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Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor, also known as the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was founded in Philadephia, Pennsylvania in 1869. It began as a secret fraternal order, but later rose to national prominence in 1879 under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly. This labor organization pursued broad reforms as much as practical issues such as wasges and hours. Unlike the American Federation of Labor, the Knights of Labor welcomed all laborers regardless of race, gender, or skill. -
Haymarket Riot
On May 4th, 1886, a demonstration in Chicago's Haymarket Square was held to protest the slayings of two workers during a previous strike. In the beginning, the meeting was peaceful but when policemen told the crowd of about 3,000 to disperse, someone threw a bomb. Although the bomb thrower was never found, the incident was blamed on labor "radicalism" and resulted in public scorn of labor unions and the demise of the Knights of Labor. -
Homestead Strike
In July 1892, wage cuts at Andrew Carnegie's Homestead Steel Plant in Pittsburgh provoked a violent strike which three company-hired detectives and three workers died. Using ruthless force and strikebreakers, company officials effectively broke the strike and destroyed the union. After the [Homestead Strike](<a href='http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/pande04.html), Americans began to wonder if industrialization might carry a heavy price. -
Pullman Strike
Beginning in May 1894, this strike at the Pullman Palace Car Company near Chicago was one of the largest strikes in American history. Workers struck to protest wage cuts, high rents for company housing, and layoffs; the American Railway Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, joined the strike in June. Extending into twenty-seven states and territories, it effectively paralyzed the western half of the nation. -
Clayton Antitrust Act
An attempt to improve the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, this law outlawed interlocking dictorates, forbade policies that created monopolies, and made corporate officers responsible for antitrust violations. Benefiting labor, it declared that unions were not conspiracies in restraint of trade and outlawed the use of injunction sin labor disputes unless they were necessary to protect property. -
Wagner Act
The 1935 Wagner Act, formally known as the National Labor Relations Act, created the National Labor Relations Board with the power to protect the rights of most workers and to supervise union elections and designate winning unions as official bargaining agents. The board could also issue cease-and-desist orders to employers who dealt unfairly with their workers. -
Social Security Act
Before the Great Depresssion, the government did not offer financial aid to citizens. However, the Great Depression caused nationwide misery and people began pleading the government for help. The 1935 [Social Security Act](<a href='http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1609.html) established a system of old age, unemployment, and survivors' insurance funded by wage and payroll taxes. Although the was a momentous legislation, some still remained in poverty. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
The Fair Labor Standards Act aimed to establish both minimum wages and maximum hours of work per week. The minimum wage was set at forty cents an hour by 1940 and a standard workweek of forty hours, with overtime pay of one and a half times the regular pay. Despite its loopholes, the law did lead to pay raises for the twelve million workers earning less than forty cents an hour. -
Taft-Hartley Act
This 1947 anti-union legislation, also known as the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, was created after numerous large strikes had crippled much of the major industries. The Taft-Hartley Act, an amendment to the Wagner Act of 1935, outlawed the closed shop and secondary boycotts. It also authorized the president to seek injunctions to prevent strikes that posed a threat to national security.
