Unions and Labour Flashcards
Knights of Labor
Founded in 1869 by Uriah Smith Stephens
Initial success
1879 - Powderly welcomed those from different racial backgrounds and women
1881 - 20,000 members
Wabash Railroad strike success - membership up to 700,000 in 1886
Haymarket Affair in 1886 - membership down to 100,000 by the 1890s
American Federation of Labor
Founded in December 1886
Samuel Gompers
1914 - 2 million members
Some unions within the AFL still had a high degree of autonomy
Industrial Workers of the World
Founded in Chicago in 1905 Militant organisation Reputation for violence 100,000 members in 1923 Regarded with suspicion by employers Divisions in the leadership
Haymarket Affair
May 1886 Violence between police and workers at a harvester plant in Chicago Bomb killed 7 policemen Violence blamed on German anarchists Foreign conspiracy Suspicion of new immigrants from Europe
European immigration to the USA, 1820-1920
5.5m Germans
3.7m Austro-Hungarians
2.5m English
Lower wages
Divided the workforce
African American labour in the Gilded Age
Often unions would not accept them - e.g. National Labour Union asked them to form their own groups
Divided the workforce - slow progress
1869 - National Negro Labor Union founded
Later A Philip Randolph
The Great Railroad Strike
1877 National strike Started in W. Virginia President Hayes eventually had to deploy federal troops Strike was disorganised
The Homestead Strike
1892
Steel works
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA)
Pennsylvania - Carnegie Steel Company
Violence against Frick
Union crushed (Carnegie Steel remained non-union for 40 years)
AA membership fell to 10,000 by 1894, by 1900 it was 6,300
The Pullman Strike
1894 Company-owned town Wage cuts by 25% Cleveland eventually sent in federal stroops to break the strike American Railway Union + Eugene Debs
Impact of WWI
Some improvement for trade unions
1914-1918 factory production increased by 35%, real wages increased by 20%
National War Labor Board established by Wilson
Union membership increased from 2.7m (1916) to 5m (1920)
After the War, 1919-1920
Increase in strikes
Extreme violence in Chicago
Red Scare
4.1m workers went on strike in 1919, compared with 1.2 in 1918 and 1.4 in 1920
Gains made by trade unions during the 1920s
Economic prosperity
Wages rose steadily + consumer goods
Nativism and a fear of communism
Welfare capitalism
Companies wanted to appear conciliatory towards employees
Improved conditions, better working hours, pension plans etc.
However, there were ‘yellow dog contracts’
Henry Ford - cut the working day to 8 hours, doubled daily wage to $5 and introduced profit sharing
Henry Ford - took until 1941 for the Ford Company to recognise a union for collective barginaing
A Philip Randolph
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) - founded in 1925
AA union
Pullman coaches
Took till 1935 to be recognised
First collective bargaining agreement signed in 1937
Unions and the Great Depression
Huge increase in unemployment - 13m in 1933 (25%)
Greater conflict between employers and workers
Strikes and other industrial action increased in numbers
1933- 10% of the workforce was unionised - no right to strike action
Private police - strike breakers
The New Deal - National Industry Recovery Act, 1933
Workers right to organise trade unions and take part in collective bargaining
National Recover Administration
1934 - 557 codes agreed, covering 23m workers
Some employers, e.g. Henry Ford, refused to sign the codes
Declared unconstitutional in 1935
National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act, 1935
Aimed to regulated and reduce labour disputes by providing a structure for collective bargaining
Recognised workers’ rights to elect their own representatives
Right to join a TU and permitted ‘closed shops’
National Labor Relations Board re-established
Membership rose - 3.7m in 1933 to 9m in 1938
Declared constitution by the SCOTUS
The Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938
National minimum weekly wage of $25
Half for hours in excess of 40 per week
Prohibited the employment of children under 16
Failures of the New Deal for workers
MAs and AAs continued to face discrimination
Fair Employment Practices Commission, 1941 attempted to solve some of these issues
Position of women not improved - still gender pay gap
Committee for Industrial Organisation (CIO)
1938 first national convention
3.7m members, slightly more than the AFL who had 3.4m
By the end of the 1930s the CIO had organised most of the nation’s mass-production industries
Labour and unions in WWII
High levels of production
National War Labor Board re-established in 1941
Membership grew - 9m in 1940 to 15m in 1945
1943 - President empowered the seize any plant where there was strike action
‘Right to work’ laws passed in the South
Number of women in work increased by 50% but paid less than men for the same work
Post-WWII labour
Taft-Harley Act, 1947 weakened labour rights and the CIO particularly (Truman attempted to veto)
AFL-CIO in 1955 (16m members)
1950s America
Economic prosperity - average income by 1960 35% higher than in 1945
By the end of the 1950s, 60% of Americans owned their own homes, 75% owned cars, 87% had at least one TV
Trade union membership dropped by more than 50%
White collar workers increase
Women representing an increased proportion of the workforce
AFL-CIO in 1955
20% lived below the poverty line
LBJ’s Great Society
Equality and Opportunity Act, 1964 - Created the Office of Economic Opportunity, administering War on Poverty programmes
Minimum Wage Act, 1965 - raised the federal minimum wage and included new groups of employees
Civil Rights Act, 1965 - outlawed discrimination on the basis of race and sex
Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 1968 - prevented discrimination against people aged between 45 and 60
Unions in the 1970s
Nixon’s Occupational Safety and Health Act, 1970 - safer working environment, Dep. of Labor set the standards (little influence of employers)
Carter raised the federal minimum wage to $3.35 an hour but did not refor the National Labour Relations Act as unions had watned
Reagan and the 1980s
Reaganomics Supply-side economics Economic Tax Recover Act of 1981 - cut all personal income taxes by 25% Former union leader 1980 - 187 strikes, 1990 - only 44
Air Traffic Controllers’ Strike
1981
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organisation (PATCO)
Wanted a $10,000 pay rise and shorter working week
Reagan announced that if they did not striking within 48 hours their contracts would be terminated and followed through with it
Strikers received little sympathy and PATCO destroyed
Growth of Industrial workers, 1860-1900
Union membership 1900-1915-1920
885,000 - 3.2m
500,000-2.5m-5m
The Supreme Court
Lochner vs. New York, 1905 - rejected the law that limited the number of hours a baker could work each day and week
Coppage Vs. Kansas, 1915 - allowed yellow-dog contracts
Adkins Vs. Children’s Hospital - ruled that minimum wage laws violated due process clause
NIRA declared unconstitutional in 1935
Immigration, 1971-1990
2.5m from Asia
Undercutting of wages
