Another timeline http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html
AMERICAN LABOR & UNIONS
(Created and edited by Steve Armstrong with editing and additions by Ms. Donat)
1834: Lowell mill workers “turn out” to protest working conditions.
1842: Hunt v Commonwealth
1843 Lowell Female Labor Reform Association begins public petitioning for 10-hour day
Negative conditions confronting workers in the late 19th century
• worked a minimum 10 hours per day, 6 days per week, no safety standards, child labor
Methods used to stop strikes: scabs; blacklists of union supporters and organizers; used lockouts,
company spies, yellow-dog contracts, strikebreakers, injunctions; Pinkertons and private “security”
National Labor Union (1866) - union of skilled craft members from the Pennsylvania iron mills
• an attempt to form a political party, coupled with the Panic of 1873, ultimately caused demise.
Goals: 8-hour work day, temperance, women's rights & suffrage
The Colored National Labor Union – segregated
ISSUE: The Great Railway Strike (1877) - this occurred at the height of one of the greatest
depressions of the era (dating back to the Panic of 1873)
B&O Railroad (Baltimore & Ohio) cut wages which led to a general strike (other unions went on
strike in sympathy)
- President Hayes ordered federal troops to quell the strike, the first time since the 1830s
that a president had done this
• the strike quickly spread to New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio; and in each state, local state militias
were called out
• 20 civilians were killed in one day in Philadelphia (including 3 small children)
• By the end of July, all major railroad lines were stopped, including the major lines between New
York & Chicago, and Chicago and St. Louis
• The strike lasted about 45 days, impacted 11 states, effected 11,000 miles of the nation's tracks,
and involved 80,000 railroad workers & 500,000 other workers
• Heightened demands for government to regulate railroads
also in 1877: Irish-born coal miners (“Molly Maguires”)executed for violent protests against
employers.
1879 Knights of Labor - organized by Uriah Stephens & group of Philadelphia garment workers
Goals: 8-hour work day, abolition of child and prison labor, eliminate trusts and drunkenness,
creation of worker-run factories, railroads, and mines
• started as a secret fraternity until the election of Terence Powderly as the union president in 1879
• sought to unite all labor regardless of job, race, creed, skill, gender
• supported the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
• organized women, and had 60,000 African-American members
• initially stated that workers should not strike
- Membership grew after the K of L dropped many of its secret rituals (opposed by Catholic
Church). Membership soared to 700,000 by the end of 1885
Initial strikes - the strikes were done by local affiliates of the K of L, without Powderly's sanction
a. Missouri Pacific Railroad Strike (1885) - gained initially from the strike; however railroad owner
Jay Gould crushed the K of L employed by the Texas and Pacific Railroad, causing many members
to leave the union
b. McCormick Harvester strike and the Haymarket Riot - Knights of Labor workers were
demanding an 8-hour work day
early May 1886, police officers breaking up a strike, shot and killed 2 workers
May 4, 1886, local leaders called for a general meeting at Haymarket Square, a meeting that
some initially described as peaceful & dull (3,000 attended). Police ordered the strikers to disperse,
and then a dynamite bomb was thrown into the crowd, killing one police officer and six other
bystanders. Eight anarchists were arrested and convicted of murder. Four were executed, and
another committed suicide Caused negative publicity for the Knights; they were defunct by 1900.
American Federation of Labor: formed 1886 by Samuel Gompers, loose alliance of craft unions
*organized only skilled workers,
*pragmatic approach to solving the issues between labor and management
• did not argue for fundamental changes to the capitalist system -- did not oppose monopolies &
trusts, as long as laborers obtained a fairer share of the wages
• sought higher wages, shorter hours, & better working conditions “bread and butter” issues
• would use strikes and boycotts to achieve limited gains
• A F of L was not eager to have women or African-Americans join the union
Affiliates eventually included United Mine Workers of America (UMW), Amalgamated Clothing
Workers, International Ladies Garment Workers.
Local politicians courted their votes; Labor Day became national holiday in 1894.
Homestead steel strike (1892) - Carnegie and Frick lowered wages, hoping to break union.
• Amalgamated Iron & Steel Workers (an affiliate of the A F of L) called for a strike
• Frick locked out the workers, then hired a small army of Pinkerton guards to disperse the workers
- Frick ordered the construction of a barbed-wire fence around the factory
- Pennsylvania Governor ordered the 8,000 state militia troops to impose peace on Homestead
• Frick was shot twice by an anarchist not affiliated with the AFL (not killed).
• Homestead Strike ended, with workers returning to their jobs without the gains they had sought
• Americans became concerned that industrialization might carry too heavy of a social price
Sherman Anti-Trust Act: 1890
“every contract, combination. . . or conspiracy in restraint of trade among the several states”
is illegal.
Used against unions rather than trusts.
Mining strike (1894) - United Mine Workers organized strike of 170,000 miners in Pennsylvania
• New immigrant miners from Ireland & England were more prone to the use of violence
Eugene Debs and the Railroad Workers Union - with the Panic of 1893, Debs seized the
opportunity to create the American Railway Union (ARU), with over 150,000 members
*The Great Northern Strike (1893) - Debs & the ARU won concessions after the Great Northern
Railway attempted to slash wages
Pullman Strike (1894) - Pullman was a company town, controlled all aspects of workers’ lives.
• During the Panic of 1893, Pullman cut wages by one third, & made no reductions to rent, etc.
