Upgrade to remove ads
Only $2.99/month

Labor Unions

Terms in this set (47)

Joe Hill
(1879 - 1915)
- Labor Organizer
- Songwriter
- Activist for the International Workers of the World
The history of unions in the U.S. can be understood as a two-pronged movement for union recognition and worker dignity:
Craft Unions and Industrial Unions
Craft Unions
Unions for skilled, craft workers long lines of specific occupations or crafts => this wing was organized under the umbrella of the American Federation of Labor
Industrial Unions
unions for semi-skilled and unskilled workers organized by entire industries, regardless skill level => this wing was organized under the umbrella of the Congress of Industrial
Craft Unions (Part 1)
- Throughout much of American history, employers have been hostile to unions and until the mid-1930s the power of the state was used to repress union organization

-Craft unions were grudgingly recognized by employers because they had highly valued occupational skills that were in short supply
Craft Unions (Part 2)
- Industrial unions were resisted and violently repressed by employers and the state
- Craft unions were not particularly interested in supporting the efforts of industrial unions => a divided labor movement
Local craft unions developed as early as the 1790s among a few skilled craftsmen:
* shoemakers
* painters
* carpenters
* printers
These craft unions have similar goals as the guilds that grew out of early feudalism:
* restrict entry into the craft
* assure a high quality of craftsmanship
* maintain a good standard of living for their members
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
- Founded in 1886 on the principle of craft unionism

= a loose federation of craft unions (cigar makers, boiler makers, carpenters, printers)

= under the leadership of Samuel Gompers
Under Gompers, the AFL pursued a practice of business unionism:
- "pure and simple" trade unionism, as opposed to class or revolutionary unionism

- unions should run themselves like a business, mindful of the needs of their employers

- AFL channeled its demands mainly into achieving economic benefits and did not make class-based political demands

- Politically, AFL did not openly support any political party but followed a strategy to "reward its friends and punish its enemies"
The AFL was successful in gaining securing many benefits for their members
- Better wages

- Old age benefits (pensions)

- Strike funds => for economic support of union members during strikes
By 1914, the AFL had over
2,000,000 members, but most unions excluded women and blacks

- Two notable exceptions:
= International Ladies Garment Workers Union (women workers in textiles)
= Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (black porters in the railroad industry)
American Exceptionalism
The ways in which the U.S. working class experience is different:
* Lack of a feudal legacy and struggle to overcome feudalism
* Size of country => westward expansion
* Racial/ethnic heterogeneity => legacy of slavery, immigration
* Political system => non-parliamentary, not conducive to 3rd parties
* Violent repression of labor movement
Industrial Unions History
- Various efforts to organize workers along industrial lines mostly resulted in failure

-1866 (NLU) National Labor Union
= led by Bill Sylvis—Iron Molders Union

- Pressed for 8- hour day, elimination of child labor, restriction of women workers

-The NLU collapsed during the Great Depression of 1873
Knights of Labor Part 1
- 1869-1893 Terrence Powderly

-Was open to all workers except bankers, doctors, lawyers, stockholders, and liquor manufacturers

-Included immigrants, women and blacks, but tolerated racial segregation of jobs in the south

-Called for end to child labor and convict labor
Knights of the Labor Part 2
- Called for sanctions against powerful monopolies

- Supporters of cooperatives => firms that were owned and democratically managed by workers

- Opposed strikes, but favored political and social reforms

- Divided between long-term social reforms and direct shop floor actions => lack of shop floor activism led to failure

- KOL went into decline after the Panic of 1893
American Railway Union (1893-1897)
united a variety of railroad unions into one organization
Pullman Strike (1894)
A strike against conditions of workers who made the Pullman railway cars => Also known as "Deb's Rebellion" for the leader of the ARU => Eugene V. Debs (Ran for President 5x on the Socialist Party Ticket
What caused the ending of the American Railway Unions?
President Cleveland ordered 20,000 federal troops to break the strike and run the railroads
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) 1905-1920 Part 1
- Also know as the "Wobblies" => an outgrowth of the ARU => led by Eugene V. Debs

- Openly Socialist union, combined its efforts with the Socialist Party

- Advocated a policy of "One Big Union" => organized unskilled factory workers, miners, dockworkers, cowboys
IWW Part 2
- "An injury to one is an injury to all!" => the strongest threat yet to the craft unions and the AFL

- Organizing efforts were concentrated in factory towns in the Northeast and Midwest and mining towns and cities in the West
Events that spurred IWW Membership
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in NYC (1911) => 146 workers killed

"Bread and Roses" Strike (1912) => Lawrence, MA => female textile workers
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
argued that unions represented a "restraint on trade" that prevented employers from gaining full value of their property
Yellow Dog Contracts
contracts employees signed stating they would not try to organize unions
Welfare Capitalism
providing benefits to workers to gain their loyalty
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) (1933)
an act designed to get the economy moving and pull out of the Great Depression => contained section 7a which gave workers the right to form unions and collectively bargain
Section 7a
was challenged in the courts and overturned by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
- also known as the Wagner Act => firmly established the legal right of workers to form unions and collectively bargain

