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A2 History Civil Rights > Trade Unions > Flashcards

Trade Unions Flashcards

1
Q

What was the situation of labour rights in 1865?

A
  • Trade unions were small and limited to skilled workers
  • No legal obligation to recognise unions
  • Mainly closed shop unions
  • Industrialisation ed to an increase in semi/unskilled workers
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2
Q

What was the impact of industrialisation?

A
  • Immigration
  • Technology
  • East vs West - industrialisation quicker in the East
  • Rural vs Urban work
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3
Q

What were the issues for workers during industrialisation?

A
  • Children working in mines
  • 12 hour shifts
  • Dangerous conditions
  • Health and safety expensive and opposed by employers
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4
Q

What were the aims, methods, effectiveness of the AFL? (American Federation of Labour) Date?

A

Aims: Link all unions, reform through legislation, stand up to large corporations
Methods: Harnessed bargaining power of skilled workers, concentrated on practical goals of raising wages and reducing hours, used boycotts and strikes
Effectiveness: 2 million members by 1914, some unions retained a degree of independence, AFL played a part in labour relations until 1992
Date: 1886

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5
Q

What were the aims, methods, effectiveness of the Wobblies? Date?

A

Aims: Defended rights of poor and illiterate workers such as immigrants
Methods: Use of violence and sabotage
Effectiveness: Employers had suspicions, divisions within leadership , membership peaked at 100,000, arrests and persecution
Date: 1905

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6
Q

What were the aims, methods of the NLU? (National Labour Union) Date?

A

Aims: To form a single association that wold cross craft lines and draw mass membership- also promoted cause of working women
Methods: Campaigned for 8 hour days, currency and banking reform, the end of convict labour, a fed labour department and immigration restrictions, opposed strikes
Date: 1866

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7
Q

What were the aims, methods, effectiveness of the Knights of Labour? Date?

A

Aims: 8 hour day, end to child labour, equal pay for equal work
Methods: Strikes
Effectiveness: Success in 1884 and 1885 but Haymarket Affair reduced influence
Date: 1869

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8
Q

What was the impact of Great Depression on Labour Rights?

A
  • Total collapse of the economy led to factory closures and bankruptcy for businesses
  • Unemployment rose to 25% in 1933 amounted to 13million
  • Incidents of strikes and sit ins increased
  • Employers called in the police or their own strike breakers to end industrial action
  • Only 10% of workforce unionised in 1933
  • Employers had the right to sack striking workers
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9
Q

What were the major Alphabet Agencies affecting Trade Unions and what did they do?

A
  • National Recovery Administration (NRA): Encouraged minimum wage, abolition of child labour
  • Social Security Act (SSA): Pensions and benefits for disabled
  • Farm Security Administration (FSA): Lent money to sharecroppers
  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): Employed 2.5million young men, tree planting/flood control/conservation of national parks
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10
Q

What was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)? When was it passed?

A
  • Passed in June 1933
  • Agreed codes of practice about issues such as production levels, wage rates, working hours, prices and TU rights
  • Gave workers the right to organise TUs
  • Positive effects limited
  • Henry Ford refused to sign code
  • Under fire by Supreme Court
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11
Q

What was the National Labour Act (Wagner Act)? When was it passed?

A
  • Passed in 1935
  • Promotes trade unionism
  • Aimed to regulate and reduce labour disputes by providing a structure for bargaining
  • Aimed to reduce picket line violence and disruption to production caused by strikes
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12
Q

What was the significance of the Wagner Act?

A
  • First legislation to recognise rights of workers to elect their own reps
  • Supreme Court declared act constitutional in 1937 - this support was crucial
  • Spies on shop floors banned
  • Set up National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which could bargain on behalf of workers
  • Expansion of TU membership from 3.7 million in 1933 to 9 million in 1938
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13
Q

How effective was the Wagner Act in extending TUs?

A
  • TU membership increased but disputes continued to occur
  • Divisions within TU movement continued to deprive unskilled workers of their rights
  • 1937 - Congress of Industrial Organisations (CIO) formed from 8 unions within the AFL
  • Split weakens the labour movement until it reformed in 1955
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14
Q

What was the Congress of Industrial Organisations (CIO) and its aims?