• Pullman workers, seeing no way out, joined the ARU in 1894
- remembering the violence of 1877 strikes, Debs urged strikers at Pullman to use not use violence
- Debs wanted to use boycotts of trains using Pullman cars
* Attorney-General Richard Olney got a court injunction to stop the strike. The injunction ordered
strikers not to interfere with the free operation of the railway (accused of interfering with mail)
• Olney also persuaded President Cleveland to order federal troops to Chicago to stop the strike
• Newspaper headlines were anti-labor - "Frenzied Mobs Still Bent on Death and Destruction"
*Debs was ultimately jailed and became a socialist - Debs had been a lifelong Democrat
• U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of injunctions in 1895 (In re Debs)
• Unions began to face middle-class objections that strikes were "un-American"
eventually Erdman Act of 1898 prohibits discrimination against railroad workers because of union
membership.
Anthracite Coal Strike 1902: change in government policy –Roosevelt acted as a neutral mediator.
International Workers of the World (1904) aka “Wobblies”
Key leaders/members: Big Bill Haywood, Eugene Debs, “Mother” Jones
Sought to unite all workers (similar to Knights of Labor)
Motto: “an injury to one is an injury to all.” Willing to use violent tactics, focus on class conflict
IWW falls apart during World War One.
Mother Mary Jones: began with United Mine Workers, became a Socialist. Led the Children’s
Crusade in 1903 to encourage child labor laws.
Progressive era reforms - workman's compensation, safety regulations
Role of scientific management - Frederick Taylor's methods altered the demands on workers
1902: Theodore Roosevelt mediates strike by anthracite coal miners (doesn’t send in troops!)
*Shirtwaist workers strike (1909) - many social reformers of the era supported the strike, and the
workers eventually won some of their demands
* Triangle Fire (1911) - over 100 women died in this blaze in New York
- Francis Perkins (later Secretary of Labor), led the investigation into the Triangle Fire,
resulting in state legislation creating a work-week limited to 54 hours, limiting child labor to
14 years old, & improving safety conditions
1912: Congress creates Department of Labor; Wilson appoints first Secretary of Labor 1913.
Key court cases:
Lochner v New York 1905
Muller v Oregon
1908
Adamson Act 1916
8 hour day
Socialist Party of America (SPA) • Founded 1901 merging two Socialist parties.
• Leaders: Eugene V. Debs (became a socialist after the failure of the Pullman strike (1894) and his
subsequent imprisonment as leader of American Railway Union); Bill Haywood on SPA Executive
Committee until 1912; Victor Berger, congressman (WI); W.E.B. Du Bois joined 1910–1912 and
saw himself as a socialist even after he left party; attracted intellectuals, trade unionists, reformers.
- Debs ran 1900, 1904, 1908; polled 6 percent of popular vote; 1920 (in prison):
• June 1918: Debs convicted for violating Sedition Act for giving a speech defending antiwar
protesters; sentenced to 10 years; imprisoned for 32 months; conviction upheld by U.S. Supreme
Court (Debs v. United States, 1919); Debs pardoned by Harding on Christmas Day 1921.
• Victor Berger, Socialist congressmen, Milwaukee, convicted under Espionage Act and stripped of
his House seat for his editorials calling World War I a capitalist conspiracy; sentenced to 20 years.
• Red Scare 1919–1920: 1919 Palmer Raids went after subversives, including Socialists,
Communists, anarchists, IWW.
1912: Bread and Roses strike begun by immigrant women in Lawrence, Mass., ended with nearly
45,000 men and women and children on strike.
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) stated that labor organizations were not combinations in restraint of
trade; Gompers called the act the Magna Carta of labor; in reality, did little to help unions.
• Ludlow Massacre, 1914: UMW strike against Colorado coal mines, September 1913–April 1914;
governor ordered Colorado National Guard into area and then removed most of them; coal
companies hired private mine guards; confrontation between strikers and private guards/state guards
resulted in troops burning strikers’ tent city, killing 14 (among them 11 children); miners attacked
southern Colorado mines; Woodrow Wilson sent in U.S. Army.
1918 Gompers appointed to National War Labor Board (NWLB); NWLB supported many AFL
goals, including 8 hour days and right to organize; AFL promised not to strike or ask for closed
shops. IWW was less cooperative
1920: “Battle of Matewan” John L. Lewis leads United Mine Workers. Violent reaction from
mine owners leads to revolt of 10,000 miners in West Virginia.
also Supreme Court cases favored business; “welfare capitalism” weakened unions.
1925
A. Philip Randolph helps create the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
1935: Wagner Act (aka National Labor Relations Act) created National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) guaranteed right to bargain collectively and mediate conflicts over labor practices.
1936-37 Flint sit-down strike United Auto Workers vs General Motors
1938 Fair Labor Standards Act establishes first minimum wage and 40-hour week Congress of
industrial Organizations forms as an independent federation. CIO had formed within AFL 1935.
Key organizer - John L. Lewis.
1941 Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters plans March on Washington led by A. Philip Randolph
leads to Executive Order 8802 – no discrimination in government jobs.
1947: Taft-Hartley Act: Republican controlled Congress passed Taft-Hartley Act over Truman’s
veto. Revision of Wagner Act - prohibited closed shops, allowed “right to work laws”, 80 day
cooling off period, no union contributions to federal candidates, union leaders had to swear they
were not communists
1955: merger of the AFL and the CIO
1960s: Cesar Chavez and the rise of the United Farm Workers (many were migrant workers).
1963: March on Washington for jobs and justice.
1981: President Reagan breaks air traffic controllers’ strike