1. Collective Responses to Work
Chapter 6
Collective Responses to Work

2. History of Collective Labor in the U.S.
1) Craft unions were local and, like guilds, protected wages and working conditions. But when industry moved beyond local boundaries, unions broadened and changed.
2) Many workers resisted capitalism because they felt it was antithetical to federalism. Some workers tried to establish their own political party. Our winner take all, two party system makes anything but a political dichotomy impossible.
3) What were working conditions like during early industrialization?

3. Early Unions 1) Knights of Labor
Organized workers of all skills, gender and races/ethnicities.
Led by Terence Powderly
Popular in the 1880s.
Believed in capitalism, but believed in worker own businesses.

4. Early Unions 2) Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Based on socialist ideals.
Were powerful organizers
Organized everyone, regardless of skill, gender, race/ethnicity
Gained momentum in early 20th century

5. Early Unions 3) American Federation of Labor Most conservative union.
Only organized skilled, white men.
Led by Samuel Gompers
Began in early 1890s.
Started the present structure of union organization: business unionism

6. Early Unions
4) CIO --Committee of Industrial Organizations (later Committee became Congress)
Began in 1920s.
Organized unskilled white male workers.
During the Depression, AFL fell in strength. CIO gained in strength introducing the sit-down strike. (Flint, MI)

7. Early Union Strategies
1) Mass Strike – Citizen support of strikes through marches. For example, May Day. Famous 80,000 person protest in Chicago that led to Haymarket Riot.
2) General Strike – Several trades striking together.
3) Secondary Strikes
4) Sit-Down Strikes: Flint, Michigan Auto Workers.

8. Race Relations and Unions
1) What is Divide and Conquer
2) Divide and Conquer and Race
The politics of Whiteness was used by employers in the early 1900s to divide workers.
i.e. Virden Riots of 1898.
3) What divide and conquer strategies are used today?

9. Gender and Divide and Conquer
1) Unions have supported historically the concept of “women’s work:”
Family Wage
Not attempting to organize jobs predominantly filled by women: domestic workers and wait staff
Not supporting comparable worth and service workers that are presented as “unskilled.”

10. Government Resistance to Unions Prior to 1935
1) Courts
The courts were the most active branch of govt harming unions, “Freedom of Contract”
Issued Injunctions against striking workers
Supported race and gender discrimination
Applied Sherman Anti-Trust Act until 1914
2) Legislature–
Allowed workers to organize but did not pass legislation protecting those rights
3) Executive –
Called out U.S. militia to stop strikes and protestors.
Did not prosecute aggressors.

11. Business Resistance to Unions Prior to 1935
1) Pinkertons
2) Blacklisting
3) Yellow-dog contracts
4) Business Associations

12. NLRA – Wagner Act 1935
1) The Depression led to increased protests and resistance.
2) Legislation passed to protect workers’ rights to organize. This legislation put rules on workers and employers
For example, the most powerful weapon of workers was now made illegal – wildcat strike
Communists, the best organizers, were made illegal in unions.
Business had to allow union organizers access to employers off the clock without firing or harming involved workers.

13. 1947 Taft Hartley
1) Unions grew after Wagner until 1950s. Greatest percentage of workers in unions was 31%. Businesses worried so Taft Hartley emerged
Outlawed secondary boycotts and sympathy strikes
Created “Right to Work” laws. 21 states have this.
President can force striking workers back to work in the name of National Interest.

14. Issues Facing Unions Today
1) Declining union membership: 9% of private workforce.
2) Businesses are allowed to move across international boundaries, but workers are not.
3) Manufacturing has moved overseas. Employers are more resistant to unionizing service workers.
4) Workers are now trying to protect jobs and healthcare rather than wages.

15. Pros and Cons of Unions
1) Pros
2) Cons