The American Labor movement in the United States has a history dating back to
the beginnings of the industrial revolution. Its existence is due to poor
working conditions and exploitation during the beginning of that time. Labor
unions have had a long history of using their most powerful weapon, strikes, to
fight their battles. Even today, with the diminishing numbers of union members,
strikes appear in the news sporadically. History of Labor Unions The first
strike is thought to be by printers in Philadelphia in 1786 (Maidment, 1997).
Working conditions, pay and benefits were so poor, leaders in the southern
United States used them to justify slavery. Their contention was that slaves
were treated better than the workers were in the North. (Maidment, 1997) Unions
attempt to rectify poor working conditions, pay and benefits through collective
bargaining. An individual has very little power when negotiating with an
employer, however many individuals, collectively have the power to achieve
results through bargaining and negotiating. The ultimate bargaining tool that
the collective bargaining unit has is the right to strike. Strikes The United
States has the most violent and bloodiest labor history of any industrialized
country (Foner, Garraty, 1991).
In 1850, police killed two New York tailors
while attempting to disperse strikers. These were the first of over seven
hundred documented caused by strike-related violence. In 1913, National
Guardsmen attacked striking Colorado miners known as the Ludlow Massacre. In
1937, police killed Ten Chicago steelworkers during a strike, which came to be
known as the Memorial Day Massacre. More commonly, though, strike related deaths
are attributed to lessor known confrontations. Strikes in the United States are
generally linked to the business cycle. Strikes are more common when
unemployment is low with the lowest strike rate being during the Great
Depression.
The first American strikes in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s were by
shoemakers, printers, and carpenters led by their trade societies and were
generally effective because of the limited labor pool skilled in those trades.
The strikers simply refused to work until their pay demands were met. The
strikes were generally short, peaceful and successful. Successful litigation by
employers inhibited the spread of these strikes and the trade societies. After
an economic upturn in the 1820s, strike activity was revived. Throughout the
1800s, strike activity continued to wax and wane based on economic conditions.
Women participated in strikes as early as the 1820s. After the Civil War, the
labor movement started to more closely resemble today’s labor movement. In order
to discourage strikes, instead of unilaterally setting wages and striking,
unions started negotiating with employers, addressing wages, work rules, hours
and grievances. This method of “arbitration” led to binding contracts between
the collective bargaining units and the employers. The Knights of Labor, the
most important labor organization of the 1800s, discouraged strikes. Mediation
Union leaders, particularly those in the craft unions affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor (AFL), continued to question the efficacy of
strikes in the early 1900s. Instead of strikes, the craft unions turned to
private mediation groups to help settle disputes. In mediation, “the third party
assists the negotiators in their discussions and also suggests settlement
proposals.” (Mathis, Jackson, 2000) An expansion of the union movement was
created by four years of depression in the 1930s. The violent strikes by
autoworkers, truckers, longshoremen and textile workers in 1934 sparked the
passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA).The NLRA is the law
governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector. It
guarantees the right of employees to organize and to bargain collectively with
employers. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal
agency created by Congress, which administers the NLRA.Under the direction of
the NLRB, strikes continued in the 1940s (after WWII) and while some were very
long, most were peaceful.The NLRB saw to it that employers who were legally
obligated to bargain with unions, did so. In addition, strikers were given legal
protection.
