Trade Unions Textbook Notes

1865-1914 ‘Your huddled masses’ –

What was the extent of union and labour rights?

• 1865- Union and labour rights were limited to what workers could negotiate with their employers in their own workplace.

• Unions were small and contained only skilled workers- CLOSED SHOP (work place dominated by one union and where all workers were obliged to be in that union)-

• Employers were under no legal obligation to accept them

• 1860 and 1900, as US industrialisation grew, the number of workers grew from 885,000 to 3.2 million

• Craft unions existed to opposed employers attempts to reduce wages and to provide sickness benefits to workers

• Work force became divided between skilled workers and unskilled/ semiskilled workers

• This side of the workforce had no representation or protection so were often exploited by employers

• William H. Sylvis- union leader who was the first to promote the idea of working-class solidarity

• NATIONAL LABOUR UNION- attempted to form a single association that would cross craft lines and draw mass membership- campaigned for an 8 hour day, currency and banking reform, the ending of convict labour, a federal labour department and immigration restrictions

• NLU was short lived- between 1866 and 1867, a strike by the IRON FOUNDERS failed. Weakened the position, by 1868, they had 300,000 members across the US

What was the impact of industrialisation on the position of workers?

• By the 1880s, traditional skills were disappearing and both men and women workers were becoming increasingly unskilled and underpaid

• 1890-35% of the workforce were women

• 1880s- 1/3 of workers in the railroad and steel industries were common labourers

• Unskilled workers were moving from city to city, state to state

• 1870s- bricklayers earned $3.00 per day and unskilled workers were paid less

• Millions of workers had few rights

• Safety precautions led to high accident rates

• Railway workers- safety problems – 1889 2,000 rail workers were killed

• Employers were resistant to introduce health and safety standards on the grounds of cost

Trade unions before 1914

KNIGHTS OF LABOUR (KOL)

• 1869

• Uriah Smith Stephens

• Achieved initial success

• Had a growth in membership after NLU disbanded

• 1879 Terence V. Powderly became leader

• Intention to unite skilled and unskilled labour, and remove barriers of race and origin imposed by existing associations

• Women were welcome

• Demanded 8 hour day, equal pay for women and abolition of child labourer

• Powderly rejected strikes as a means of achieving its ends

• 1881 membership grew to 20,000

• KOL membership rose to 700,000 in 1886- included 10,000 women and 50,000 African American

• Slump in the economy- 1900s

• After the HAYMARKET AFFAIR everything failed

• By 1890s, membership dwindled

• Unions broke away from the KOL and moved to the AFL

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOUR (AFL)

• Effectively replaced the KOL

• Founded in 1886

• First successful national labour federations seeking to link all unions

• Leader: Samuel Gompers

• Supported the use of strikes

• Marcus A. Hanna (coal enterprises) and J.P Morgan (banker) supported and were willing to work with Gompers- willing to give workers mediation and conciliation

• By 1914, the…