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Lowell Mill Girls "Turnout" to protect wages
In Lowell Mass, the workers of some textile mills were mainly women. The working conditions were very dangerous and the wages were not good. The women decided to protest a 15-20% wage slash. The mill owners began firing many of the workers and this lead to a strike started by the women. Due to the overproduction of textile mills, the owners could do without the workers. In 1845 a group of these Lowell women tried petitioning for a 10 hr workday. -
Philadelphia General Strike
Took place in Philadelphia PA. It was the first general strike in North America and involved 20,000 workers who began striking for a ten-hour workday and increased wages. The workers won the strike in a complete victory. -
Commonwealth v. Hunt
This was a supreme court case ruling on the subject of labor unions. Cheif Justice Shaw ruled that labor combinations were legal if they were organized for a legal purpose and used legal means to achieve their goals. -
New Hampshire
New Hampshire in 1847 enacted their first state 10-hour day law. -
The Great New England Shoemakers Strike of 1860
Tens of thousands of shoemakers went on strike in Lynn, Mass for a living wage. The strike spread to 25 New England shoe towns. Many walked off their job and parades of supporters supported the strike, parades were held. -
National Labor Union
The National Labor Union was founded in 1866 for both skilled and unskilled workers. They endorsed the eight-hour workday and the leaders also called for an end to convict labor and the establishment of a federal department of labor. They also endorsed immigration restriction to push wage scales higher. These immigration restrictions were particularly put on Chinese migrants. Their leader was William H. Sylvis. It was racially segregated but allowed women to join. -
Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor was founded for both skilled and unskilled workers. They wanted equal pay for women and an end to children and convict labor. Terence V. Powderly became the leader in the 1880s. They opposed strikes and wanted to solve issues peacefully. Powderly wanted a total ban on Chinese immigration. After an incline in the members, they disbanded in the late 1880s. The members left to form the AFL. -
Farmers' Alliance
The Farmer's Alliance started in Texas and its main goal was to end the bad effects of the crop-lien system on farmers. The alliance also supported the government's regulation in farming, establishment of an income tax and to ease the burden of loan debtors. In the early 1890s the Farmer's Alliance merged and became a political party called the Populist or People's Party. Charles W. Macune became the leader of the movement and he merged different alliances to form the National Farmer's Alliance. -
American Federation of Labor
SSamuel Gompers was the leader of this organization. He wanted higher wages for skilled workers. The reason why this organization was very successful was that it focused only on skilled workers. This was because owners did not want to lose these workers so they negotiated more for higher wages and shorter hours. The AFL did not recruit women workers. -
National Colored Farmers' Alliance
This alliance was formed in Arkansas and spread to other southern states. It was formed in 1886 and was a paralleled yet segregated branch of the National Farmers' Alliance. A group of black farmers decided to start their own alliance to stand up for their on rights. There were 1.2 million members in 1891. -
United Mine Workers
This union is best known for The Coal strike of 1902. Miners were on strike asking for higher wages, shorter workdays and the recognition of their union. President Theodore Roosevelt became involved and sent military to scare the owners. The strike ended, and the miners received a 10% wage increase and reduced workdays from ten to nine hours. It was the first labor episode in which the federal government intervened in favor of workers. -
American Railway Union
This organization hoped to unite all railway workers regardless of their skill or craft. It was founded in Chicago, Illinois and their main leader was Eugene Debs. They were involved in the Pullman Strike when thousands of railway workers joined the ARU and then went on strike. The Union refused to let their workers go back to work during the Pullman strike after a court injunction was passed. This caused the leader and socialist, Eugene Debs, to get arrested. -
Pullman Strike
The Pullman company manufactured sleeping cars and operated them under contract to the railroads. Pullman created Pullman City to house his employees. In 1893, because of a depression, factory wages at the company fell about twenty-five percent, but the rents George Pullman charged did not decrease. Because workers could not pay for rent three thousand Pullman workers went on strike without authorization of their union. The government had to break it up because it interrupted trade. -
Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership. The ILGWU was founded in 1900 in New York City by seven local unions, with a few thousand members between them. The union grew rapidly but eventually began to stagnate as the conservative leadership favored the interests of skilled workers. This union conducted many succesful strikes. -
Anthracite Strike
