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Knights of Labor
It was on of the most important l labor organizations of the 1880s. The Knights wanted to end child labor, they wanted equal pay for equal work, an eight-hour workday, and they wanted government ownership of telephone, telegraph, and railroads. The organization included skilled and unskilled workers; men and women; African Americans and all ethnic races except Chinese. -
Haymarket Riot
The Haymarket Riot was organized by labor radicals to protest the killing and wounding of several workers by the Chicago police during a strike the day before at the McCormick Reaper Works. However, that day lead to more violence because an individual threw a bomb at the policemen who arrived to disperse the crowd. Seven police officers and at least one civilian died. -
Pullman Strike
Pullman, owner of the Pullman Palace Car Company,payed his workers extremely low wages and gave them high workloads. Many of the workers formed part of the American Railway Union and they wanted to negotiate better treatment and pay with Pullman but he refused to cooperate. Therefore the worker walked out on May 11 and the strike began. -
Shirtwaist Factory Fire
123 women and 23 men died from a fire in a factory in New York City because the owners had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits. Therefore the men and women working could not escape and many jumped from the high windows. -
1930s General Motors Sit Down
It was the first sit-down strike against General Motors. They wanted to win recognition of the United Auto Workers (UAW) as the only bargaining agent for GM’s workers. They also wanted an end to all discriminatory practices against its workers and relax efforts to speed up production, and the establishment of a fair minimum wage. -
Textile Workers Strike of 1934
The United Textile Workers strike in 1934 was the largest strike in U.S. history at the time. They decided to strike due to shameful working conditions, low wages, and lack of union recognition. -
The Wagner Act
The Wagner Act was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt. This settled the National Labor Relations Board and recognized relations between unions and employers in the private sector. -
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
June 25, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Act into law. The Fair Labor Standards Act was signed in order to ban oppressive child labor and set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, and the maximum workweek at 44 hours. -
Taft-Hartley
The Taft-Hartley Act was passed on June 23, 1947. This Act restricts the power of labor unions. It also gives the President the power to investigate union disputes when he believes a strike would endanger national health or safety, and obtain an 80-day injunction to stop the continuation of a strike. -
Steel Strike of 1959
The United Steel Workers of America went on strike against the major U.S. steel producers. The strike lasted 116 days and it started due to low wages and poor working conditions.
