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The National Trades Union
The first national union -
Period: to
The Development of Labor Unions
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Commonwealth v. Hunt
Massachusetts court ruled that unions were legal. -
Knights of Labor
founded by Uriah Stephens. by 1879 its membership of nine thousand included women, african americans, and immigrants, both skilled and unskilled. by 1886 they boasted a membership of seven hundred thousand. they won several important strikes but heir influence declined after they were blamed for killing seen police officers who attempted to break up a meeting in Haymarket Square, Chicago. -
American Federation of Labor
founded by Samuel Gompers, organized skilled workers by crafts. They fought for higher wages, shorter hours, and improved working conditions through collective bargaining. -
Haymarket Riots
striking McCormick Harvester Workers clashed with police, four strikers were killed. -
United Mine Workers
improve wages and working conditions of coal mine workers. -
The Homestead Strike
Steel workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania struck against the Carnegie Steel plant because the company had reduced wages, Became violent when teh steel company hired private police to protect strike breakers. In the ensuing confrontation, nine strikers adn seven police were killed. -
American Railway Union
railroad fireman Eugene V. Debs founded the amreican railway union. -
Pullman Company
manufactured sleeping and dining cars, went on strike because their wages had been cut. Acting out of sympathy for the Pullman workers, conductors and engineers of the American Railway Union refused to handle trains with Pullman cars attached. A federal judge ordered the strikers back to work, and when they refused, President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops. The ensuing violence turned public opinion against the strikers, adn their President, Eugene Debs, was jailed. -
The International Workers of the World
(Wobblies) was organized in 1905 for unskilled workers and immigrants, advocated one large national union that would use strikes and sabotage to achieve its goals as opposed tot he more peaceful American Federation of Labor -
Clayton Act
allowed picketting and limited the use of injunctions in labor disputes. -
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
A. Philip Randolph created it. -
National Labor Relations Act
(Wagner Act) protected the rights of workers to organize and elect representatives for collective bargaining. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
established a minmum wage (twenty-five cents an hour) and time and a half for over forty hours of work a week. -
Fair Labor Act
prohibited child labor -
AFL and CIO
merged in 1955 -
Air Traffic Controllers
President Ronald Reagan fired 11,500 air traffic controllers in 1981 for striking in violations of a no-strike clause in their contract.