WW2

Question 1

Closed Shops

Answer 1

A workplace where one union dominates, and workers have to belong to that union

Question 2

Blacklist

Answer 2

A list of workers who are regarded as unacceptable

Question 3

Immediate WW2 impacts

Answer 3

• Control was taken away from manufacturers and owners
• Weakening employers
• Levels of production in agriculture and industry increased
• Wages rose 70% - raised the standard of living for workers
• Workers benefited from the work of the NWLB, which largely
  took control of industry away from employers
• Halting overseas immigration let to a fall in unemployment from
  9 million in June 1940 to 783,000 in September 1943

Question 4

Impact of Black Labour

Answer 4

• More than 1 million black Americans found jobs in the industrial
centres in the north and west

• Black factory workers remained restricted to the more menial
jobs
• Philip Randolph- leader of the Pullman Porters Union
threatened to march in Washington
- 25% increase in African Americans working in war industries

Question 5

How did WW2 benefit Trade Unions and workers rights

Answer 5

• United Auto Workers recognised by the Ford Motor Company (1941)
• Organised labour was strengthened by the needs of wartime
  industry.
• Union membership grew (9 million to 14.8 million between 1941 and
  1945) partly due to the wartime increase in the size of labour force.
• Strikes were kept to a minimum but union leaders were able to
  exploit the wartime situation to gain fringe benefits for members.

Question 6

How did Roosevelt support workers rights in this period

Answer 6

• The National War Labor Board (1942) was set up to limit wage
  increases in order to keep inflation rates low
• Creation of Fair Employment Practices Commission set up by
  Roosevelt to eliminate racial and discrimination in war industries
  (1943)

Question 7

Impact of women

Answer 7

• Influx of women into the workplace during the second
  world war that led to more direct action in terms of
  equality
• Between 1940 - 1944 there was a dramatic increase in
  the number of women joining unions (800,000 in 1940 to
  3 million by 1944)
• Many of these new union members were directly
  recruited into existing male unions