Trade Unions

• What % owned wealth?

  top 10% owned almost 3/4 of all wealth
• in 1900, how many low skilled industrial workers were there?


  3.2 million
• What was the position of workers in the Gilded Age?

  no representation, exploited, hired on a contact system, 12hr shifts, high accident rates, child labour
• In 1889, how many railway workers were killed in accidents?

  2,000
• What three key events impacted the position of unions in the Gilded Age?

  Haymarket Affair, Homestead Strike, Pullman Strike
• What social divisions existed in the gilded age?

  between old and new immigrants and exclusion of African Americans
• What type of government was pursued in the gilded age?

  laissez faire capitalism
• What supreme court case is a good example of them favouring employers?

  Lochner v NY 1905 - proposal of 10 hr day declared unconstitutional
• What was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act?


  outlawed monopolies
• What was the Clayton Anti-Trust Act?

  limited use of injunctions and allowed peaceful picketing
• How many strikes took place in 1929?

  921
• Why was there a decrease in strikes post WW1?

  rise in real wages, fall in unemployment, nativism, welfare capitalism
• What % did real wages rise post ww1?

  20%
• How many million women were members of unions in 1920?

  5 million
• What was welfare capitalism?

  provided workers with benefits to prevent union organization, for example Ford reduced working hours and doubled the daily wage
• Post ww1, collective bargaining and unionism were permitted in return for...

  a no strike rule
• What was the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters?


  The first all black union in 1926 that the railroad Pullman porters joined, led by Philip Randolph
• What did the Fair Labour Standards Act 1938 introduce?


  minimum $25 wage and extra pay for those working over 40 hours, prohibited under 16 employment
• What was a negative impact of the FLSA?

  upheld pay differentials between men and women
• What was the National Industry Recovery Act 1933?


  set out 557 codes, covering 23 million workers
• What was downsides of the NIRA?

  codes favoured employers, some employers refused to sign e.g. Ford
• What was the WAGNER act 1935?


  upheld unionism, it rose to 9 million in 1938, first piece of legislation to recognise rights of workers to elect representatives, supreme court upheld
• What was the CIO 1937?

  Congress of Industrial Organisations, organised labour, 3.7 million members, put down 'closed shops
• How much were earnings boosted post WW2?

  70%
• What did the membership of unions grow to in 1945?

  14.8 million
• What did unemployment drop to in 1943 and why?

  783,000 - labour shortages meant there was more jobs for everyone, even African Americans
• What did Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practices Committee do?


  forbode racial discrimination
• What impact did the post WW2 period have on unionism?

  fear of communism meant unions had less power - CIO expelled 10 communist unions
• What was the Taft-Hartley Act?


  restrained union power, illegal to operate closed shop, affirmed state right to pass right to work laws
• What measures were passed under Kennedy's 'New Frontier'?


  - Equal Pay Act 1963

  - 1961 - bill to increase minimum wage was rejected
• What measures we introduced under Johnson's 'Great Society'?


  - create millions of new jobs

  - Civil Rights Act 1964

  - Age Discrimination in Employment Act 1968

  - Economic Opportunity Act 1964
• What changes in the 50s and 60s had an impact on unionism?

  - tech advances

  - more government spending and general affluence

  - more white collar workers
• What changes in political policy impacted unionism?

  - Affirmative Action

  - Occupational Health and Safety Act 1970

  - Reagan's cuts to welfare

  - Democrats more uninterested in unions
• Between the 70s and 90s, what did employers increasingly do?

  used employment lawyers and advisors to help avoid the law and flout rules
• How many members did the AFL have in 1914?


  2 million members
• What was the NLU?

  the National Labour Union
• Who were the Knights of Labor?


  founded in 1869, demanded 8 hrs day, equal pay, abolish child pay, membership 700,000 in 1886, fell to 100,000 after Haymarket
• What was the PATCO strike?

  Professional Air Traffic Controllers, strike in Aug 1981, they demanded a $10,000 pay rise, shorter week and better retirement policy, Reagan gives them ultimatum to return to work or be fired
• How many workers were fired under the PATCO strike?

  11,000
• What impact did the PATCO strike have?

  - sets precedent for treatment of public workers striking

  - enhances republican hostility towards striking

  - lack of solidarity from others (high paid and 'holding country ransom')

  - no national scale federal workers strikes after 1981