-established ground rules for gaining union representation through union elections

- Required workers in unionized establishments to pay union dues to support the union's activities

NLRA was challenged but it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1937
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
to preside over union representation elections and adjudicate unfair labor practice cases brought by employers or workers

- The passage of the NLRB spurred Massive Strikes to organize industrial workers in many of the large factories (most notably in heavy manufacturing industries like automobiles and steel)
Flint, MI Sitdown Strike (1936-1937)
workers in the United Automobile Workers were challenging General Motors for the right to have their union recognized => workers occupied the factory for 44 days
How many unions withdrew from AFL's Committee on Industrial Organization withdrew from AFL to start the Congress of Industrial Organization?
8 Unions
Congress of Industrial Organization
mainly organized unskilled workers in mass production industries, mining, railroads, automobiles, steel, etc.
The President of the United Mineworkers which became leader of the CIO
John L. Lewis
"With Babies and Banners"
The story of the Women's Emergency Brigade during the Flint, MI sitdown strike in 1936-1937
The CIO rejected the ___ ____ of the AFL and projected a more adversarial position toward capitalism.
business unionism
Who created the National War Labor Board? Why and when was it created?
With the entrance of the U.S. into World War II, President Roosevelt was concerned that the labor disruptions in heavy industry would undermine the war effort so he created the NWLA using an executive order => these provided a framework for postwar relationships b/t capital and labor
The NWLB provided a framework to address grievances of labor while assuring labor peace during the War:
-- offered union recognition to workers in key sectors in exchange for promise of labor peace => this further increased the number of workers in unions
-- it instituted wage stabilization policies in key industries such as automobiles, shipping, railways, airlines, telegraph lines, and mining
-- it created regional administrative boards which handled labor dispute settlement and wage stabilization functions in 12 geographic regions
After WWII, labor disputes surged as workers sought to recoup lost wage gains that they had experienced during the war
-1946, 4.6 million workers went on strike, the most in U.S. history

-Employers and politicians were genuinely afraid of a revolutionary labor movement

-1947, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act which swung the pendulum back in favor of employers
Key Provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act
1) Made illegal successful strategies of the 1930s like sit-down strikes, sympathy strikes, and secondary boycotts

2) Authorized the president to stop strikes that were deemed a threat to national security

3) Required union leaders to sign statements that they were not communists later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

4) Excluded supervisors and managers from belonging to unions

5) Gave states the right to outlaw union security clauses => right-to-work laws => said workers in union shop did not have to pay union dues
Further Developments in the Post-War Period:
1949-1950 -- McCarthyism and right wing attacks on unions

CIO expelled 11 unions with Communist leaders => these were some of the most militant and effective unions of the period

1955 -- merger of AFL (George Meany) and CIO (Walter Reuther) to form the AFL-CIO

Mid-1950s => this ushered in the peak of the post-war labor movement with about one-third of all workers belonging to unions

1957 -- AFL-CIO expelled Teamsters to clean up their image => the CIO wing begins to "buy into" the business unionism model
Capital-Labor Accord
-Was put in place during Post-War

-labor would promise relative labor peace during the terms of an existing contract in exchange for a growing share of the postwar prosperity enjoyed by firms

-The heyday of the capital-labor accord was about 1948-1975

-In practice, union leaders promised to keep their rank-and-file members from striking while a union contract was in effect

-When strikes did occur, they were largely over economic issues while a new contract was being negotiated, not over fundamental issues of management control of the workplace
Passage of the Landrum-Griffin Act (1959)
motivated by heightened concerns about corruption in labor unions, this act mandated certain requirements about union elections for officers and the internal practices of labor unions

- Unions opposed the law arguing that it amounted to government surveillance of internal union activities

-1963, President Kennedy signs an executive order allowing federal government workers to organize into unions => this spurred similar laws at the state and municipal levels allowing state and municipal workers to join unions => spurring the public sector union movement
1960s - 1970s Times of Challenge for U.S. Unions
Challenges from:

- the Civil Rights Movement about the historical lack of effort to organize black workers

-Women's Movement about failure to organize jobs where women worked

-students in the Anti-War Movement about labor's support for the Vietnam War

- Internal revolts from rank-and-file union members about union leaders failure to speak to issues of managerial control => surge in wildcat strikes => "unauthorized" strikes during the term of union contract
PATCO
1981- President Reagan fired 11,345 striking workers of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers' Organization

-This signaled to many employers a new war on labor unions which led to aggressive union-busting tactics in the private sector, but public sector unions continued to thrive

-Gave employers in the private sector the "green light" to restructure the rules of the game between capital and labor the death knell of the capital-labor accord
In 2005, the Change to Win Federation was created
a group of unions that broke away from the AFL-CIO => under the leadership of Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
These unions joined Change to Win, (but some have recently re-affiliated with the AFL-CIO):
-Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

-Teamsters

-Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Workers and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (UNITE HERE)

-United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)

-United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC)

-United Farm Workers (UFW)

-Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA)
Study Slides 50 and on off the Powerpoint
...
THIS SET IS OFTEN IN FOLDERS WITH...