Reasons for the General Strike of 1926 The General Strike took place as a result of short and long-term problems. Long term factors such as the increase in Trade Union members, the change of ownership in the mines, and the threat of Communism were all starting points. The price of coal fluctuating along with economic instability in Britain, the US and Germany and the adherence to the Gold Standard also contributed to the timing of the General Strike. The growth of the Labour Party and the threat of nationalisation made private mine owners feel insecure. The First World War had seen the mines put into government hands. This meant national wage schemes and a seven-hour day guaranteed. However, at the end of the war the Sankey Report failed to report back uncammanly for nationalisation and Lloyd George did not enforce it. This meant workers found themselves back to regional pay scales and longer hours. Firstly, after World War One, the British citizens were expecting a change in lifestyle, and after losing many family members; they were expecting what the Prime Minister had promised them ‘a fit country for heroes to live in’. The standard of life during the war was considerably bad, as the government abandoned the need of food and supplies, and concentrated on military and war associated requirements. This meant that many imports and exports were lost for several reasons for example cotton from India and supplies from Japan, older industries such as coal; shipbuilding and steel were becoming extremely overpriced. Unemployment became high at 10% and falling prices were the beginning of a long struggle in the economy. Expectations were high in Britain at the time. So Winston Churchill decided to put Britain back on the Gold Standard to bring the economy back up, Britain had been taken off of the Gold Standard in 1914 and because the pound was no longer backed by gold anymore, it dropped in value quickly, worth only $3.20 after the war, rather than the $4.86 it was worth before the war.
The strike affected much of the country, and it had great influence on public opinion on the rights of workers. It showed how the roles of management and the roles of government handled this situation. The Pullman Strike of 1894 and its aftermath had a huge effect on the course of the labor movement in the United States. The use of federal troops and the labor injunction sent a message to U.S. workers that would not change until the new deal of the 1930s. George Pullman was no longer look at as the great enlightened employer who took care of his workers, but a greedy intolerant man. After the strike he was worried that people would rob him so when he was buried he had it lined in concrete so no one could. The Pullman strike ultimately was unsuccessful at the time. Workers were sent to jail and many couldn’t find any jobs after. Although, it was successful in several ways. The federal government was involved for the first time in history because of a strike, and because they all took a stand for their human rights it impacted the future and how workers are treated
1919 Winnipeg General Strike was Canada's most influential labour action. After World War I many Canadian soldiers returned home to find few opportunities, all while companies had enjoyed enormous profits on war contracts. Wages and working conditions were dismal and labour regulations were mostly non-existent.
They concentrated on higher wages, shorter hours, and personal issues of workers. The American Federation of Labor’s main weapon was walkouts and boycotts to get industries to succeed to better conditions and higher wages. By the early 1900’s, its membership was up to ½ million workers. Through the years since The Great Depression, labor unions were responsible for several benefits for employees. Workers have safer conditions, higher paying jobs to choose from, and better benefits negotiated for them by their collective bargaining unit.
There were many causes for the Great Depression. The first and one of the largest was the stock market crash. Before 1929 the stock market was flourishing and everyone wanted to buy stocks. People were so confident in the stock market that they were buying “on margin”, which meant that brokers would lend them 10% of the money they invested (D1). The problems began when stocks were being over speculated. When people began to realize this, they began selling there shares. On October 29, 1929, 16 million shares were sold (D9). This day became known as “Black Thursday”, the day the stock market crashed (D12). The second reason was the overproduction of goods. Factories had already produced too many goods and now there was no demand for them. The government began to raise tariffs to protect Canadian industries but things only led downhill from there.
Organized labor, during the period from 1875-1900, had drastic effects on the lives of factory workers. Labor unions not only sought to improve working conditions; they wanted to have a large impact on society as a whole as well. These unions also altered feelings toward organized labor.
After the great depression, unions were legalized in order to be the voice for the workers for whom they represented to their employers. Once this legalization became evident through federal statute, set the stage for what was to become the Fair Labor Standards Act. Having just survived a depression, the United States was hoping to avoid any future economic downturns, the government would accomplish this with paying higher wages that the employer could afford and employees could provide for their families.
Union membership increased from 2 million in 1904 to 5 million in 1920. As the power of the labor movement increased, unions began demanding closed or union shops. The main advantage of the closed shop was that unions did not have to continually recruit new employees in order to maintain their presence. Most employers resisted any form of organized labor, and they especially opposed the closed shop. The wave of labor unrest that followed the end of the war, most notably the massive Steel Strike of 1919, convinced business leaders of the need to fight labor with a united
...s became even more desperate at the time of the great depression that ultimately led to the great railway strike, in which many workers lost their lives at the hand of the Pennsylvania militia. This act proved to be a major turning point in the evolution of the labor movement in the United States.
The Panic of 1873 had triggered a severe economic depression and by the summer of 1877 the United States was still stuck in that depression. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was a result of the depression. Ten percent wage cuts added to earlier salary reductions led to the labor unrest which began on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Martinsburg, West Virginia and rapidly spread to other railroad lines around the country. Few of the strikers were ...
From 1929 to 1940, the United States experienced its worst long-lasting period of high unemployment rates and poor economy: the Great Depression. Buying on margin, speculation, and buying on credit could have been the main factors that led the stock market to crash, and, consequently, gave a start to the Great Depression. These facts strongly support that the Great Depression was caused by people’s buying habits.
The Great Depression was the worst economic slump ever in U.S. history, and one which spread to virtually all of the industrialized world. The depression began in late 1929 and lasted for about a decade. Many factors played a role in bringing about the depression; however, the main cause for the Great Depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920's, and the extensive stock
One of the most significant eras to impact America were the 1920’s. It made the old America into a more modernize country, as it changed the economy, culture, social, political, artistic and cultural aspect of America.
Although, the growth of business was booming and consumption was extremely high during the 1920’s employers failed to equally distribute the benefits to its industrial workers who got the short end of the stick and did not see any profit from productivity. Since there was no law at the time established on how many hours a person was to work and get paid, employers would overwork and underpay the laborers. This became a major problem because it brought about high unemployment rates, which for laborers, the shortage of jobs meant strong competition among each other for finding and keeping a job, and low wages, which brought down consumption.
Unions were looked down upon and often scoffed at by factory owners. England even went through a period where unions were outlawed because of how liberal they were. People during the time of the Industrial Revolution were taken advantage of and were not paid as much as they should have been. One protester was set up at a train station protested “against the triumph of machinery and the gain and glory which the wealthy… men were likely to derive from it,” (Document 2). This man was dirty and poor, his circumstances likely induced by mechanization. The wealthy had virtual control over the poor. They reduced the salaries of the poor because there was no higher authority to tell them they could not. As well as this, the poor could not do much due to the fact that they needed to work in order to make at least some money to support their families. The Industrial Revolution mainly benefitted the wealthy. Document 2 focuses on the grand opening of the railway between Liverpool and Manchester, which would seemingly be an exciting event. However, the writer reports that the faces were grim and the spectators were grimy, implying that the Industrial Revolution and its technological advances had caused
The Strike of 1934 On May 9th 1934 a organized labor strike started in San Francisco that would snowball into a city crippling strike. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) declared a strike for all longshoremen on the west coast, until they received better wages, a union-administered hiring hall, and union membership as a prerequisite for employed longshoremen. The Strike of 1934 lasted for three months, stopping maritime trade in the ports of the Western United States, from San Diego to Seattle. The clash was between the Industrial Association (IA), composed of big business and employers wanting to break the strike, and the ILA, along with other unions that dealt with maritime trades.