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The importance of the industrial revolution
The importance of the industrial revolution
Formation of unions history
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Autonomy and Responsibility: The Start of Labor Unions The late nineteenth century was a time of great change for people everywhere. Industries became staples of society in almost every major city; farming became more efficient due to steel and machines, and more jobs were available because of all the new industries. Between 1865 and 1900, the number of people employed in manufacturing rose from 1.3 million to 4.5 million. Working conditions were terrible, providing long hours, low wages, and unhealthy conditions. Millions of people were denied the basic amenities that their labor made possible for others.1 When reviewing drive for monopolies, Edward Bellamy, author of Looking Backward, wrote that "The individual laborer, who had been relatively important to the small employer, was reduced to insignificance and powerlessness against the great corporation, while at the same time the way upward to the grade of employer was closed to him. Self-defense drove him to union with his fellows."2 The people wanted their independence and proper treatment from their employers, so they formed labor unions to achieve this goal. The employers were responsible for properly compensating them for their work, but yet they failed to do so until the laborers fought back. The start of such labor unions as the National Labor Union, The Knights of Labor, and the American Federation of Labor asserted the autonomy of the common worker. One significant labor union was the National Labor Union (NLU). In the summer of 1866, union leaders called a congress of labor organizations at Baltimore. At this time, seventy-seven delegates representing 60,000 workers launched the NLU. The NLU worked towards their main goal of obtaining an eight-hour wor... ... middle of paper ... ...se their labor force. Notes 1. Sean Dennis Cashman, America in the Guilded Age, 2nd ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1988), 235. 2. Cashman, 236. 3. Cashman, 238. 4. Cashman, 240. 5. Cashman, 237. 6. Louis M. Hacker and Benjamin B. Kendrick, The United States Since 1865 (New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., 1932), 224. 7. Cashman, 250. 8. Hacker, 225-226. 9. Hacker, 227-228. 10. Hacker, 229-230. 11. Harold U. Faulkner, Politics, Reform, and Expansion 1890-1900 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959), 87. 12. Hacker, 233. 13. Faulkner, 88. 14. Hacker, 231. 15. Cashman, 255. 16. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, ed. The Reader's Companion to American History. 1991. 1 March 2000 http://www.historychannel.com/historychannel/thisday/, 1. 17. Hacker, 232. 18. Foner, 2.
In 1921 Lewis was denied the presidency of the American Federation of Labor when Samuel Gompers was elected over him. During the following year, he would disagree with labor activist, Jones, over whether or not to set a date for the Kansas coal workers to strike against the “Industrial Slave Law”, which was intended to stop coal labors from striking. The UMWA fell from 500,000 to less than 100,000 in the 1930s, due to growing numbers of unemployment. In 1935, the Congress for Industrial Organization was form when Lewis and several other unions joined together. Lewis then became president...
Eibling, Harold H., et al., eds. History of Our United States. 2nd edition. River Forest, Ill: Laidlaw Brothers, 1968.
“Industrial unions dominated the landscape of the late nineteen century U.S. labor movement.” They gathered all level workers together without discrimination of gender, race, or nationality. They declared the eight-hour workday for the first time when normal work time should be 12. Low wage of workers caused the “Great Strike of 1877”, which began with railroad workers in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. After the “Great Strike”, industrial union started to
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.
The rise of industrialization and laissez faire were key constituents in the rise of labor unions; businesses were given more breathing room and had more influence in the economics than the government. Citizens were feuding the need to obtain better working hours, reasonable wages, and safer working conditions; this was mainly prompted by industrialization. The three most prominent labor unions in this time period were the American Railway labor(1890s), Knights of Labor (mid-1880s) and the National Labor Union (1866); they pushed forward forward
Walens, Susann. A. United States History Since 1877. Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT. September 2007.
Union affiliation was first seen in the 1600’s when the roots of the United States were just being planted with skilled trade groups such as artisans, laborers, goldsmiths and printers. Over the next two hundred years, unions developed their desires for higher wages through the use of strikes and protests. The nation’s progress spurred the need for more labor and so began the Industrial Revolution. During the Revolution, many union members began to witness the power that employers had and as a result decided to make use of the concept of power in numbers. The National Labor Union formed in 1866 and worked to persuade congress to set a Federal eight-hour workday, which applied to government employees (Miller). Many large unions formed following in the NLU’s footsteps and uni...
Factory workers of this time had very little freedom. Aside from having to work outrageous hours for 6 days of the week, there was no job security, no solid way to survive day-to-day, and if a family member were to suffer an accident, families had no financial means to carry on. In the early 1900s, there were no labor laws, including the right to organize, an eight-hour day, safety standards, or unemployment/disability pensions. M...
Hoffman, Elizabeth Cobbs and Jon Gjerde. edit., Major Problems in American History: Volume 1 to 1877. Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007.
A common trend was always that wages were not keeping up with the cost of living. Many could not make ends meet and were struggling to simply survive. They started to question the effectiveness of the National Recovery Administration (N.R.A.). It was unfair to them that businesses were still making enormous profits while its employees were forced into poverty. Pushing for a unionization was disowned by factories where they threatened to close their doors if a worker’s union formed. Some thought businesses were crooked and angled themselves to take advantage of the economy to increase their
George Browm Tindall, David Emory Shi. American History: 5th Brief edition, W. W. Norton & Company; November 1999
The changes accompany the transition from one epoch to another. In the late nineteenth century labor has become a commodity to the merchants, and the formation of a new mode of production has risen which gave rise to a capitalist society. There is a new class distinction between the laborer and those who owned the means of production.
Large corporations used this to their advantage. Profit oriented leaders did little to make suitable working conditions. With the aid of Muckrakers, journalists who exposed the underside of American life, the nation began to understand the "evils" of industrialization (599). More and more did Americans escalate their concern for reforms. The reformists promoting the ideals of Progressivism were moralists and championed the ideals of human rights. Progressivism embraced a widespread, many-sided effort after 1900 to build a better soc...
3. Divine, Breen, Fredrickson, Williams, eds., America Past and Present Volume II: since 1865 sixth edition (New York: Longman 2002).
Throughout American history, labor unions have served to facilitate mediation between workers and employers. Workers seek to negotiate with employers for more control over their labor and its fruits. “A labor union can best be defined as an organization that exists for the purpose of representing its members to their employers regarding wages and terms and conditions of employment” (Hunter). Labor unions’ principal objectives are to increase wages, shorten work days, achieve greater benefits, and improve working conditions. Despite these goals, the early years of union formation were characterized by difficulties (Hunter).