Labor Unions Formed to Give all People the Equal Right to Work

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All persons have the right to work. They have to right to safe working conditions, fair wages, and overall well treatment. This however was not always provided to employees. Focusing on the time between 1886 to 1949, the rights of workers have been fought for.
Labor unions were beginning to form. Labor unions are organized associations of laborers trying to further and protect their rights. One of the first labor unions is the Knights of Labor. They were open to both unskilled and skilled workers. By the year 1886, the Knights of Labor had over 730,000 members ("Knights of Labor"). American mechanist Terence Powderly was elected president of the Knights of Labor. Their goal was to improve working conditions, earn minimum wage, have an eight hour workday, and prohibited child labor. They wanted to be granted equal opportunities.
The Knights of Labor participated in the Haymarket Strike. Employers were planning to cut the wages of their employees by replacing them with industrialized machinery. This angered employees and many turned to the Labor Unions, most notably the Knights of Labor at the time, to hold strikes and boycotts. In Chicago on May 4th, 1886, tens of thousands of men and women of all different races and nationalities rallied together in hope of gaining an eight hour workday. ("Haymarket Square Riot" U.S. History in Context). Policemen arrived at the scene when a bomb was thrown into the crowd by an unknown person. Seven policemen were killed in the explosion and 70 people were injured. ("Haymarket Square riot" American History. ABC-CLIO). Gunfire continued throughout the crowd and thousands were injured in the riot. The Knights of Labor suffered several fractions after this and eventually faded away ("Haymarket Sq...

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... joined Eugene V. Debs of the American Railway Union. He called for a strike and boycott of the pullman cars. George Pullman decided he would wait out the strike. Most of the railroad traffic came to a halt and violent confrontations ensued ("Pullman Palace Car Company”). About 150,000 railway workers across the country joined in the strike. That is when President Grover Cleveland intervened. He sent twenty-five hundred federal troops to end the strike. A riot broke out and several strikers were killed and injured as well as many from the troops. Eugene V. Debs was arrested and the American Railway Union was broken up ("Pullman Strike"). The strike was unsuccessful in gaining any rights. George Pullman was responsible for the actions taken by his employees however, he failed to provide them with their rights.
The cities is where many labor violations can be found.

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