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13th Amendment
Section one: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Formally abolished slavery in the United States -
National Labor Union (NLU)
It was the first national labor federation in the United States. It paved the way for other organizations, such as the Knights of Labor and the AFL. -
Knights of Labor
Knights of Labor (KOL), the first important national labor organization in the United States. It was a secret organization meant to protect its members from employer retaliations. -
The first Labor Day
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. It's a celebration of laborers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labor movement. -
Homestead Strike
Workers belonging to companies in Homestead, Pa. protest a proposed wage cut. Henry Frick , the company's general manager, determined to break the union. He hired 300 Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant. After an armed battle between the workers and the detectives on July 6, in which several men were killed or wounded, the governor called out the state militia. The Homestead strike ended on Nov. 20th, led to a serious weakening of unionism in the steel industry until the 1930s. -
Wagner Act
It was a New Deal reform passed by President Franklin Roosevelt. It was instrumental in preventing employers from interfering with workers' unions and protests in the private sector. -
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
It establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, and youth employment standards. This affected full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. -
Taft-Hartley
Also known as the Labor-Management Relations Act, it passed Congress in 1947 and established guidelines to correct unions' unfair labor practices. Taft-Hartley did several things to regulate labor practices in the United States. -
AFL(American Federation of Labor)
It was a new kind of workers' organization, which only allowed skilled workers to be members. It was an autonomous labor unions formed by the merger of the AFL (founded 1886), which originally organized workers in craft unions, and the CIO (founded 1935), which organized workers by industries. -
Steel Strike of 1959
The key issue in the strike was contract language on new technology and job security. Eisenhower invoked the back-to-work provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, anti-union legislation passed by Congress. eventually the workers won the right to form a union. A gain won by the struggles that gave rise to the powerful unions of the CIO included the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), popularly called the “Wagner Act”.
