Boycotting In The Workplace

No matter where in the world, a country has been divided by social barriers. Following the Industrial Revolution during the late 19th century, unions, strikes, and boycotts were utilized to demonstrate interests of the working people and often faced backlash for not sticking to the status quo.

The success of all unions ranged from success to failure. The American Federation of Labor organized worker in craft unions and ultimately banded all the workers together into one voice, successfully doing so without facing backlash from employers and being one of the few unions to do so successfully. Contrastingly, unions like the Knights of Labor or the National Labor Union gathered workers, however, in a more aggressive fashion, causing employers to end all their workings with them,

For example, the boycotting of the buses by African Americans led to the end of segregation between colored and non-colored people in buses as the bus companies realized they realized on their customer service much more than anticipated. Boycotting usually is the most effective strategy because it strikes in a more peaceful manner, cutting off employers economically instead of physically, a much more effective tactic. It attacks the businesses in a much more thought out way, because businesses need customers in a consumer-based world. The use of boycotting was effectively threatening, and it allowed workers to take control of their employers in a much less physical way, all the while allowing them to get the change that they wanted.

The utilization of unions, strikes, and boycotting all demonstrated the anger and unsatisfied lives of the majority of the working class in the late 19th century. They all demonstrated the fact that change was needed, and whether it was successful or not, it pushed employers to face the reality of the conditions the poor working class faces every