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Thirteenth Amendent of the US Constitution
Passed in the midst of the American Civil War, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude (except as a punishment for a crime). -
Knights of Labor (K of L)
The K of L (officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor) was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. The knights demanded 8-hour days and in some cases it acted as a labor union, negotiating with employers. However it was never well organzied, and after a rapid-expansion in the mid-1880s, it suddenly lost its new members and became a small operation agin. Many of them chose to join groups that helped identify their specific needs. -
First Labor Day
The first Labor Day was held in New York City on September 5, 1882 and was started by the Central Labor Union in New York City. In 1884, it was moved to the first Monday in September and the CLU encouraged other cities to celebrate. On June 28, 1894, the US congress voted it a national holiday. -
National Labor Union (NLU)
A political action movement that from 1866 to 1873 sought to improve working conditions through legislative reform rather than through collective bargaining. The NLU called to organize skilled and unskilled laborers, farmers, and reformers into a coalition that would pressure Congress to pass a law limiting the workday to 8 hours. The NLU may have had as many as 500,000 members and was opposed to strikes, believing that owners and workers shared identical interests. The NLU collapsed in 1873. -
Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886
Beginning on March 1, 1886, more than 200,000 railroad workers in five states struck against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads. At least ten people were killed. The unraveling of the strike within two months led directly to the collapse of the Knights of Labor and the formation of the American Federation fo Labor. -
Haymarket Riot
A labor protest rally near Chicago’s Hay Market Square turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police. At least 8 people died as a rules of the violence that day. Despite a lack of evidence, 8 radical labor activities were convicted in connection with the bombing. Haymarket Riot was viewed as a setback for the organized labor movement in America, which was fighting for such rights as the 8-hour workday. The men that were convicted were viewed by many in the labor movement as martyrs. -
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
The AFL was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that disaffected from the Knights of Labor. The federation was founded and dominated by craft unions, and was the largest conglomerate of unions even after is expelled all the industrial unions, which formed their own group, the Congress of Industrial Unions (CIO). The AFL would later join the CIO and form the AFL-CIO on 12/04/1955. -
Homestead Strike (Pinkerton rebellion/ Homestead massacre)
An industrial lockout (work stoppage by management) and strike whcih began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security (Pinkerton) agents on July 6, 1892. The battle was one of the most serious disputes in US history. Even the Pennsylvania state milita was called in to quell hostilities. The result was a major defeat for the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) labor union and was a set back for their efforts to unionize steel workers. -
Pullman strike
In May of 1894, the Pullman Palace Car Company, a manufacturer of railroad cars, cut wages without reducing costs in rent and other charges for workers. Workers attempted to negotiate with George Pullman, but he refused and so they went on strike on May 11, 1894. With support from the American Railyway Union, they boycotted Pullman. The situation escalated when President Cleveland sent federal troops to break the strike. Eventually the strike workers were forced to sign a promise not to unionize -
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
A horrible accident where a discarded cigarette started a fire on the eighth floor of the Asch Building in a New York City sweatshop. The fire truck ladders only reached the sixth story. Many workers, who were trapped by doors that had been locked to prevent theft, leapt from windows to their deaths. 129 women and 17 men (mostly young European immigrants) perished. The tragedy led to more than 30 health and safety laws, including fire codes nad restrictions on child labor. -
Ludlow Massacre
The second largest labor conflict in US history. The Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel and Iron Company guards attracted a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, CO, with the National Guard using machine guns to fire into the colony. About 2 dozen men people (miner’s, wives, and children) were killed. Ludlow was the deadliest single incident in the southern Colorado Coal Strike (9/1913 - 12/1914). -
Battle of Blair Mountain
The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising the US history and one of the largest, best-organized, and most well-armed uprisings since the Civil War. For five days in Logan County, WV, some 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strike breakers (the Logan Defneders) who were backed by coal mine operators during the miner’s attempt to unionize. The battle ended after approximately 1 million rounds were fired and the US Army intervened. It was a victory fo management. -
Samuel Gompers
(January 27, 1850 - December 13, 1924) Samuel Gompers was an English-born American labor union leader and a key firgure in American labor history. Gomper foudnerd the AFL and served as the orgnaization’s presdent from 1886 to his death in 1924. He promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL, trying to minimize jurisdictional battles. He encouraged the AFL to take political action and during WWI he and the AFL openly supported the war effort. -
Textile Workers Strike of 1934
The largest strike in the labor history of the Untied States at the time, involving 400,000 textile workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the US Southern states, lasting 22 days. Not really an organized strike, but a series of seperate strikes called for by the United Textile Workers union. They demanded wage increases and 40-hour weeks, but the industry ingnored them. Many states called in the National Guard and declared martial law. The strike did not result in much change. -
The Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act of 1935)
The most important piece of labor legislations enacted in the US in the 20th century. Its main purpose was to establish the legal right of most workers (notably excepting agricultural and domestic workers) to organize or join labor unions and to bargain collectively with their employees. It also set up a permanent 3-member (later 5-member) National Labor Relations Board with the power to hear and resolve labor disputes through quasi-judicial proceedings -
General Motor’s sit-down strike
Workers in Flint, Michigan struck at a GM factory beginning on 12/30/1936. The United Automobile Workers (UAW) announced that it would not settle the Clevelnad strike until it reached a national agreement with GM covering all its plants. These workers sat down, physically occupying the plant, keeping management and others out, which prevented management from bringing in strikebreakers. Police attempted to enter the plants, but it ended in a standoff. After 44 days the strike ended. -
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
The first act in the United States prescribing nationwide compulsuroy federal regulation of wages and hours. The law, applying to all industries engaged in interstate commerce, established a minimum wage and a minimum hour work week (eventually 40 hours) that no workerwas obliged to work past without compensation at overtime rates. -
Taft Hartley Act (Labor-Management Relations Act)
Enacted over the veto of Pres. Harry S. Truman and an anti-union climate, the act amended much of the pro-union Wagner Act. It preserved the rights of labor to organize and bargain collectively, but it also protected the right to not join a union (outlawing closed shop), specified unfair union practices, and set further restrictions on unions and their rights/jurisdictions. -
Steel Strike of 1959
In 1959, members of the United Steelworkers of America led a 116 day (7/15/1959 - 11/7/1959) labor union strike. They striked over managmenet’s demand that the union give up a contract clause which limited magement’s abiltiy to change the number of workers assigned to a task or to introduce new work rules or machinery whcih would result in reduced numbers of employees. The union eventually retained the contract clause and won minimal wage increases.
