Federal gov attitudes

• Laissez faire attitudes


  Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller - businesses owners, very rich. Laissez faire attitudes allowed large corporations to form, empowered capitalists
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890

  Attempt to restrict monopolies by which large companies were able to control a trade . Manufacturers cut wages without warning, laid off workers and changed working hours

  Strikes and protests were organised , but employers resisted union organisations
• Government response to Pullman Strike 1890

  Government‘s laissez faire attitude ensured that any intervention would be on the side of the employers

  President Cleveland sent in 2000 federal troops - gov willing to kill its own people

  SC legalised the use of injunctions and issuing the Omnibus Indictment Act - prohibited strikes
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act 1914

  Limited use of injunctions against striking workers and allowed peaceful picketing, provided protestors didn’t damage property
• US Gov response during WW1

  Recognised unions due to need for production of war goods

  Established NWLB to negotiate with unions

  White union leadership recognised and accepted AA and other rejected minorities
• Samuel Gompers

  Leader AFL

  Helped to increase union membership

  Argued that to stand up to large corporations , labour had to harness the bargaining power of skilled workers
• Response to WW2

  Gov re-established NWLB - improved position of unions encouraged workers to join and membership rose - 14.5 million in 1945

  Made it illegal to instigate strikes and required unions to give 30 days notice for all strikes
• Era after WW2

  Republicans = won 1964 election, believed that power of unions had grown strong

  Divisions between non communist and communist weakened the CIO
• Taft Hartley Act 1947

  Made it illegal for unions to operate a closed shop and affirmed the right of states to pass right to work laws

  President could order a 60 day cooling off period prior to strike action

  Strictly regulated the conduct of unions in their dealings with employers
• Lochner v NY 1905 set precedent until 1930s

  Rejected the law that limited the number of hours baker could work each week - court didn’t accept the argument that law was needed to protect the health of bakers . Allowed yellow dog contracts in Coppage v Kansas 1915
• Schecter Brothers 1935 destroyed the NIRA

  It found NIRA to be unconstitutional as the federal government couldn’t intervene

  Schecter Brothers broke the NIRA codes by selling that weren’t fit for human consumption
• Impact of New Deal

  Transformed position of workers and organised labour

  Helped to reduce clashes between employers and employees

  NIRA 1933

  National Labor Relations 1935

  Creation of National Labor Relations Board
• Impact of JFK and LBJ

  Equal Pay Act 1963

  Civil Rights Act 1964

  Economic Opportunity Act 1964
• Impact of Richard Nixon

  1970 - Occupational Safety and Health - aimed to provide working environment which was free from hazards and insanitary conditions and reversed position

  Department of Labor set the standards - employers had little influence
• Impact of Jimmy Carter

  Establishment of a minimum wage of $2.65 hourly

  Attempts by unions to persuade him to reform the National Labor Standards Act failed
• Impact of Ronald Reagan

  Determined to reduce powers of unions

  Wanted to privatise publicly owned businesses

  Government’s response to PATCO strike of 1981= publicly announced that if strikers didn’t return to work within 48 hours , their work contracts would be terminated

  Union membership declined