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Union Timeline
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American Civil War begins
13 states decide to cecede from the federal government, due to the perssing issue of individual states rights and later slavery thus createing the Confederate States of America. Bolth sides of the conflict employed massive amounts of factory workers to create supplies and equipment for their armys. makeing the existing labor conditions even worse than they already were. -
Haymarket Square Riot
Various workers from many unions across Chicago protested for the 8 hour workday starting on may 1 and leading up the events at Haymarket Square on the 4th. The demonstration turned violent when an anarchist in the crowd threw a bomb at police who were ordering the crowd to disperse. -
American Federation of Labor is established
the AFL is founded and Samuel Gompers is elected president. In future years the AFL will become one of the largest craft unions in the united states later mergeing with the CIO and thus becomeing the largest labor organization in the United States -
Ludlow Massacre
About 1,200 strikeing coal miners and their familys were attacked by camp guards from the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, the camp guards burned tents of the strikers in the night and the resulting violence cost approxamately 69 lives, and helped the push for child labor laws and the 8 hour work day. -
First World War bedins
The first world war began with the assisination of Archduke Franz Ferdanand one month previously, this sparked Austria Hungary to declare war on Serbia, then Russia declares war on Austria Hungary and the conflice esclates to a global scale leaving the world economy in a slump that would take roughly a decade to fix and almost an entire generation dead. -
Great Depression begins
The Great depression resulted from a worldwide stock market colapse in the late 1920s, which drove many from their jobs and froze many people's liquid assets causeing worldwide uninployment and poverty. Beacuse of this many people joined unions to keep their jobs and have decent wages, by the time the US joined WW2 about 35% of the workforce in the US was unionized -
Wagner act is passed
The Wagner act is passed and signed by FDR as a part of his "new deal". This law gave people the right to form unions and strike. -
Fair Labor Standards Act is passed
Another law signed by FDR as part of the "new deal". The Fair Labor Standerds Act instated many thinks such as, minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor laws. -
United States enters WW2
US enters second world war after the Japanease attack pearl harbor. All able are either drafted, or employed in factories to make supplies and equipment for the army. Due to thease circumstances the US economy becomes stronger and rebounds from the great depression.