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Civil Rights > Trade Unions > Flashcards

Trade Unions Flashcards

1
Q

How did AAs and New Immigrants undermine TUs?

A
  • They are willing to accept lower pay

- They are excluded from TUs making them less powerful

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2
Q

Pre-WWI who mainly benefited from TUs?

A
  • Blue collar workers
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3
Q

What was the Pullman’s Strike?

A

-1894 strike to have rights to collective bargaining recognised

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4
Q

What was the Homestead Strike?

A
  • 1892 strike which nearly bankrupted the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and leads to a fall in TU membership
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5
Q

What was KOL and AFL?

A
  • Knights of American Labour develop in 1869 and later called American Federation of Labour
  • Membership grew to 700, 000 in 1886 but later fell de to the violence of the Haymarket Affair
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6
Q

Who were the ‘Wobblies’?

A
  • Established in 1905, they were a militant and violent group that also stood up for poor workers
  • Alienated employers and decline in their membership is seen after 1923.
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7
Q

What was TU membership by WWI? What had TUs begun to do?

A
  • 2 million

- To pressure Presidential candidates to promote TU rights

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8
Q

What were some negatives about TU progress by WWI?

A
  • Not all industries represented
  • TUs not legally recognized
  • Only 20% of non-agricultural workers recognized by TUs
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9
Q

What effect did WWI have on TU power?

A
  • Increased demand for products which increased bargaining power
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10
Q

When was the National War Labour Board set up? What did it do?

A
  • 1918 and negotiated for workers

- Able to achieve 8 hour working day but had a no strike agreement

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11
Q

What were Yellow Dog contracts?

A

Contracts prohibiting workers from joining Unions

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12
Q

What were the economic effects of the 1920’s?

A
  • Boom = decrease in unemployment which gave unions more leverage
  • Welfare Capitalism banned strikes but gave perks such as holidays, insurance and pensions
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13
Q

What was the position of TUs in the 1920s?

A
  • Most employers did not recognize them eg Henry Ford
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14
Q

Who were the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters? What did they do?

A
  • Protested the poor condition, violence against union leaders and use of company unions at the Pullman Company
  • Still unrecognized in 1928 but over half of Pullman workers had joined them
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15
Q

What were the effects of the 1929 depression?

A
  • High unemployment reduced union bargaining power

- Use of strike breakers to control union action

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16
Q

When was NIRA set up? What did it do?

A
  • 1933 worked to improve working hours and union rights

- SC declares it unconstitiutional

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17
Q

When was the National Labour Relations Act set up? What did it do?

A

-1935 sets up National Labour Relations Board to look into unfair practice and represent unions
- Establishes right to join Unions, right to have own union representation and bans use of spies by employers
- Sees increase in TU membership from 3.7 in 1933 to 9 mil in 1938
-

18
Q

When was the Railway Labour Act passed? What did it do?

A

-1934 and allowed BSCP to finally be recognized

19
Q

What were the effects of WWII on TUs?

A
  • Huge demands and near labour shortage
  • Wage increase by 70%
  • Growth in membership from 9 mil to 15 mil by end of the war
20
Q

What improvements were there for agricultural workers in the 1960s-70s?

A
  • Chavez promoted non-violent, anti immigrant representation and won national sympathy
  • Salad Bowl Strike of 1970s was biggest farmers strike and won wage increase
  • 1966 Farm Workers Organizing Committee was set up
21
Q

What improvements and Acts were there is the 1960s for workers?

A
  • Johnson’s Great Society
  • Civil Rights Act 1964
  • Equal Pay Act of 1963
  • Age Discrimination Act of 1968
  • Equal Opportunity Act 1964 (offered training)
  • Strikes decreased as TUs were working with employers
22
Q

When and what was the Taft-Hartley Act?

A

-1947 and banned closed shop

23
Q

When was the AFL and CIO meger and why was it important?

A
  • 1955

- Unified 16 million workers making it very powerful

24
Q

How were TUs viewed and undermined after WWII?

A
  • Viewed as having gained too much power
  • Govt workers signed no strike contracts
  • Decline in membership due to good welfare packages and increase in white collar workers who were no interested in joining TUs
25
Q

Why did membership decrease in the later period? (70s+)

A
  • Welfare packs
  • More female and white collar workers who were not interested in joining a Union
  • Decline in business size made it harder to recruit
  • Growth in non-unionized firms who didn’t have to protect worker’s rights
26
Q

How effective was the NLRB in the later period?

