Easier - Until the early 1900s, people often worked long hours for low wages. The labor movement began as people started to work together to improve their work conditions. Although there are many laws to protect workers, there are still concerns about working conditions, particular the use of immigrants and children.
Harder - In the 1930s, the labor movement gained momentum. With an abundance of labor, employers could easily replace workers. Labor unions were formed to help workers get organized and bargain for their needs and rights. Workers created unions because groups have more bargaining power than individuals. When large groups of employees make joint decisions, employers are forced to listen to their concerns. For example, if all the workers in a factory stopped working at the same time, it would be difficult to keep the company operating.
Early unions in North America faced a difficult battle. Employers refused to accept the unions. The courts often declared the unions illegal. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 and other laws required employers to bargain with unions. Political parties and other groups have also become involved with the labor movement.
Organized labor is not as powerful today as it once was. However, many people such as construction, factory, and industry employees are members of unions. Although they have helped workers earn higher wages and better working conditions, some people think they are too powerful.
This web site traces the history of Canadian Labour with the aim of showing how it served its members while forcing broader reforms on our nation.
This online museum gathers, identifies, and displays artistic history of working people and celibrates the contributions of trade unions.
This website was developed to publicise struggles and campaigns for workers rights.
Dramatic changes took place in the American labor movement in the 1930s. Most of the significant legislation affecting labor unions now was passed during the New Deal.
After visiting several of the websites on the labor movement, complete one or more of the following websites.
Join the Fight Against Sweatshops. You can find lots of proactive ideas at Stop Sweatshops from UNITE. Decide what should be done at the local level, in your region, and your country. Change starts with us.
Create a Labor Movement Timeline. Trace the important events in the North American labor movement. Compare the movements in the US and Canada with the rest of the world.
Compare Child Labor Issues. Compare the child labor issues of 1900 with the issues in 2000. How are they alike and different?
Build a Protest Poster. Select a particular event related to the labor movement history. Create a poster that shows the issues and concerns of the workers.
Debate the Role of Labor Unions. Take on a particular current or historical role such as employee or factory owner. What impact do or did the union have on your life?
Compare the Role of Unions Yesterday and Today. How have unions evolved over the past century? What role should they play in the future?
Explore a Labor Movement Leader. Individual people played important roles in the labor movement. Pick a labor leader and write a persuasive letter about why that person should be in the "Labor Movement Hall of Fame."
The Pullman Company cut wages a number of times in the 1880s and '90s, but failed to reduce the rent in the company owned housing. This double squeeze lead to dire economic circumstances for the workers. Workers struck the car works May 11, 1894.
Part I or a two-part article about Frances Burns Wieck, a feminist, socialist, labor organizer, and writer who was active during the first part of the twentieth century.
Founded in 1886, the A.F. of L. was the largest labor organization in the United States in 1912.
The article explains the complexities of the involvement of the Western Federation of Miners and the Mexican labor unions, with whom the I.W.W. was often at odds.
This website Features the original photos and captions by Lewis W. Hine.
The Haymarket meeting and bombing, the subsequent riot, arrests, trial, and executions, and related events of the period form one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of Chicago, the United States, and of working people everywhere.
Here is a brief summary article on the first Labor Day Parade.
This 'classic' Progressive Labor Party pamphlet was written in 1965 a time when the party was working to put down roots among industrial workers and build a base for revolution.
This article describes the cold-blooded murder of union organizer Fannie Sellins.
Learn the story of Joe Hill, a labor organizer executed by the state of Utah in 1915.
This website focuses on the 1886 Haymarket Square Riots, the conflict in the Pennsylvania coke regions, the Molly Maguire movement in the Pennsylvania anthracite coal fields, the 1982 Homestead steel strike, strikes in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania, and the 1905 Chicago strike.
From the early 1930s until 1953, changes in the industry intensified animosity between labor and management. Most of the conflicts in the 1930s mirrored general trends in the national labor movement and reflected the economic pressures of the Great Depression.
