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What Was The First Labor Union In The Usa

486 Words2 Pages

• The first labor union in US:
The first national labor federation in the United States was The National Labor Union (NLU), founded in 1866 and led by William Sylvian. The National Labor United brought together all white men workers, skilled and unskilled workers, as well as farmers. Chinese, African American, and women were excluded. Within two years, it had more than 600,000 members. The goal of the NLU was to improve working conditions by pressuring the Congress to make labor law reforms, including passage of laws mandating an eight-hour workday. In 1868, the National Labor Union managed to gain congressional passage of the eight-hour workday, which was the most important issue. Then, employers retaliated by cutting employees’ hourly wages. President Ulysses S. Grant gave out an …show more content…

Even though at the end it was not so successful, but the efforts of NLU heightened public awareness of labor issues and increased public support for labor reform in the 1870s and 1880s. It was a short-lived labor organization, which collapsed in 1872 as the result of The Depression. • First labor union in Europe:
Taking a look back in Europe, a guy whose name was Robert Owen proposed that the unions should be united. Until in February 1834, the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union (GNCTU) was founded and formed by Owen. Within a week it had over half a million members, and the government were alarmed by this new mass labor movement. Owen wanted to use unionism to change the economic

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