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Working Man's Party
The Working Man’s Party demanded for the abolition of the imprisonment for debt for workers compensation laws. The majority of them ended up joining the Whig Party in the late 1830s. The party was revived in the 1870s by Dennis Kearney in California. -
Child Labor Strike
Children employed in the silk mills in Paterson, New Jersey go on strike for the 11-hour day, 6 days a week. They protested their having to work and wanted to go to school and be able to play. -
10-Hour Workday
President Martin Van Buren implemented a ten hour workday for employees in the United States. Which regulated work days to ten hours unless the employees voluntarily stayed longer. -
Commonwealth vs. Hunt
Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that unions were legal organizations and had the right to organize and strike. Before this decision, labor unions which attempted to 'close' or create a unionized workplace could be charged with conspiracy. -
National Labor Union Founded
The NLU was led by William Sylvis and attracted more than 600,000 members included skilled and unskilled workers and farmers. They called for an eight hour day, restrictions on immigrants entering America, and an end to convict labor. The union made nominal efforts to include women and blacks. -
Knights of Labor Founded
The KoL was an idealistic group accepting black and women members along with skilled and unskilled workers and was initially led by Uriah Stephens in 1869 and Terence Powderly in 1879. The union supported temperance, equal pay for women, a graduated income tax, and an end to convict labor. The union focused on legislature reform, and helped win the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Haymarket Square riot killed the KoL, when they were suspected of violence against the police. -
Railway Strike of 1877
In 1877, after the Panic of 1973, the Baltimore & Ohio railroad began cutting wages. This ignited a series of strikes across the northeast that lasted for 45 days. The strikes began in Martinsburg, West Virginia and sympathy spread for the workers, and about 100,000 railroad workers began rioting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Missouri, and Ohio. After violence erupted, President Hayes called in federal troops. The strike began an era of strife between workers and factory owners. -
Haymarket Riot
During a labor rally in Chicago that was instigated by about 80,000 members of the Knights of Labor in support of an eight hour day, chaos erupted when an unknown party threw a bomb at police, who then fired into the crowd. The public associated the KoL with anarchists after the incident, and five people were sentenced to death, three given prison terms, one commiteed suicide, and three were pardoned. However, the incident also became a symbol of government oppression of the working class. -
American Federation of Labor Founded
The AFL was led by Samuel Gompers and was founded only for skilled workers; they were not interested in helping women or blacks. Although the AFL never sought broad reform because they believed that management and labor wound never see eye to eye, they supported the call for an 8 hour day and securing its members higher wages. They eventually became involved in politics in the early 1900s seeking to outlaw "yellow dog contracts." -
The Homestead Strike
The Homestead Strike, also known as the Homestead Steel Strike, Pinkerton Rebellion, or Homestead Massacre, was an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. The battle was one of the most serious disputes in U.S. labor history, third behind the Ludlow Massacre and the Battle of Blair Mountain. -
Coal Strike of 1902
The United Mine Workers of America under president, John Mitchell, led a strike of coal workers who sought to be recognized in the union to improve wages, hours, and working conditions. President Roosevelt invited representatives of the UMW and coal operators to the White House on October 3, 1902 becoming the first president to intervene in a labor dispute. Roosevelt said that America was in a coal shortage, so he asked the coal operators to give a increase in wages, which still never occurred. -
Industrial Workers of the World Founded
As one of the more radical labor unions, the IWW was established in Chicago. The union consisted mostly of unskilled workers who advocated the overthrow of the wage system. One of the founded members was socialist Eugene Debs, and the group's main goal was to get all workers in the country in a single union so that they could have solidarity for their demands. -
Los Angeles Bombing
A bomb explodes in the Los Angeles Times building killing over twenty and injuring more than one-hundred people. The newspaper's owner, Harrison Gray Otis, called it "the crime of the century," blaming the bomb on labor unions. This charge was denied by unions, but the incident aroused widespread controversy and suspicion of labor unions. -
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
A fire in a shirtwaist factory in lower Manhattan kills 146 workers, mostly young women. The tragedy emphasized the harsh conditions that women are forced to work under, arousing immediate sympathy throughout America. The fire also helped to solidify support for workers' unions like the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Finally, as a result of the fire, the American Society of Safety Engineers was founded soon after in New York City on October 14, 1911. -
First State Minimum Wage Law
Massachusetts becomes the first state to adopt a minimum wage law for women and children. This acted as a precedent for future mimumum wage laws in other states. -
Federal Department of Labor Established
Taft estblished the FDL after his defeat in the Elections of 1912 to emphasize a pro-labor stance for future presidents. In fact, the incoming president, Woodrow Wilson, appointed a United Mine Workers official, William B. Wilson, as the first Secretary of Labor given the power to "act as a mediator and to appoint commissioners of conciliation in labor disputes." -
Clayton Antitrust Act
An attempt to improve the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, this law outlawed interlocking dictorates, forbade policies that created monopolies, and made corporate officers responsible for antitrust violations. Benefiting labor, it declared that unions were not conspiracies in restraint of trade and outlawed the use of injunction sin labor disputes unless they were necessary to protect property. -
Ludlow Massacre
Violence breaks out in Ludlow, Colorado during a mining strike forcing the National Guard to intervene. However, National Guardsmen open fire on the strikers and set fire to their tents, killing five miners, two women, and twelve children. In response to the Ludlow massacre, the leaders of organized labor in Colorado issued a call to arms instigating a large-sclae guerilla war lasting ten days until Wilson sent federal troops. This conflict was the most violent labor conflict in US history. -
Adamson Act Passed
The Adamson Act is signed establishing an eight-hour workday for employees for interstate railroad workers with overtime pay. The act was significant because it was Wilson's response to a pending strike by the majorrailway worker unions. -
Trade Union Educational League Founded
The Trade Union Educational League was established by William Foster with means to unite all radicals within trade unions for a unified plan of action. The league was then subsidized by the Communist Party of America. It was moderately successful and often fought against the American Federation of Labor because they disliked each other. -
Davis-Bacon Act Passed
This act is a United States federal law which established the requirement for paying prevailing wages on public works projects. All federal government construction contracts, and most contracts for federally assisted construction over $2,000, must include provisions for paying workers on-site no less than the locally prevailing wages and benefits paid on similar projects. -
Norris-LaGuardia Act
This act was a 1932 United States federal law that banned yellow-dog contracts, barred federal courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent labor disputes, and created a positive right of noninterference by employers against workers joining trade unions. -
National Industrial Recovery Act
American statute which authorized the President of the United States to regulate industry and permit cartels and monopolies in an attempt to stimulate economic recovery, and established a national public works program. -
Social Security Act of 1935
The act was an attempt to limit what were seen as dangers in the modern American life, including old age, poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children. By signing this act President Roosevelt became the first president to advocate federal assistance for the elderly. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
The FLSA established a national minimum wage guaranteed 'time-and-a-half' for overtime in certain jobs and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term that is defined in the statute. -
1952 Steel Strike
This strike was organized by the United Steelworkers of America against U.S. Steel and nine other steelmakers for wage increases. The strike was scheduled to begin on April 9, 1952, but President Harry S. Truman nationalized the American steel industry hours before the workers walked out to avert the strike. The act was ruled to be illegal by the Supreme Court on June 2nd saying that Truman lacked the authority to seize the steel mills. -
AFL-CIO Formation
The two largest labor unions in the US, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, merge to form the AFL-CIO with a membership estimated at 15 million. The AFL and the CIO were rivals for the twenty year period when they existed separately as two organizations that “vied for supremacy over the labor movement.” By the 1950’s the groups realized that they would be much stronger and more effective as a single organization.