership in 1930 and 1945
1930- 3,401,000
1945- 14,322,000
What happened to industry during WW2?
Effectively taken away from manufacturers and owners.
Weakening of employers tipped the balance in favour of the workers since their effort was essential to the war effort.
Food production during WW2
Rose by nearly a 1/3 and manufacturing output doubled.
Aircraft production in WW2
2000 in 1939 to 96,000 in 1944
300,000 aircraft’s in total during the war
Offices of War Mobilisation
Setup in May 1943.
Established priorities and set production targets, centralising planning and direction of industry.
National War Labour Board (NWLB)
Established in 1941 by Fed Govt in response to the willingness of unions in essential industries to give up strike action for the duration of WW2.
Function was to control wage increases.
Trade unions in 1940 and 1945
1940-8.9 million
1945- 14.8 million
Unemployment in 1940 and 1943? How?
June 1940- 9 million
Sept 1943- 783,000
Increased war time production, expansion of armed forces and halting of overseas immigration
Labour shortages during WW2
Provided employment opportunities for young people,the handicapped, women and AA’s.
Women in work over the war
Increased by 50%
By 1943 they made up 1/3 of the total workforce
Represented 40% of workers on aircraft assembly lines
Paid less and both unions and management opposed the principle of equal pay.
How many AA found industrial jobs during WW2?
More than 1 million
WW2 impact on black labour?
Black factory workers remained restricted to more menial jobs.
Philip Randolph threatened a march of 50,000 on Washington in June 1941.
President responded with an order forbidding racial discrimination and created Fair Employment Practices Committee (lacked enforcement powers)
What did the end of wartime release?
Massive wave of strikes.
Taft-Hartley Act (Labor Management Relations Act)
1947
Made it illegal for unions to operate a ‘closed shop’ and affirmed the right for states to pass ‘right to work’ laws.
Restrained the powers of trade unions and sought to purge organised labour of Communists.
Effect of Taft Hartley Act on CIO
Weakened the CIO particularly whose origins were based on some support from the Communist Party.
Divisions between non-Communist and Communist weakened the CIO.
Compounded when CIO expelled 10 Communist-led unions in 1949, depriving the organisation of 1/3 of its members and also some capable leaders. Weakened the claim of the CIO to represent the interests of unskilled working classes and contributed to the amalgamation of the CIO with the AFL in 1955.
Republicans and Trade Unions
In passing the Taft-Hartley Act, the Republicans made it clear that they had no desire to court the support of the unions and their membership.
Very apparent when President Truman attempted to veto the Act in order to retain the labour vote and he was overruled by Congress.
Positive outcomes of the long running struggle between employees and General Motors
1948-a pay code linked to standard of living costs was introduced.
1950- package extended to include a 5 year contract giving pensions and cost of living increases to employees.
Employers strategy to avert strike action.
The rose in GNP between 1950 and 1960
1950- $318 billion
1960- $488 billion
The average workers income was how much higher than in 1945 and than in the 1920s?
35% higher than in 1945
200% higher than in 1920
Between 1945 and 1960
The number of hours and workers needed to produce a car fell by 50%.
First nuclear power plant opened in 1957.
The chemical industry became the 4th largest US industry and electronics the 5th.
In 1944, International Business Machines (IBM) produced the Mark 1 calculator. By the mid-1960s, more than 30,000 main frame computers were being used by banks and insurance companies. Computers enabled fewer workers to produce more goods in less time than ever.
