1. What is the purpose of a labor union?

2. Labor Union
an organization of workers formed for the purpose of advancing its members' interests in respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions
Merriam-Webster Dictionary

3. How a union works? Most gain power through collective bargaining
Unions negotiating with employers on behalf of all employees
try to gain better pay, conditions, et cetera for the whole group
The unions power lies in its numbers, unity & ability to take action (strike…?)
BUT the employer can always hire scabs or make employees sign yellow dog contracts

4. Unions in America
As early as revolutionary period unions existed in America, mostly temporary & based on individual crafts
Became more widespread, more diverse and more permanent during the 19th century
Disband when demands met promise not to unionize - In 1932, yellow-dog contracts were outlawed in the United States under the Norris-LaGuardia Ac – only private sector not public – teachers not allowed to until 1960s

5. Organized Labor
NLU, 1866, William Sylus, no women or African Americans, working conditions & politics
Knights of Labor, 1869, Uriah Stephens, everyone, working conditions & politics
AFL, 1886, Samuel Gompers, skilled only, working conditions
IWW, 1905, Bob Haywood, unskilled base, anyone could be part, get rid of capitalism
NOT A UNION – Socialist Party of America, 1895, Eugene Debs, anyone

7. IWW KNIGHTS NLU AFL-CIO
Socialism

8. Most Conservative American Federation of Labor
Craftsmen only (skilled)
Work conditions and rates of pay ONLY
In 1955, the AFL merged with its longtime rival, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, to form the AFL-CIO, a federation which remains in place to this day. Together with its offspring, the AFL has comprised the longest lasting and most influential labor federation in the United States.

9. Middle of the Road NLU Knights of Labor Incorporated more people
Political agenda (prison labor, land reform, currency reform)
Knights of Labor
All
8 hour day - Political agenda (government ownership railroads, telegraphs, telephones)
s only about 5% of all workers belonged to unions

10. Most Radical IWW workers unite to do away with capitalism
SPLIT – stay with Socialists?
"Capitalists of America, we will fight against you, not for you! There is not a power in the world that can make the working class fight if they refuse."
DO AWAY WITH THROUGH STRIKES
The government used World War I as an opportunity to crush the IWW. In September 1917, U.S. Department of Justice agents made simultaneous raids on forty-eight IWW meeting halls across the country. In 1917, one hundred and sixty-five IWW leaders were arrested for conspiring to hinder the draft, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes, under the new Espionage Act; one hundred and one went on trial before Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1918.
1917, during an incident known as the Tulsa Outrage, a group of black-robed Knights of Liberty, a short-lived faction of the Ku Klux Klan, tarred and feathered seventeen members of the IWW in Oklahoma. The IWW members had been turned over to the Knights of Liberty by local authorities after they were convicted of the crime of not owning war bonds. Five other men who testified in defense of the Wobblies were also fined by the court and subjected to the same torture and humiliations at the hands of the Knights of Liberty.[22]
of 2005, the 100th anniversary of its founding, the IWW had around 5,000 members, compared to 13 million members in the AFL-CIO.[36] Other IWW branches are located in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

11. The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease."
— Helen Keller, IWW member, 1911

12. What happened to the unions of the progressive era?

13. What happens to them? NLU – divided Knights – Haymarket AFL – Survived
IWW – Pretty dead after WWI
What determined which were successful?

14. Major Strikes & Their Impacts on Unions
Haymarket Riot 1886
-May workers killed & others wounded by police - McCormick Reaper Works workers rally for an 8 hour day
-May 4, 1886 rally organized by radicals – bomb thrown & police fire -8 charged & convicted, 7 sentenced to death
Pullman Strike 1894
Transit strike
On May 3, striking workers in Chicago met near the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company plant. Union molders at the plant had been locked out since early February and the predominantly Irish-American workers at McCormick had come under attack from Pinkerton guards during an earlier strike action in This event, along with the eight-hour militancy of McCormick workers, had gained the strikers some respect and notoriety around the city. By the time of the 1886 general strike, strikebreakers entering the McCormick plant were under protection from a garrison of 400 police officers. Although half of the replacement workers defected to the general strike on May 1, McCormick workers continued to harass strikebreakers as they crossed the picket lines.
Speaking to a rally outside the plant on May 3, August Spies advised the striking workers to "hold together, to stand by their union, or they would not succeed."[27] Well-planned and coordinated, the general strike to this point had remained largely nonviolent. When the end-of-the-workday bell sounded, however, a group of workers surged to the gates to confront the strikebreakers. Despite calls for calm by Spies, the police fired on the crowd. Two McCormick workers were killed (although some newspaper accounts said there were six fatalities).[28] Spies would later testify, "I was very indignant. I knew from experience of the past that this butchering of people was done for the express purpose of defeating the eight-hour movement."[27]
August 1886, eight men, labeled as anarchists, were convicted in a sensational and controversial trial in which the jury was considered to be biased and no solid evidence was presented linking the defendants to the bombing. Judge Joseph E. Gary imposed the death sentence on seven of the men, and the eighth was sentenced to 15 years in prison. On November 11, 1887, four of the men were hanged.
Of the additional three who were sentenced to death, one committed suicide on the eve of his execution and the other two had their death sentences commuted to life in prison by Illinois Governor Richard J. Oglesby
In all, seven policemen and at least four workers were killed

15. Unions Victories ½ strikes lead to demands being met
Victorious: Anthracite Coal Strike 1902
Politically fight for:
Child labor legislation
Work days/hours
Muller v. Oregon (1908) – women only – 10 hour
Bunting v. Oregon (1917) – men too – 10 hour
Workmen’s compensation
What is missing?

16. Average Work Week in Hours
Weekly Wages and Hours in Manufacturing
Average Work Week in Hours
Hourly Wage
Average Annual Wage
1890 60
20 cents
1900 59
22 cents $
1910
56.6
26 cents
1920 51
66 cents
$1,424
1930 42
55 cents
$1,368
1940 38
$1,300
1950
40.5
$1.46
$3,008

17. What hindered unions the most?

18. Labor Unions in Action
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