Union Timeline

By seth_bergeron

  • Pullman Strike

    Pullman Strike
    Union workers walk out of the factory of the Pullman Company in Pullman, Illinois, in spite of the paternalistic treatment the company had afforded to workers. The strike, organized by Eugene V. Debs and the American Railway Union, will end in total defeat.

  • ILGWU Strike

    ILGWU Strike
    The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) calls a strike in New York, demanding a 20-percent pay raise and a 52-hour workweek. Within two days, more than 20,000 workers from 500 factories walk off the job. This largely successful "Uprising of 20,000" is the largest labor action by women in the nation's history.

  • Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

    Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
    The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in US history.It killed 146 women workers. The tragedy highlights the harsh conditions under which the young women had to work, evoking public sympathy for reform.

  • Postwar Strike Wave

    Postwar Strike Wave
    A wave of strikes breaks out after World War I. More than 40,000 coal workers and 120,000 textile workers walk off the job. In Boston, police strike, causing chaos in the city. The labor unrest is answered by a "Red scare," in which agitators are rounded up and the public turns suspicious of labor radicals.

  • Norris–LaGuardia Act

    Norris–LaGuardia Act
    The Norris-LaGuardia Act banned yellow-dog contracts, barred federal courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent labor disputes, and created a positive right of noninterference by employers against workers joining trade unions.

  • Wagner Act

    Wagner Act
    Passed by Franklin D Roosevelt in 1935. The Wagner Act gave unions legal protections, and led to rapid growth in union membership. Also it was instrumental in preventing employers from interfering with workers' unions and protests in the private sector

  • Fair Labor Standards Act

    Fair Labor Standards Act
    The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards. It affected full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments.

  • WWII

    WWII
    The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937, but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. The Allies later on went on to win the war and stop hitler and the german army.

  • Postal Strike

    Postal Strike
    More than 200,000 Post Office workers walk off the job in the first national strike of public employees. Though the action is illegal and President Nixon calls on the Army and National Guard to keep the mail moving, the two-week strike proves largely successful and ultimately leads to a modernization of the postal service.