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The Knights of Labor
100,000 workers took to the streets of New York city for a a parade sponsored by the labr group called the Knights of Labor. They later proposed making the first Monday of every Septemeber Labor Day Holiday. This started the process of the making it a real hoiday. -
American Federation of Labor
Samuel Gompers was just a cigar maker in New York City when we rose within the union ranks. He focused on 3 main workplace reforms: higher wages, shorter hours, and safer work enviroments. But then he created the AFL in 1886. This is what truly started the labor movement. -
Labor Day
A few years later, in 1894, the Congress made Labor Day a real federal holiday. This holiday is important because it celebrates the achievments of the American workers. -
ILGWU
International Ladies' Garment Workers (ILGWU) was founded in 1900. A strike 10 years later by them, wins pay gains and shorter work days. It's important because they're inching their way towards better labor standards. -
Yellow-Dog Contracts
Companies forced workers to sign Yellow-Dog Contracts which made the workers promise not to join a union. Some companies even hired people to harass union organizers. Yellow-Dog contracts were outlawed in 1932 under the Norris-LaGuardia Act.
Fun fact: Yellow was slang for coward. -
Wagner Act
President Franklin Roosenvelt passed the Wagner Act. It prevented employers from interfering with workers' unions and protests in the private sector. It gave the workers the right to organize. -
Fair Labor Standard Act
This law creates minimum wage, bans child labor, and requires overtime pay. Important because it eliminates all that cruel labor standards. -
Taft-Hartley Act
The congress passed an act called the Taft-Hartley Act that allowed states to pass right-to-work laws. This banned mandatory union membership. The right-to-work laws is one of the many reasons that there was a decilne in union membership.
