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Labor Union History

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According to Dictionary.com, a labor union is a group of people who represent workers in different occupations and work to protect the rights of the workers, such as working conditions, wages, and benefits. In America’s early days, there were no such things as labor unions. An employer could demand anything he wanted from his workers and pay them any amount he saw fit (Hallgrimsdottir, 2007). Many employers abused this system, cutting wages or making the workers put in exorbitant hours in treacherous conditions. As corruption in the workplace led to declining wages, benefits, and work conditions, workers became increasingly alarmed at the state of the enterprise. They wanted protection from arbitrary decisions and needed a way to force management …show more content…

The goal of these early unions was to combat wage cuts and long hours. There was little coordination in these unions, so the payoff was moderate at best. The unions kept going as they were for the next 35 years until the post-Civil War labor market gave workers an opportunity to revitalize the fledgling unions and build them into something with staying power. This revitalized union was called the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor and was founded in 1869 (Hallgrimsdottir, 2007). The popularity of this new union spread rapidly as workers began to realize they had a voice and options. The Knights of Labor was open to all workers, including women and African Americans, but as a symptom of the times, was mostly composed of white males. In just a few years, the Knights of Labor grew to a few thousand members nationwide. The Knights of Labor set off a chain of events that eventually made way for the federal laws that govern our unions today. These are the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA), the Labor Management Relations Act (also known as the Taft-Hartley Act), and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act

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The Knights of Labor was the first major American labor union created around 1871. It was configured by all productive laborers from the factories to fields, whose leader was Terence V. Powderly. Their goals were to adopt a system that could which will secure the labor job and involve the government to protecting the workers. In addition they were fighting to obtain 8 hour work day, graduated income tax, cooperatives.

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The labor union titled Noble and Holy Order of Knights of Labor, or Knights of Labor, was

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There are many simmaleritys and differences between the Knights of labor and the AFL this will explain only a few. The Knights were established in 1869 vs the AFL established in 1886 a few years later. This means the Knights are the predisesors of the AFL. Some made compromises others started boycotts, and the following explanes all. Both the AFL and the Knights had labor unions involved with them.

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A period of tremendous growth and economic prosperity swept across the United States following the North’s victory in the Civil War. The industrial boom helped propel America to become a leading industrial/economic powerhouse. However, industrialization had a dark side: capitalism’s emergence with America’s dramatic expansion led to a poverty-stricken working-class fighting for better wages and working conditions. Unions emerged in the United States, with the Knights of Labor becoming the largest during this time, with goals including increasing wages to $1.25 per day, an eight-hour workday, and overall better working conditions. The Knights rose to power as, unlike local unions, they called to have a diverse organization of individuals regardless

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Before the structured labor society that we live in today, America was a very different working world; one plagued with injustice and grievances from workers across the job sectors. Two organizations, the Knights of Labor and later the American Federation of Labor acted as activists for reform and demanded better standards for working, living, and life for workers. Their strategies and success in achieving their goals were as different as the organizations themselves. Coming from a time of segregation and social divide, the Knights of Labor stood out as one of the most accepting labor unions of the age, which largely accounted for their membership to reach almost 800,000 members during its peak. All workers in a trade were included, regardless of their skill level.

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In developing countries there has always been a difference in how companies and the people that worked for them agree about working conditions and salaries. This brought about what we now call labor unions, which today and in earlier years negotiated working conditions and other issues concerning labor. The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor were two of the unions formed during the time that labor issues were being debated. The Knights were considered to be secretive and more radical than the American Federation of Labor, which was considered to be a formal federation of labor unions.

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If a worker protested, often he was simply fired because the employer could easily find another worker to fill his spot, or he was blacklisted as well. These were the issues faced by workers in the Homestead steel mill: low wages and 12-hour work days which they were powerless to do anything about. However by the late 1800s, workers were finding ways to address their problems. All people worked together in the Knights of Labor to improve their situation. Having such a diverse membership made them less effective than the American Federation of Labor which was a union for skilled workers.

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Unions have been around for a long time. The first union was established in 1866 in the U.S. with the foundation of the National Labor Union or the NLU. The National Labor Union was created to persuade Congress to change laws. The NLU was against holding strikes and instead relied on political action to reach its goals. The NLU, made up of farmers, workers, and reformers, excluding African Americans and women, firstly wanted Congress to limit the work days to just eight hours, and it was able to make this change, but after this none of its other suggestions made it through.

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After an expansion in the mid 1880’s, the union lost many of its new member forcing them to become a small operation again. In 1893, the United States suffered an economic depression that lasted until 1897. This crisis caused the Knights of Labor to lose their importance. The existence of the Knights of Labor continued until 1949, when the few remaining members decided to no longer affiliate themselves with this

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As mentioned in the book, “any person could join except bankers, lawyers, and liquor dealers, and join they did. Its local assemblies enrolled everyone, including shoemakers, laundry workers, carpenters, seamstresses, musicians, clerks, domestics, machinists, and homemakers” (Postel 120). The union promoted a number of causes, such as improved working conditions, increased pay, and an eight-hour workweek. In addition, the Knights of Labor promoted political and social reforms such the abolition of child labor, the creation of worker cooperatives, and the nationalization of important sectors of the economy. They held that labor exploitation was a major contributor to social injustice and inequality and that the interests of workers and those of society were strongly correlated.

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These labor unions, such as the knights of labor, demanded for higher wages and only an 8 hour working day to accommodate for rest and their own personal free time. Many agreed but also many did not so there was an obvious divide between the people caused by these

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The AFL advocated for most of the same things as the Knights of Labor. The American Federation of Labor used strikes and boycotts against owners to try and get what they wanted. Two major strikes that occurred were the Pullman Strike and the Homestead Strike. Both strikes were very dangerous and had millions of dollars of damage. Some of the strikes and boycotts did work and wages were raised, however some backfired and many workers ended up losing their

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The Industrial Revolution in the 1800s gave rise to harsh business practices and low-wage labor (Hillstrom). Large employers resisted unions through tactics such as hiring strikebreakers (typically recent immigrants who would work for any wage) whenever the normal employees would not show up (“National”). Unions were given the irrevocable right to collectively bargain with management in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act (“National”). This right continues to allow union workers to present cases to their employers in modern times (“National”). Another issue unions tackled was the use of child labor (“Labor”).

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