Union membership and action

• Impact of union violence

  Discouraged some workers from joining unions

  Molly Maguires in 1873, who were a group of Irish immigrant miners who wanted better working conditions, their dealings of railways, setting fire to coal tips and murder - led many to be reluctant to joining unions
• Negative impact of Haymarket Affair 1886

  Violence between police and strikes - 4 strikers killed - during a protest march- a bomb was thrown and 7 policemen were killed - police fired and killed 4 more strikers

  Trouble was blamed on German immigrants

  Destroyed the reputation of KOL
• Significance of Homestead Strike 1892

  Between the Amalgamated Association of Iron ans Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company - dispute lasted 143 days

  Violence followed the company’s decision to advertise for replacement workers - culminated the shooting and stabbing of Henry Frick

  Broke the union - dramatic decline in membership

  Carnegie Steel remained non unionised
• Impact of union violence during the 20th century

  Provided workers with justification they needed to resist calls for recognition from labour organisations

  Violence achieved little

  Union unrest and strikes became more peaceful
• Employers responded to unions and strikes

  Start: they resisted introduction of health and safety measures - would impact on profits

  WW2- made employees sign no strike and non union agreements

  Brought in scab labour to break strikes
• WW2 for marked a watershed in trade union membership for USA

  Failure to attract all workers was due to changes in the industrial structure and nature of the resultant workforce
• Consequences of fluctuating union membership for employers

  Able to bring in other non unionised workers and resisted the union demands - employers didn’t have to deal with large numbers of trade unions which would’ve added strength to the movement

  End of the period: union membership declined from 20 million in 1980 to 16,5 million in 1995 -number of days lost to strikes has been halved since 1980

  Unionisation affected by decision of some companies to establish factories in developing countries - decreasing number of union recruits