workers Flashcards
pullman strikes
- Strikes in 1894
- Pullman controlled the whole town including wages, houses, church etc and owned everything
- Strikes were caused by reduction in wages
- Working conditions
- Still high rent
- Three workers attempted to negotiate a reduction in rents but they were fired, this caused the strike
- Eugene debs took over the strike from ARU
- Carnegie – frick (in charge of company operations)
- Carnegie eventually just delegitimised the union and blocked them out of the factory, shows the owners have complete control over their factories and workers
- Picketing and strikes
- Pinkerton agents fired into the crowd and killed 2, injured 11
- Carriage cars couldn’t function without Pullman
- initially president supported strikes but then
- President cleaver used a court injunction and sent in federal troops to stop the strike
- led to omnibus indictment act which stopped strikers persuading others to strike
homestead strikes
1892,
- Lasted 143 days
- Dispute between private bodyguards and workers, occupation of the plant by militia
- Pennsylvania
- Union involved: AA or amalgamated association of iron and steel workers
- Union won and agreements were made but they still had to accept significant wage cuts
- Wanted the right to collective bargaining
Negative consequences of the strike
- Cost the union $10,000 per worker per week
- Strike ended when one of the strikers murdered alexander berkman and FRICK
- AA lost many union members and it broke up the union movement
- In 1900 no steel plants in pennysylvania were unionised therefore it didn’t have a long term effect
national war labour board
- established in 1918
- led to wage and union membership increase
- ‘right to work’ laws banned closed shops
- 1941 Ford recognised the Auto Workers Union
- Fair employment practices committee led to more awareness
- War encouraged more government intervention in the economy
congressional measures
chinese exclusion act, 1882 sherman anti trust act 1890 (Harrison) omnibus indictment act 1894 (court injunction) wagner act 1935 (Roosevelt) taft-hartley act 1947 (Truman) 1963 - equal pay act 1964 - civil rights act 1964 - equal opportunity act 1965 - age discrimination act occupational health and safety act 1987 (Reagan)
chicano movement
1965
led by cesar chaves
gained support from Robert Kennedy
immigrant and farm workers using direct striking to have an impact on the work place
successes:
Increased wages to $1.40
September 16th Mexican independence day,
3,000 farm workers on strike in the valley
Striked in the cities to boycott companies using their grapes
Movement became more than just a strike but a civil rights movement
1970 – strike successful and United Farm Workers formed
BP movement impacts:
‘brown is beautiful’
list of strikes
homestead strikes 1892 pullman strikes 1894 Wabash Railroad strike Chicago sit ins PATCO strikes 1981
key unions
AFL
KOL
BSCP
NFWA
PATCO strikes
- Air traffic controllers striked despite negotiations on the table and being banned from striking as federal employees (taft-hartley 1955) demanded $10,000 wage increase, better retirement benefits and a shorter working week
- Terminated contracts of workers and gave them a life long ban as well as finding means in which they could be replaced by training replacements
- Little public support despite CIO-AFL condemning Reagan
- Union membership dropped dramatically
KOL
Knights of Labour 700,000 members by 1886 10,000 women and 50,000 african americans so no discrimination led by: USS Uriah Smith Stevens TVP Terence V Powderly
aims:
Equal pay between men and women
Abolition of child labour
To unite the gap between unskilled and skilled labourers
Shared ownership of factories by employers and employees
strikes:
1879, gained lots of momentum
The Haymarket Affair, 1886, destroyed their reputation and may members defected to the NLU
Waned in the 1880’s after a series of failed and unauthorised strikes was replaced by AFL
Powderly had an anti strike stance which was disliked by many of his members, however the union saw some success after he became leader .
AFL
American Federation of Labour
1914 – 2 million members
FEDERATION meant that trade unions could still control their own affairs but he had more bargaining power Samuel Gompers, supported strikes, believed in ‘trade unions’ pure and simple, therefore a more traditional approach supporting strikes (essentially replaced the knights of labour)
Practical goals of raising wages and reducing hours – likely to have the most impact
Wanted to unite all unions
Focused on bargaining powers of skilled workers 1866, founded and replaced the KOL Fairly effective as two big businessmen agreed to work with them, however some unions within theirs still remained powerful
industrial workers of the world
Militant organisation which often resorted to violence
Fruit pickers and mainly western workers
Set up in 1905, lasted until 1924 and disbanded due to divisions within its leadership
Probably too violent to have a massive impact
mccarthyism
- All government workers had to pass a test of their beliefs
- Taft-Hartley act 1947 bans closed shops, (eg. Had to join a specific union when you start a job) no one employed by the federal government is allowed to go on strike (prevent the left from being in government)
- Reagan fires 11,500 airplane workers
- No union leaders allowed to be communist
- Unions being legislated more
- All comes from McCarthyism
- 10 people kicked out from the CIO 1949
- CIO, give in to government, to avoid a bad reputation/public support want to function in society so they can receive better conditions and pay
black power and workers
economic act of 1964 could have been influenced by the radicalism of black power and needs of workers
more of a focus on the lower working classes, key aim of Johnson’s new frontier and black power’s survival programmes
differences:
BP advocated separatism which workers didnt
wanted to work outside of the establishment, workers wanted to gain better recognition and rights within their workplace
bp was violent, radical extremism whereas trade union movements and workers protested more peacefully
wasn’t focused on the economy (eg. just one point in the ten point plan)
role of the government
Sherman anti trust act 1890, restricted monopolies on big businesses but didn’t really affect workers
in pullman strikes used court injunctions and omnibus indictment act to ban future strikes Cleaver sent troops to break the strike up
the clayton anti-trust act 1914 (limited use of pickets and allowed peaceful protesting, was a way of clacontrolling labour, especially in war time)
The Wagner Act 1935 (national labour relations act) and the new deal
NWLB - National War Labour Board
Taft Hartley - 1947
McCarthyism
role of supreme court
Lochner vs New York 1905, Lochner wanted to restrict working days to only 10 hours
Coppage vs Kansas 1915 (employers could implement contracts forbidding employees to join unions)
Adkins vs Children’s hospital 1923 (minimum wage legislation for women was an unconstitutional infringement of liberty of contract)
Sacco and Vanzetti (Massachusetts supreme court case denied appeals) 1921
didn’t want to take an active stance in protecting workers as would be against american ideals and they didn’t want to take responsibility over workers or hold back businesses economically - didn;t care about human rights
