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The National Trades Union
The first national union. -
Commonwealth v. Hunt
A Massachusetts court ruled that unions were legal. -
American Fedration of Labor
Founded by Samuel Gompers, organized skilled workers by crafts. They fought for higher wages, shorter hours, and improved working conditions through collective barganining. -
The Homestead Strike
Steel workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania struck againist the Carnegie Steel Plant because the company had reduced wagees. The Homestead strike of 1892 became very violent when thw steel company hired the priavte police to protect strike breakers. In ensuing confrontation , nine strikers and seven police offcers were killed. -
Pullman Company
Workers at the Pullman Company,which manufactured sleeping and dining cars, went on strike because their wageshad been cut. Acting out of sympathy for 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 federal troops.The ensuing violence turned public opinion againist the strikers,and their president,Eugene Debs,was jaile -
The International Workers of the World
(Wobblies), which was organized in 1905 for inskilled workers and immigrants, advocated one large national union that would use strikes and sabotage to achieve its goals as opposed to the more peaceful American Fedration of Labor. -
Clayton Act
Allowed picketing and limited the se of injunctions in labor disputes. -
National Labor Relations Act
(Wanger Act) protected the rights of workers to organize and elect representatives for collective bargaining. Also in this year, the CIO, Congress of Industrial Organization, was formed by several AFL unions to promote unionism in industry. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
Established a minimum wage (twenty-five cents an hour) and time and a half for over forty hours of work a week. -
AFL and CIO
They merged.
