What are Labor Unions and why are they important for workers?
- It is a union of laborers in a specific industry banding together to get better wages and conditions
- Power in numbers
- Labor unions were/are important becaise it ives a voice for workers and gets better wages and conditions for workers.
Knights of labor:
- Started in 1869
American Federation Of Labor:
- Started in 1886 and still around today
- Led by Samuel Gompers
- Broken into Craft unions
What did labor unions do to get better wages and conditions?
- Strikes- picketing
- sit-ins
- violence
Why did labor unions struggle to win strike in the late 1800's and early 1900's?
- All power was in the hands of the owner
- Would simply fire workers and hire immigrants who needed work
- Immigrants had it better in US factories that in Europe
- Would hire strikebreakers to take the place of workers
- Would impose lockouts
- Would blacklist workers
- Workers were called communists or socialists
- Everyone was against the labor unions/workers at first: Owners, police ,and newspapers
Labor Day
- Was established as a Federal Holiday by President Gover Cleveland in 1894 after some worker died at the hands of the IS Army during the Pullman Strike of 1894.
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