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Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution stands out as a time of great prosperity and expansion as America entered the modern era. Between 1860 and 1910 the population of the U.S. tripled, and so too did the industrial work force. Naturally the demand for workers was high, but in this time of heightened immigration the supply of laborers keen to make their way in a new country was even higher. -
Civil War
Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves. In1861-65, Civil War generates great wealth for growing corporations and kicks off second industrial revolution which increases manufacturing investment, and the number of industrial workers grows from 23 to 79 million making the U.S. the world’s number one manufacturing nation. American Civil War looked to several factors explaining the geographic divide, including sectionalism, protectionism, and state's rights. -
Railway Strike of 1877
A strike against the Baltimore & Ohio railroad ignites a series of strikes across the northeast. The workers went on strike, because the company had reduced workers' wages twice in one year. The workers , who went on strikes, refused to trains run. -
Homestead Strike
Homestead Strike, which began on June 30,1892. This event was in Pennsylvania and the bloody battle that ensued instigated by the steel plant's management remains a transformational moment in U.S. history, leaving scars that have never fully healed after five generations. A lockout at the Homestead Steel Works turned violent as 300 Pinkerton detectives hired by the company arrived at the mills by barge. -
ILGWU Strike
International Ladies' Garment workers' Union(ILGWU) strike in New York, 1909. More than 20,000 workers from 500 factories went on strikes to get a 20 percent pay raise and a 52 hour work week. This largely successful "Uprising of 20,000" is the largest labor action by women in the nation's history. -
Ludlow Massacre
Violence breaks out in a camp housing striking miners in Ludlow, Colorado. National Guardsmen machinegun strikers and set fire to their tents, killing five miners, two women, and twelve children. More than 75 people will be killed over the full course of the industrial dispute. -
Great Depression
In Great Depression, about one-third of the American work force was unemployed, a staggering figure for a country that, in the decade before, had enjoyed full employment. With the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, government (and eventually the courts) began to look more favorably on the pleas of labor.In 1932, Congress passed one of the first pro-labor laws (Norris-LaGuardia Act). -
Norris-La Guardia Act
In 1932, United States set up the Norris-La Guardia Act (federal law).The Norris-La Guardia Act proclaims that yellow-dog contracts, which require a worker to promise not to join a union, are unenforceable, settling a long-standing dispute between management and labor. The law also limits courts' power to issue injunctions against strikes. -
Wagner Act
The Wagner was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt on 1935. It established the National Labor Relations Board and addressed relations between unions and employers in the private sector. This law made workers right to form unions and strike was protected. -
World War II
During WWII, women took over factory jobs held by men fighting. Also, many school-aged children was helped with the need for a larger source of food, the nation looked to help on farms. In addition, there was a growing labor shortage in war centers, with sound trucks going street by street begging for people to apply for war jobs. -
Equal Pay Act
John F. Kennedy signed into this law on June 10, 1963. Equal Pay Act, which prohibits arbitrary discrimination against women in the payment of wages (discrimination in wages on the basis of sex). This act represents many years of effort by labor, management, and several private organizations unassociated with labor or management, to call attention to the unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job.