A
  • Ineffective and often favoured the employer?
27
Q

When and what was the PATCO strike and what was its impact?

A
  • Air traffic-controller strike in 1981
  • There was a lack of sympathy for strike which created divisions
  • Led to a decrease in strike action
28
Q

How far did labour rights for AAs and Hispanics improve by later period?

A
  • Not that much

- Increased in skilled workers disadvantaged them

29
Q

How did the economy affect TUs in the 19th century?

A
  • Growth in unskilled workers won some concessions and increased demand for Unions (KOL etc)
  • Number of worker in unions went from 500, 000 at end of 1800s to 2.5 million in 1915 which put pressure of employers to recognize unions
  • But there were divisions between Craft and new unskilled workers which undermined TU power
30
Q

How did the boom of the 1920s affect TUs?

A
  • Growing consumerism meant low unemployment so employers had to listen to TUs more
  • Rise in real wages
  • Perks of welfare capitalism (eg Ford cut working day to 8 hours) but this also lead to dependence on employer
31
Q

How did the economy of the 1950s affect TUs?

A
  • Wages 35% higher than after WWII
  • More workers owning cars and TVs
  • Rise in high tech fields and prosperity meant it was less likely to join a union (membership falls by 50%)
  • More white collar workers and women less likely to join unions
32
Q

How did the depression of the 1930s affect TUs?

A
  • High levels of unemployment sparks New Deal improvements
33
Q

How did the economy 1970s+ affect TUs?

A
  • Slow economic growth and fall in productivity
  • More unemployment and fall in wages
  • More high tech fields and women
  • Welfare packages
  • Smaller and more remote businesses made it harder to organise unions
34
Q

What are the Key Supreme Court judgments?

A

Pullman’s Strike- authorize use of injunctions
Lochner vs NY 1905- reject law limiting baker’s working hours due to rights of individual
Coppage vs Kansas 1915- allows YDC
Adkins vs Children’s Hospital 1923- lets min wage laws be ignored
NIRA 1935- declared unconstitiuional

35
Q

Key government interventions 1865-WWI

A

1890 Sherman Anti-trust: only helpful legislation, restricts monopolies on a trade.
1894 Pullman: injunction allows intervention of 2, 000 troops and 4 people die
1914 Clayton Anti-trust: limits injunctions against workers and allows peacful portest
WWI NWLB: due to need for production and peace. Increases TU membership.

36
Q

Key government interventions New Deal-1960s

A 
NWLB: due to need for production and peace. Increases TU membership.
New Deal (NIRA: 1933, Wagner: 1935, NLRB, FLSA: 1938): right to organise strikes, bargian, sets min wage and results in TU growth
Taft-Hartley 1946: Republicans against unions and purge of communist decreases power
37
Q

Key government interventions 1960s-1992

A

Equal Pay Act 1963
Civil Rights Act 1964
Economic Opportunity Act 1964
Age discrimination 1968
Occupational Health and Safety Act 1970: department of labour sets working standards
Minimum Wage (Carter)
PATCO: Regan threatens to terminate striker’s contracts. Decline in membershi[ ans strikes after.
Labour Relations Board: Reagan appoints unsympathetic people

38
Q

How much did TU membership grow during war years? Did this time of improvement last?

A

WWI: 2.7 million-5 million by 1920
WWII: 8.9 million- 14.8 million by 1945
No industrial action increased in years shortly after.

39
Q

What was the Molly Maguires strike?

A

1873 Irish immigrants strike for better working conditions.
They started fires and murdered a superintendent.
Many were reluctant to join unions as a result.

40
Q

What was the Haymarket Affair?

A

1886 4 strikers and 7 policemen killed
Strike was blamed on immigrants causing more division.
Destroyed the rep of KOL and many joined AFL or Wobblies instead.

41
Q

What was the Homestead Strike?

A

1892 Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers striked against the Carnegie Steel Company.
Union was locked out of plant and they decided to use replacement workers.
Resulted in the killing of Henry Frick and strike collapsed.
Decline in membership by over half. And the steel workers remained disunionised for 40 years.

42
Q

How did employers undermine union action?

A
  • Reaction to Homestead and Pullman strikes
  • Ford’s use of strike breakers and refusal to accept reform
  • Pullman strike of 1920s led to sacking union leaders and using spies and violence.
  • 1920s and 1930s saw rise in company unions eg Sleeping Car Porters
  • WWII+ saw no strike contracts and non-union agreements
  • ‘Scab labour’ to break strikes

Civil Rights (7 decks)

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