The lifespan of American labor unions is shaped like a bell-curve
struggling to climb at first, then riding high, and finally today
crashing out.
The whole up-and-down took about 200 years total. We need to go back to the 1830s. UC Santa Cruz Professor
William Domhoff writes,
"Industrial development in the early nineteenth century slowly widened
the gap between employers and skilled workers, so the workers began to
think of industrial factories as a threat to both their wages and
status."
Craft unions began to form but stayed mostly local, focused on clout and
working conditions. Then in 1869, Domhoff says, the Knights of Labor
was founded as "a secret society by a handful of Philadelphia garment
cutters, who had given up on their own craft union as having any chance
to succeed" and turned to galvanizing other workers through meetings and
parades.
Eventually, violence became part of the picture. The Great Railroad
Strike of 1877, sparked by railroad companies slashing wages by 10% and
doubling some workers'
responsibilities.
And while no major law ultimately clamped down on the groups, "unions
came under attack — in the workplace, in the courts, and in public
policy. As a result, union membership has fallen and income inequality
has worsened — reaching levels not seen since the 1920s," says
the,Economic Policy Institute.
Read more at: History of Labor Unions in the US (VIDEO)
