Civil Rights - Trade Unions and Labour Rights Flashcards
(41 cards)
What did trade unions fight for?
- right to exist and legally recognised
- right to negotiate pay
- right to withdraw labour without punishment
What was the Position of Unions and Labour in 1865?
- Depended on what could be agreed with employers
- Workers could be exploited and had no protection
- Unions represented skilled workers
- New industries = no protection
- Workers could be sacked and little help if injured
What was the Position of Unions in the Late 19th Century?
-Industrialisation unions grew
-eg; KOL and AFL
-Position of workers undermined by availability of AA workers
-Unions only represented 20% of non-agri workforce
-Divided by ethnicity, gender, skill
+Grown over 2 million by 1910
What was the Position of Unions in WWI to WW2?
- Increased during WW1 as need for production
- Factory owners more accepting
- Introduced (NWLB) - 8 hours work a day / workers cant strike
- Economic boom - wages rise
- Yellow dog contracts - cant join union
What was Position of Unions after WW2?
- Saw many strikes
- Decline as deemed ‘too powerful’
- Unions seen as less important
- Workers had paid holiday, pensions etc
- Advancement in tech meant demand for more skilled workers
- Increase in Women Workers
What was the Position of Unions in 1980-1992?
-By end unions being attacked by Government and the public
Declined because
-Size of factories, work harder to unionise
-Employers now gave welfare provisions
-Number of female and White collar workers grew
What were the Labour rights during periods of Economic Growth?
- Growth resulted in increased demand for workers
- Growth allowed employers to pressure employers
- such as increasing pay, better conditions etc
Labour rights in the Gilded Age?
- Growth in demand massively boosted Guilded Age
- Increased demand for Unions - esp. Unskilled Workers
- Union Membership grew by 500,000 by 1900
- Divided labour - Craft unions hate due to hatred of unskilled workers
Labour rights in the 1920s?
- Period after WW1 saw a growth in demand for consumer goods
- Real wages rose, workers taken on
- Employers forced to recognise unions
- Limited as Employers seeked - Welfare Capitalism
Labour rights in the 1950s?
- Economic Boom saw real wages rise again
- Also working buy consumer goods
- ASWELL AS 1920
- position of workers did not improve
- rising prosperity meant many people did not care about unions
- Decline in blue collar workers
- Workers in service industries forced non-sign agreements
- Women less inclination to join
Labour rights during periods of depression?
- Workers vulnerable because of high rates of unemployment
- Government desperate to get people back to work
Economic change and impact on Unions?
- Mass production(MP) and new industries
- MP threatened position of skilled workers led to division
- New technology = decline in blue collar workers
- Growth of White collar, white women decrease TU
- 1970/80s decline due to more white collars,
- high unemployment smaller industries
Government attitude to Trade Unions?
- Adopted Laissez-Faire style
- Usually let capitalism happen
The Sherman Anti-trust act 1890?
- Gov. restricted monopolies
- Large comps. able to control trade
The Pullman Strike 1894?
- Railroad strike due to economic depression
- Pullman cut wages by quarter, 1/3 redundant
How did Government interfere with Pullman Strike?
- Supported employers first offering injunctions
- stopped any interfering with money in mail
- Cleveland sent troops to destroy strike
- Supreme court made strike illegal
Lochner v. New York 1905?
- Limit number of hours bakers could work
- Rejected by Supreme Court
Aim of Gov. action during WW1
- To maintain production
- NWLB set up to negotiate with unions about wages etc
The Clayton Antitrust Act
- Limited use of injunctions
- Allowed peaceful picketing
New Deal impact on Fed Gov actions
- Legislations to get people back to work
- Give workers rights to organise TU
Positives of Legislations in New Deal
- Allowed close shops
- Stopped employers using blacklists
- Established minimum wage
Second World War affect on Fed Gov. action to TU’s
- Ensure production
- Reestablished NWLB
- Government DID NOT sympathise with workers like in ww1
Post War Fed Gov. attitudes on TU’s
- Republican victory on 1946
- Changed views on unions (too much power)
- believed ‘hotbeds of communism
Taft Harley Act 1947
-Reduced trade unions power
