The Labor Movement

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The 1880s was a new wave of labor organizing. The labor movement is an immense role in our history here in the United States. “The labor movement had launched a sustained assault on understanding of freedom that was grounded by Social Darwinism and liberty contract” (Foner, Eric 627). During the time, a lot of people that came over to the United States that became laborers in some way. The unification of laborers led to a lot of the benefits we have in the workforce today. Labor Unions formed and acts or laws passed made it possible to achieve goals like the 8 hour work day, higher pay, and labor laws for women and children. During the depressions in the 1870s and 1890s, millions of workers lost their jobs or forced to deal with reductions of their pay to keep their jobs. Many of the workers during this time had worked sixty-hour work weeks with no pensions, bad working conditions that could cause injury, or protection against unemployment. The working class remained relatively poor and because of this, everyone in each family needed to bring home some type of income (Foner, Eric 601). Between 1860 and 1910, the population of the United States grew three times its size and along with it, the industrial work force did too. There was a high demand for workers during this time, which caused the amount of American workers and immigrants needed for labor to grow greatly. Between all of this happening, it empowered many of the business owners and bosses which intern caused working conditions to be horrible. It was because of the way that the industry was ran, that many people were unwilling to accept the treatment that they were getting, especially since those businesses were getting such a big profit for the expense of laborers ("F... ... middle of paper ... ...xample, Roosevelt’s Second New Deal, and the Social Security Act. These things help us with minimum wage, overtime, help stop child labor, help us be more secure within the society and also made it possible for women to be where they are in the working world also. It was effective in creating a better work force for the United States because of the people who stood up and wanted change. These unions did help create some of the worse strikes in history, but if it wasn’t for these strikes, America wouldn’t be shaped the way it is today. There are many more events that took place to further the fight for laborers, women, and children. These events caused history to forever be changed and effected in a positive way. Labor Unions formed and acts or laws passed made it possible to achieve goals like the 8 hour work day, higher pay, and labor laws for women and children.

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