3.4 - Worker's rights Flashcards
(5 cards)
How did the 1935 Wagner Act and 1947 Taft-Hartley Act affect union rights?
· The 1935 Wagner act (AKA the national labour relations act) was pro union and guaranteed the rights of workers to organise and require employers to bargain with recognised union representatives. The act prohibited discrimination against union members, refusal to bargain and management sponsorship of company unions. Agricultural workers were exempt from the tax provisions.
· The 1947 Taft-Hartley act was anti union an authorised the president to call for a ‘ cooling period’ before a strike could be called, banned closed shops (but all workers in a workplace had to be members of a union) and secondary boycotts (boycotting goods of companies hostile to unions), allowed states to pass ‘right-to-work’ laws that limited collective bargaining and made union leaders swear that they were not communists
· By 1973 American labour unions had the collective bargaining rights gained in the Wagner act and many members receive the benefits won by unions in the late 40s and 50s including: → Health and life insurance → Paid vacations → Pensions Non union members had few such rights but legislation guaranteed a minimum wage and maximum working hours
How powerful were unions by 1973?
· In 1973 unions appeared powerful with over 19,000,000 Americans belonging to unions in 1970 and many strikes being held:
→ 1970: The largest public employee strike in American history involving 200,000 postal workers going on strike led to the federal government approving their collective bargaining rights although not their right to strike
→ 1974: 1.8 million employees were affected by strikes and lockouts when 31.8 million working days were lost during that year
→ 1977: The United mine workers 109 days strike led to a few shortage that caused layoffs and school closures
· However it was becoming clear that the labour unions were in decline as the 19million unionised Americans only constituted 27.4% of non agricultural workers, a percentage far below that of most other industrialised nations where workers often had more rights in American worker, especially Europe
· For example the Supreme Court had ruled common situs picking illegal in 1951
· Congress (which had demonstrated anti union sentiment in the 1947 Taft-Hartley act) rejected successive presidents call for legislation to make it legal
When president Ford introduced a bill to allow it but with restrictions in 1975 business opposition was so great that Ford vetoed his own bill in order to appease right wing Republicans
Although the right to strike remained, what were the six main reasons for the decline of unions and workers’ rights?
· While unions retain the right to strikes between 1973 to 80 workers rights were still threatened for several reasons
1. Employers naturally disliked unions and public opinion was often anti union due to:
→ Anti communism (employers frequently and successfully associated union membership with communism)
→ Corruption scandals (the leader of the mob dominated transportation workers Teamsters union was jailed in 1967)
→ The brief that unions and strikes damaged the nation’s economy
2. Unions were traditionally strongest in the heavy and manufacturing industries that slowly declined after WW2
→ After the war the proportion of white collar and service workers in the American labour force increased
→ Between 1973 and 19 eighty 80% of the new private sector jobs were in low paid service or retail areas
→ These workers were often temporary or part time and therefore harder to unionise
3. The great post war economic growth area was the South
→ This growth owed much to the Interstate highway system, the growing use of air conditioning to combat the hot climate and the anti union traditions of the South
→ When the South the economy boomed the union failed to attract large numbers of members
4. In the 1970s businesses tried to lower costs in the face of increasing foreign competition on domestic market decreased by high unemployment and high inflation
→ As jobs were hard to come by businesses could squeeze unions with employers threatening to move their plants to areas where labour costs were lower and employees more amenable
→ For example, RCA moved its production of televisions to Mexico in 1980
→ There was a great wave of plant closures in the late 1970s particularly in high paying jobs in the steel, textile and automotive manufacturing industries
→ 38 million industrial jobs were lost in the 1970s mostly in the Rust Belt
→ Family allied to a Republican Party that contained many anti union politicians such as California’s governor Ronald Reagan, corporate America lobbied ever more effectively
→ This combination of economic problems and increasing conservatism in national politics decreased union power and effectiveness
→ That contributed to an average 2% yearly fall in workers real income between 1973 and 1981 so that by 1981 it was at 1961 levels
5. Following 1965 immigration legislation an influx of foreign workers willing to work for lower wages undermined American labour including Cesar Chavez’s united farm workers
6. Workers often liked unity with unions and minorities clashing over their rights especially over affirmative action
→ President Nixon had ensured affirmative action in federal hiring and contracting but organised labour declared it unfair
→ In 1975 federal judge ruled against the Detroit police department’s ‘ last hired, last fired’ seniority principle protecting recently hired black officers
→ Faced with losing their jobs some white officers protested in the streets: ‘ talk about rights: we’ve got no rights’
Why were non-unionised workers particularly vulnerable?
· Those who were not unionised and worked in low waged or part time employment had few rights with their vulnerability to employer abuse increasing if they were first generation or illegal immigrants
· The 1970s saw the revival of sweatshops in the garment industry in NYC and LA where such people were employed
Many were women and most women workers suffered discriminations as their wages were 61% of men’s in 1960 and still only 65% in 1985 along with sexism
Jimmy Hoffa
- International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) - a trade union, mainly truckers and warehousemen
- Jimmy Hoffa – President 1957 until 1971. He played a major role in the growth and development of the union, which eventually became the largest (by membership) in the United States with over 2.3 million members at its peak, during his terms as its leader. Very famous!
- Hoffa became involved with organized crime from the early years of his Teamsters work. He was convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud in 1964, in two separate trials (also a bout in prison). In 1975 he disappeared and was never found!
Assumed that he was killed by mafia mob
