Historical Development of Labor Unions

By SK4.5
  • Period: to

    Hostility towards Unions

    • The first attempts to by laborers to organize themselves were crushed by being prosecuted by certain laws such as conspiracy and restraint-of-trade, in both the US and Britain.
    • To resist these restrictions, workers in different countries came up with different methods.
    • In the United States, workers began pursuing the tactic of collective bargaining, while in Britain, the labor movement gave preference to political activism.

  • Founding of the National Labor Union (NLU)

    • It was one of the earliest recorded attempts to organize all small trade unions into a federation.
    • The NLU ceased to exist in the 1870s, but some of the individual unions that together made up the NLU continued to exist.
  • Period: to

    Unions only for Skilled Workers

    Unions in the 1800s and early 1900s were only for skilled workers, unskilled workers' unions such as laborers were often expelled from the larger collective federation of unions, such as the NLU and the AFL.

  • Founding of American Federation of Labor (AFL)

    • The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded by a group of unions made up of skilled workers.
    • These unions had local branches in different areas, and they organized efforts to negotiate better salaries, working hours, and conditions.

  • Formation of Industrial Unions (Congress of Industrial Organizations)

    • In 1941, small unions representing unskilled workers, which were expelled from the AFL in 1935 formed a collective union called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

  • Formation of Mass Unions

    • In 1955, the AFL and CIO merged to form the AFL-CIO.
    • This marked the beginning of a period in which unions in Britain and Europe also began to recognize the influence of industrial unions and to embrace them.

  • Partial Loss of Unions' Bargaining Power

    • In the late 1900s, unions around the world began to lose some of their bargaining power due to the effects of globalization, which enabled employers to seek cheaper employment from laborers in poorer countries.

  • The Impact of Right-to-work Laws on Unions

    • In the early 2000s, "right-to-work" laws were created in several American states.
    • These laws prevented businesses from being able to force workers to sign contracts containing a clause that forced workers to pay service fees to a certain union.
    • The effect of these laws was to reduce the membership of unions, and hence, their bargaining power.