Industrial Unionism

Examples of Industrial Unionism in the following topics:

• A New Direction for Unions

  • One of the flagship legislative proposals of the First New Deal (1933-34/5) was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA, June 1933).
  • After the defeat at the 1935 convention, Lewis gathered AFL's pro-industrial unionism  leaders and organized the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) to "encourage and promote organization of workers in the mass production industries."
  • The CIO transitioned into a rival federation of unions under the new name of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. 

• Industrialization and the Environment

  • During the Industrial Revolution, environmental pollution increased with the use of new sources of fuel, the development of large factories, and the rise of unsanitary urban centers.
  • The Industrial Revolution brought enormous advances in productivity, but with steep environmental costs.
  • During the Industrial Revolution, environmental pollution in the United States increased with the emergence of new sources of fuel, large factories, and sprawling urban centers.
  • Fossil fuels powered the Industrial Revolution.
  • The cholera outbreak of 1832 was related to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions that attended the Industrial Revolution.

• The Industrial Revolution

  • The Industrial Revolution, which reached the United States by the 1800s, strongly influenced social and economic conditions.
  • The Industrial Revolution was a global phenomenon marked by the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to 1840.
  • The Industrial Revolution began in the United Kingdom, and mechanized textile production spread from Great Britain to continental Europe and the United States in the early nineteenth century.
  • Though the United States borrowed significantly from Europe's technological advancements during the Industrial Revolution, several great American inventions emerged at the turn of the nineteenth century that greatly affected manufacturing, communications, transportation, and commercial agriculture.
  • The Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in history.

• The Second Industrial Revolution

  • The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the "Technological Revolution," was a phase of rapid industrialization in the final third of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century.
  • The First Industrial Revolution, which ended in the early-mid 1800s, was punctuated by a slowdown in macroinventions before the Second Industrial Revolution in 1870.
  • A synergy between iron and steel, and railroads and coal developed at the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution.
  • Horses and mules remained important in agriculture until the development of the internal combustion tractor near the end of the Second Industrial Revolution.
  • The Second Industrial Revolution continued into the twentieth century with early factory electrification and the production line, and ended at the start of the World War I.

• Education and the Professions

  • Industrial growth and increased educational opportunities in agriculture and engineering fueled the new economy during the Gilded Age.
  • Prior to the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, education in the Thirteen Colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries varied considerably depending on one's location, race, gender, and social class.
  • The U.S. had its highest economic growth in the last two decades of the Second Industrial Revolution.
  • The demand for skilled workers increased relative to the labor needs of the First Industrial Revolution.
  • Identify several key technological innovations from the First and Second Industrial Revolutions

• Industrial Recovery

  • The National Recovery Administration (NRA), which was one of the outcomes of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), was the main New Deal agency focused on industrial recovery.
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) only three months after he took over the office (June 1933).
  • In his June 16, 1933 "Statement on the National Industrial Recovery Act," President Roosevelt noted, "On this idea, the first part of the NIRA proposes to our industry a great spontaneous cooperation to put millions of men back in their regular jobs this summer. " He further stated, "But if all employers in each trade now band themselves faithfully in these modern guilds, without exception, and agree to act together and at once, none will be hurt and millions of workers-- so long deprived of the right to earn their bread in the sweat of their labor-- can raise their heads again.

• The Wobblies

  • The Industrial Workers of the World promoted industrial unionism with the goal of abolishing the wage system through general strikes.
  • The Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the IWW, or the Wobblies, is an international union .

• Industrial Freedom

  • Seventeen-year old Harry became editor of Industrial Freedom, the colony's newspaper, .
  • Ault left Industrial Freedom to launch The Young Socialist, a Seattle paper targeted at radical youth.
  • In the aftermath, Foster and most of his closest associates joined the Industrial Workers of the World, while Harry Ault made his way into the mainstream labor movement.

• The Family Economy: Women and Children

  • During the Industrial Revolution the economic and social role of woman shifted and became largely focused on the domestic sphere.
  • The Industrial Revolution, starting in the nineteenth and going into the twentieth century, is seen as the force that changed the economic family and is basically responsible for the "modern family."
  • Culturally located in Europe and North America, it emerged as a distinct ideology during the Industrial Revolution, although the basic idea of gendered separation of spheres is much older.
  • The shift during the Industrial Revolution from family as producer to family as consumer, from work being done together in the same spaces to work being done in centralized factories and businesses, contributed to this ideology.

• American Technology

  • Though the United States borrowed significantly from Europe's technological advancements during the Industrial Revolution, several great American inventions emerged at the turn of the 19th century greatly impacting manufacturing, communications, transportation, and commercial agriculture.
  • Labor-saving technologies that relied on increased mechanization and automation were important features of the Industrial Revolution.