The UMW called a strike to gain higher wages and shorter hours and also recognition as a union. The mine owners resisted and then Roosevelt decided to react, newly in office. He summoned the two sides to the White House and forced them to accept an agreement. The arbitration commision granted the miners a 10% wage increase and reduced their working hours to nine hours. He defended worker's rights to organize and in this case, sided with the strikers. -
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international, radical labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905 founded by William Haywood. IWW membership peaked around thirty thousand, mostly western miners, lumbermen, fruit pickers, and itinerant laborers. -
Pressed Steel Car strike of 1909
These were labor strikes of immigrants. They are often referred to as "1909 McKnees Rocks strike" that lasted from July 13- September 8th. It was a bloody battle between strikers, private security agents, and the Pennsylvania State Police. At least 12 people died. The strike was the major industrial labor dispute in the Pittsburgh district after the famous 1892 Homestead strike. -
New York Shirtwast strike
This was a labor strike involving women in New York shirtwast factories. In Feb 1910, the National Women's Trade Union League of America settled with the factory owners, gaining improved wages, working conditions, and hours. -
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City was one of the deadliest industrial disasters. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers who were mostly women. They died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women. The owners had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft. -
U.S. Department of Labor
A bill that created the U.S Department of Labor was signed by President Taft in 1913. It was one of the last things he did as president before Wilson became president. -
Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage/ National Woman's Party
The Congressional Union was a radical American organization formed in 1913 and led by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. It campaigned for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's suffrage. It was inspired by the United Kingdom's suffragette movement. Their continuous campaigning drew attention from congressmen, and in 1914 they were successful in pushing the amendment onto the floor for the first time in decades. -
Ludlow Massacre
The strike that coal miners in Colorado participated in was for eight-hour work day and child labor laws. High death tolls occurred after a daylong fight between militia and camp guards against striking workers. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. There were three large coal companies involved. -
Boston Police Strike
Police officers sought recognition for their trade union and improvements in wages and working conditions. Police Commissioner Edwin Upton Curtis denied that police officers had any right to form a union, much less one affiliated with a larger organization like the American Federation of Labor. -
Seattle General Strike
The Seattle General Strike of 1919 was a five-day general work stoppage by more than 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, Washington. Dissatisfied workers in several unions began the strike to gain higher wages after two years of World War I wage controls. -
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL).The leaders of the BSCP became leaders in the civil rights movement and continued to play a significant role in it after it focused on the ending of segregation in the South. -
Railway Labor Act
The Railway Labor Act is a United States federal law that governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries. The Act, seeked to substitute bargaining, arbitration and mediation for strikes as a means of resolving labor disputes. -
Norris-LaGuardia Act
This act banned yellow-dog contracts and barred the federal courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent labor disputes. It created a positive right of nonintereference by employers against workers joining trade unions. -
Mexican-Americans
Unions of Mexican Workers and Farm Laborers emerged from a 1933 grape workers' strike. More strikes erupted in 1935-1936 from the celery fields and citrus groves around Los Angeles to the lettuce fields of the Salinas Valley. -
National Industrial Recovery Act
Protected collective bargaining rights for unions, industrial recovery, guaranteed trade union rights, permitted the regulation of working standards, and regulated the price of certain refined petroleum products and their transportation. It was mainly passed to stimulate economic recovery. -
United Textile Workers
The AFL-affiliated United Textile Workers launched a new drive. Some four hundred thousand textile workers went on strike, Southern governors mobilized the National Guard. Several strikers were killed and thousands arrested. The strike failed, and the textile industry remained mostly non-union as the decade ended. -
The National Labor Relations Act/ Wagner Act
Guaranteed collective bargaining rights, permitted closed shops (in which all employees must join a union), and outlawed such managment tactics as blacklisting union organizers. The law created the NLRB to enfore the law and supervise shop elections. -
Committee of Industrial Organization
John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers and Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, frustrated by the AFL's slowness in organizing factory workers, started the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) within the AFL. CIO preached unionization in Pittsburgh steel mills, Detroit auto plants, Akron rubber factories, and southern textile mills. It was open to all workers regardless of gender, race or skill level. -
