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Haymarket Riot
Haymarket Square was organized by labor radicals to protest the killing and wounding of several workers by the Chicago police during a strike the day before at the McCormick Reaper Works. 8 people died when someone threw a bomb at police. 8 labor activists were convicted even with lack of evidence. Demands for an eight-hour working day became increasingly widespread among American laborers in the 1880s and caused a crowd of some 1,500 people to gather at Haymarket Square. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
The first major piece of legislation that affected labor unions. The law forbade any "restraint of commerce" across state lines, and courts ruled that union strikes and boycotts were covered by the law. The purpose of the Sherman Act is not to protect competitors from harm from legitimately successful businesses, nor to prevent businesses from gaining honest profits from consumers, but rather to preserve a competitive marketplace to protect consumers from abuses. -
Men Who Built America- Homestead Strike
Striked to protest longer hours and lower wages. three thousand hourly workers went on strike in support of the union members. Several thousand strikers and supporters were arrayed on the hills above the river, armed with rifles, dynamite, and even a cannon. The strikers, who had already been shooting at the barge as it came upriver, opened fire. The shooting stopped when the Pinkertons raised a white flag and a union leader came onto the barge to negotiate terms of the Pinkertons’ surrender. -
The Battle of Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek was famous for important, dramatic battles where workers fought to win their rights. Cripple Creek had become a boom town after gold was discovered. Some 150 mines sprang up. So did a strong miners union, the Free Coinage Union No. 19, which was part of the militant Western Federation of Miners. -
Great Anthracite Coal Strike
the United Mine Workers of America began a strike which threatened to create an energy crisis. Seeking better wages and conditions, in eastern Pennsylvania, an area that contained the majority of the nation’s supply of Anthracite coal. Industrialist and financier J.P. Morgan believed the strike could threaten his businesses and made a deal with the union. The UMWA’s initial demands were for a 20% wage increase, but ended up with a 10% raise. -
Women’s Trade Union League formed at the AFL convention
Proved successful in uniting women from all classes to work toward better, fairer working conditions. Came into existence as a result of Boston meeting of the AFL, where it became clear there was no intention of including women within its ranks. The league’s leadership had passed from affluent middle-class women to women with working-class backgrounds.Continuing through the Great Depression, it suffered serious financial problems that permanently weakened the organization & dissolved in 1950 -
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
A fire broke out on the top floors of the factory. Firefighters arrived but their ladders weren’t tall enough to reach the upper floors of the 10-story building. Trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape exit doors, workers jumped to their deaths. When the fire was over, 146 of the 500 workers were dead. After the fire, their story inspired hundreds of activists across the state and the nation to push for fundamental reforms,inspired a lifetime of advocacy for workers’ rights. -
Norris- LaGuardia Act
The United States experienced increasing industrial strife, leading many employers to request federal courts to issue orders prohibiting the activities of strikers.This limited the use of labor injunctions, declared that employees be allowed to organize and bargain free of employer coercion. The act treated unions as entities with rights and interests of their own, granted unions greater authority to engage in strikes and barred altogether the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
first federal minimum wage which was just 25 cents. It put restrictions on child labor. and mandated that all workers would get paid overtime. It was passed to protect workers from abuses that were occurring during the Industrial Revolution and Great Depression. -
US Postal Strike
Increased dissatisfaction with wages, working conditions, benefits, and management led the postal workers in New York City to strike. People nationwide decided to follow. The strike was so effective that within two weeks negotiations took place. The unions’ demands for wages and conditions were largely met, and they were granted the right to negotiate.
