History of Labor in the United States

  • Homestead Strike

    Homestead Strike
    The Homestead Strike, also known as the Homestead Steel Strike or Homestead Massacre, was an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. The battle was one of the most serious disputes in U.S. labor history, third behind the Ludlow Massacre and the Battle of Blair Mountain.
  • The 13th Amendment

    The 13th Amendment
    The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Formally abolishing slavery in the United States, the 13th Amendment was passed by the Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865.
  • National Labor Union

    The National Labor Union was the first national labor federation in the United States. Founded in 1866 and dissolved in 1873, it paved the way for other organizations, such as the Knights of Labor and the AFL.
  • Knights of Labor

    Knights of Labor
    Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence V. Powderly.
  • The 1st Labor Day

    The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
  • AFL

    AFL
    The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association.
  • Shirtwaist Factory Fire

    Shirtwaist Factory Fire
    The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in US history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths.
  • Textile workers strike of 1934

    Textile workers strike of 1934
    The textile workers' strike of 1934 was the largest strike in the labor history of the United States at the time, involving 400,000 textile workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the U.S. Southern states, lasting twenty-two days.
  • The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

    The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
    The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is a federal statute of the United States. The FLSA introduced the forty-hour work week,established a national minimum wage, guaranteed "time-and-a-half" for overtime in certain jobs,and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor", a term that is defined in the statute
  • Steel strike of 1959

    Steel strike of 1959
    The steel strike of 1959 was a labor union strike by the United Steelworkers of America against major steel-making companies in the United States. The strike occurred over management's demand that the union give up a contract clause which limited management's ability to change the number of workers assigned to a task or to introduce new work rules or machinery which would result in reduced hours or numbers of employees.