This site tells of some of the songs of work and the labor movement.
Upon arrival in America, Emma Goldman's romantic hopes were soon shattered by the dismal realities of working-class life. Settling first in Rochester, New York, she found factory work harder than in Russia, and joined in the growing militance against the inequality and inhuman working conditions that characterized industrializing America.
This brief article explains who 'Mother Jones was and her importance as a union organizer.
This article describes conditions and events in the southern Colorado coal fields during the early twentieth century. What occured then led to the brutal massacre at Ludlow where men, women, and children alike were systematically butchered and burned by law enforcement officers and militiiamen.
Ten demonstrators were killed by police bullets during the 'Little Steel Strike' of 1937.
Lean about the first attempt at a national labor federation.
This is the website of a documentary editing project that collects, annotates, and makes available to as wide an audience as possible, primary sources of American labor history. Site includes a biography, photos, and more.
The Seattle General Strike of February 1919 was the first city-wide strike anywhere in the United States to be proclaimed a "general strike." It led off a tumultuous post-World War I era of labor conflict that saw massive strikes shut down the nation's steel, coal, and meat packing industries and threaten civil unrest in a dozen cities.
The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City, which claimed the lives of 146 young immigrant workers, is one of the worst disasters since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This incidence has a great significance to this day because it highlighted the miserable working conditions to which unskilled industrial workers can be subjected.
This article, one of four parts, presents brief biographical sketches of the first four presidents of the United Mine Workers of America.
The aim of this 'online library' is to provide access to a wide range of materials and to promote informed discussion of important policy issues including human rights, development, labour and environmental organizations.
This website provides a summary of federal labor laws.
Here is a compendium of quotes on labor subjects.
This is a human rights advocacy group, dedicated to promoting and defending the rights of workers.
This coalition of labor, community, civil rights, immigrant rights, women's, religious & student organizations, and individuals is committed to eliminating sweatshop conditions in the global garment industry.
This is the website of union organization representing more than 13 million working women and men nationwide.
AFSCME with its over 1.3 million public service and health care workers is an active and powerful union.
This is the home website for union teachers.
Millions of workers, most of them women, carry out different forms of paid employment in their homes. But because they work behind closed doors, their work is invisible and rarely recognised.
This confederation of national trade union centres links together the trade unions of a particular country, and membership is open to bone fide trade union organisations that are independent of outside influence and have a democratic structure. Set up in 1949, ICFTU has 225 affiliated organizations in 148 countries and territories on all five continents with a membership of 157 million.
This is a union dedicated to organizing on the job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and distribution are organized by workers themselves to meet the needs of the entire population.
This international organization brings together 217 affiliated groups in 110 countries, with a combined membership of over 10 million workers.
This is a Canadian network promoting solidarity with groups in Mexico, Central America, and Asia organizing in maquiladora factories and export processing zones to improve conditions and win a living wage.
This is a UK based organisation which supports the struggles of women workers in the global economy.
This union represents skilled trades and production workers in automotive and heavy trucks, aerospace and defense, farm and heavy equipment, and other manufacturing industries.
Here you can find information about the Farm Workers and César Chávez..
In 1995 a new union was formed by the merger of two of the nation's oldest unions, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU).
This organization focuses especially on the struggles of workers in Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico who are employed directly or indirectly by U.S. companies.
There are three major parts to this lesson. Part one requires several group activities. Parts two and three will be done as individual reports/presentations. In part one you will be assigned a period on labor history as found in the Illinois Labor History Society web page.
The U.S. has the bloodiest history of labor of any industrialized nation on Earth. It is a story rich in human drama and tragedy -- a story of progress and hope. This is a resource that teachers can use to incorporate our rich social and labor history into their courses.
This lesson is designed to provide students with a broad introduction to labor unions.
Here is a collection of five lessons on the labor movement during the Great Depression.
This special issue is devoted to teaching labor history.
Here is a series of ten lesson plans based on the St. Paul (MN) Labor History Map.