A
  • Attempted to organise labour in mass production industries
  • Established closed shop and was resisted by employees
  • Sit ins and sit downs became the new form of protest - used against car industry Win 1937
  • Supported women and AA labour rights
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15
Q

What did the New Deal do for disadvantaged workers?

A
  • Positive impact on unionisation - extending rights
  • Supported skilled workers
  • Still no leadership/limited support for unskilled/domestic workers
  • AAs were also limited - agricultural policies did not support them but FEPC tried to help
  • Women were on minimum wage but upheld different pay levels
  • Still conflict between state and federal govt. with welfare support
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16
Q

What were the positives of the New Deal on the position of workers?

A
  • NIRA set up National Recovery Administration to improve relations between employers and employees
  • Wagner Act gave workers the right to elect their own reps to take part in bargaining and gave workers right to join unions
  • Union membership grew from 3.7 million in 1933 to 9 million in 1938
  • Major industries which had resisted recognition now recognised unions
  • Minimum weekly wage created by Fair Labor Standards Act
  • CIO encouraged whole industry based unions but other ethnic groups to join in
17
Q

What were the negatives of the New Deal on the position of workers?

A
  • Employers like Henry Ford did not recognise the NIRA or the Wagner Act
  • The Supreme Court declared NIRA unconstitutional
  • Employers used those willing to break strikes or strong arm tactic to intimidate workers- continued violence
  • Unskilled workers didn’t benefit from the improvements nor did women as pay differentials were upheld by the NIRA and Fair Labor Standards Act
  • Welfare reforms helped some of the poorer paid BUT there were limits to this because of conflicts between state and federal rights
18
Q

What were the impacts of WW2 on organised labour?

A
  • Control of industry taken away from manufacturers and owners
  • Weakening of employers tipped the balance in favour of the workers - they were essential for war effort
  • Levels of production increased
  • Office of War Mobilization (1943) established priorities and set production targets
  • National War Labor Board adjudicated wage disputes
  • TUs grew massively in size from 8.9 million to 14.8 million (1940 to 1945)
  • President had power to seize any plant where strike action threatened to intefere with war production
  • 1941 - Ford recognised the Autoworkers Union
  • Increase in wartime production, the expansion of armed forces and halting of immigration led to a fall in unemployment
  • Labour shortages provided employment opportunities for young people, handicapped, AAs and women
  • Number of women at work increased by 50%
19
Q

What was the impact of WW2 on black labour?

A
  • More than 1 million black Americans found jobs in the industrial centres of the north and west
  • Black factory workers remained restricted to the more menial jobs
  • To object to this - A Philip Randolph, leader of the Pullman Porters Union, threatened a march on Washington in June in 1941
  • The President then responded with an order forbidding racial discrimination in all defence projects
  • This created the Fair Employment Practices Committee
  • Black migration led to riots in northern cities
20
Q

What was labour like post WW2?

A
  • Massive wave of strikes due to end of wartime controls
  • Belief that unions were becoming too powerful
  • Republicans won both houses of Congress in 1946 - wanted to restrain union activity
  • Taft- Hartley Act: restrained powers of trade unions and sought to purge organised labour of communists
  • Republicans had no desire to court support of the unions and their membership
  • By 1950s there was a pa code linked to standard of living cost
21
Q

Summary of WW2 progress?

A
  • Rights of labour recognised and established in law
  • Increasing membership of TUs
  • Divisions between skilled and unskilled workers as well as the inequality determined by racial and ethnic differences remained as a barrier to effective solidarity
  • Growing influx of females - further divisions
22
Q

What was the impact of WW1 on workers?

A
  • Increase in TU membership from 2.7 million to 5 million
  • Yellow Dog Contracts
  • Decrease in number of people involved in strikes but increase in actual strikes
  • 8 hour working day implemented by NWLB
  • Nativism grew - need to protect American businesses from Communism
  • ‘Welfare Capitalism’ - welfare services to employees - cafeteria plans, lunchrooms, water fountains, retirement benefits, health care

A2 History Civil Rights (5 decks)

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