General Motors strike
Employees at GM's plants in Flint, Michigan, stopped work and peacefully occupied the factories. This "sit-down" strategy paralyzed GM's production. The leader of the strike was Walter Reuther. Women did not actively participate but they picketed outside. FDR refused to intervene in the strike and send in troops like what GM asked him to do. On Feb 11, 1937, GM signed a contract recognizing the United Automobile Workers. -
U.S. Steel
In 1936 a CIO-sponsored organizing committee announced a strike to unionize the steel industry. In March 1937, U.S. Steel recognized the union, raised wages, and introduced a forty-hour workweek. -
"Little Steel"
Workers in twenty-seven little steel plants, including Republic's factory in Chicago, walked off the job. Anticipating the strike, Girdler had assembled an arsenal of guns and tear gas. After a hostile fight with strikers, in 1941, under growing preasure, the Little Steel companies, including Republic, finally accepted the CIO union. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
Banned child labor and set a national minimum wage (initially forty cents an hour) and a maximum workweek of forty hours. The law helped exploited workers and underscored the government's role in regulating abusive workplace conditions. -
War Labor Board
This was established as a compulsory arbitration to settle differences between labor and management to prevent a decrease in productivity. This helped meet a lot of the unions wishes. -
Smith-Connally Act
Passed in result of a strike by the United Mine Workers. The Act allowed the federal government to seize and operate industries threatened by or under strikes that would interfere with war production, and prohibited unions from making contributions in federal elections. This was a harsh blow to unions. -
Coal Strike of 1943
John L. Lewis, leader of The United Mine Workers of America, lead a strike where millions of mine workers walked off their job. By doing this, he was violating a pledge many unions had of not striking during time of war. This caused the government to put more control over unions. -
Largest strike wave in history
1945-1946
A series of massive post-war strikes. Sharp price rises and shrinking paychecks grew overtime and organized labor started to demand higher wages. More than 4.5 million workers went on strike. Truman ordered the army to seize mines when the United Mine Workers stalled the US economy for 40 days. The unions gave into Truman's demands. -
Taft-Hartley Act
Barred the close shop. A close shop was a work place where all employees had to join a union; outlawed secondary boycotts which were strikes against suppliers of a targeted business. It required union officials to sign anticommunist loyalty oaths. It also permitted the president to call a cooling-off period to delay strikes that may endanger national security. -
CIO Expels Red Unions
The CIO votes to expel eleven unions, with almost 1 million members, because of their association with communism. -
Teamster Corruption
The Teamsters, along with Bakery Workers and Laundry Workers, are expelled from the AFL-CIO for corruption. -
Landrum-Griffith Act
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed this act. The law addresses the union corruption uncovered by Senator John L. McClellan. It holds labor leaders to stricter standards in handling union funds and requires them to file annual reports. -
Kennedy Legalizes Public Employee Unions
An order by President Kennedy allows federal employees to organize, join unions, and bargain collectively with the government. It does not give them the right to strike. The move begins an era of public employee unionization. -
Equal Pay Act
The Equal Pay Act prohibits discrimination in wages on the basis of sex. This was a success for many unions. -
United Farm Workers
The United Farm Workers of America, is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merge of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the National Farm Workers Association led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. They transformed from workers' rights organizations into a union as a result of a series of strikes in 1965. -
New York Teachers Strike
A New York City teachers strike ends after depriving more than a million public school students of an education during 36 school days. This strike adds to the distrust of organized labor due to the distress of the community and the harming of the childrens education. -
Postal Strike
In the first national strike of public employees, more than 200,000 Post Office workers walked off their job. Though the action is illegal and President Nixon calls on the Army and National Guard to keep the mail moving, the two-week strike proves largely successful and ultimately lead to the modern day postal system. -
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
A nonprofit organization of African American trade union members associated with the AFL-CIO. -
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
A nonprofit organization affilated with the AFL-CIO. It was formed to provide Latino trade union members in the United States with a stronger voice within the AFL-CIO, to encourage Latino participation on the democratic process, and to encourage the organization of Latino workers into labor unions. -
Coalition of Labor Union
A nonprofit organization of trade union women affilated with the AFL-CIO. Tried to seek connections between the feminist movement and labor movement.
