trade union

Examples of trade union in the following topics:

• The Labor Wars

  • The first local trade unions of men in the United States formed in the late 18th century, and women began organizing in the 1820s.
  • A girl weaver in a non-union mill would receive $4.20 a week, versus $12.00 for the same work in a union mill.
  • In 1845, the trade union of the Lowell mills sent representatives to speak to the Massachusetts legislature about conditions in the factories, leading to the first governmental investigation into working conditions.
  • 1894 strike by the American Railway Union.
  • Describe the formation of trade unions and the beginning of the American labor movement

• Gompers and the AFL

  • Gompers helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881 as a coalition of like-minded unions.
  • Gompers was elected president of Cigarmakers' International Union Local 144 in 1875.
  • As was the case with other unions of the day, the Cigarmaker's Union nearly collapsed in the financial crisis of 1877, in which unemployment skyrocketed and ready availability of desperate workers willing to labor for subsistence wages put pressure upon the gains in wages and shortening of hours achieved in union shops.
  • Gompers's trade union philosophy and his devotion to collective bargaining with business proved to be too conservative for more radical leaders such as Ed Boyce, president of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), and later, WFM secretary-treasurer Bill Haywood.
  • By 1920, Gompers had largely marginalized their role to a few unions, notably coal miners and the needle trades.

• The Rise of Unions

  • The first local trade unions of men in the United States formed in the late 18th century, and women began organizing in the 1820s.
  • In 1845, the trade union of the Lowell mills sent representatives to speak to the Massachusetts legislature about conditions in the factories, leading to the first governmental investigation into working conditions.
  • Gompers's trade union philosophy and his devotion to collective bargaining with business proved to be too conservative for more radical leaders such as Ed Boyce, president of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), and later, WFM secretary-treasurer Bill Haywood.
  • By 1920, Gompers had largely marginalized their role to a few unions, notably coal miners and the needle trades.
  • Through the efforts of middle class reformers and activists, often of the Women's Trade Union League, these unions joined the AFL.

• AFL and WWI

  • Through the efforts of middle class reformers and activists, often of the Women's Trade Union League, these unions joined the AFL.
  • From the beginning, unions affiliated with the AFL found themselves in conflict when both unions claimed jurisdiction over the same groups of workers.
  • Local building trades councils also became powerful in some areas.
  • In San Francisco, the local Building Trades Council, led by Carpenters official P.
  • Officially, the AFL adopted a philosophy of "business unionism" that emphasized unions' contribution to businesses' profits and national economic growth.

• Work in Industrial America

  • Through the efforts of middle class reformers and activists, often of the Women's Trade Union League, these unions joined the AFL.
  • From the beginning, unions affiliated with the AFL found themselves in conflict when both unions claimed jurisdiction over the same groups of workers: both the Brewers and Teamsters claimed to represent beer truck drivers, both the machinists and the International Typographical Union claimed to represent certain printroom employees, and the machinists and a fledgling union known as the "Carriage, Wagon, and Automobile Workers Union" sought to organize the same employees, even though neither union had made any effort to organize or bargain for those employees.
  • These jurisdictional disputes were most frequent in the building trades, where a number of different unions claimed the right to have work assigned to their members.
  • While those fears were partly borne out in practice, as the Building Trades Department did acquire a great deal of practical power gained through resolving jurisdictional disputes between affiliates, the danger that it might serve as the basis for schism never materialized.
  • The Metal Trades Department engaged in some organizing of its own, primarily in shipbuilding, where unions such as the Pipefitters, Machinists and Iron Workers joined together through local metal workers' councils to represent a diverse group of workers.

• A New Direction for Unions

  • The New Deal and the economic growth during World War II greatly empowered American labor unions, which resulted in the dramatic increase of union membership.
  • Title I of NIRA outlined guidelines for the creation of the so-called "codes of fair competition" (rules according to which industries were supposed to operate), endowed trade unions with certain rates, and allowed standards of work (e.g., pay rate, hours) to be monitored and enforced.
  • NLRA provided basic rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining for better terms and conditions at work, and take collective action, including strike.
  • Traditionally, the AFL organized unions by craft rather than industry, for example, electricians or stationary engineers would form their own skill-oriented unions rather than join a large automobile-making union.
  • In the end, all unions strongly supported the war effort after June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

• The Diversity of Workers

  • In 1900, only 3.3% of working women were organized into unions.
  • From the beginning, unions affiliated with the AFL found themselves in conflict when both unions claimed jurisdiction over the same groups of workers, even though neither union had made any effort to organize or bargain for those employees.
  • These jurisdictional disputes were most frequent in the building trades, where a number of different unions might claim the right to have work assigned to their members.
  • The Metal Trades Department engaged in some organizing of its own, primarily in shipbuilding, where unions such as the Pipefitters, Machinists and Iron Workers joined together through local metal workers' councils to represent a diverse group of workers.
  • For example, the International Seamen's Union opposed passage of a law applying to workers engaged in interstate transport that railway unions supported.

• The West and the Civil War

  • Fort Donelson did not fall as easily to Union forces.
  • In 1862, Union reinforcements arrived from California.
  • Fighting also occurred between pro- and anti-Union Missourians.
  • Determined to close this trade, the Union mounted several invasion attempts of Texas, each of them unsuccessful.
  • The Union's disastrous Red River Campaign in western Louisiana effectively ended the Union's attempts to invade the region.

• The Aftermath of the War

  • Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation enabled blacks to join the Union Army, giving the Union an advantage, and helped end the Civil War.
  • Lincoln's naval blockade was 95% effective at stopping trade goods.
  • The Emancipation Proclamation enabled African-Americans, both free blacks and escaped slaves, to join the Union Army.
  • Slavery for the Confederacy's 3.5 million blacks effectively ended when Union armies arrived.
  • The full restoration of the Union was the work of a highly contentious postwar era known as Reconstruction.

• Origins of the Cold War

  • Differences in the political and economic systems of Western democracies and the Soviet Union—socialism versus capitalism, economic autarky versus free trade, state planning versus private enterprise—became simplified and refined in national ideologies to represent two ways of life.
  • Under Truman's administration, officials favoring cooperation with the Soviet Union and the incorporation of socialist economies into a world trade system were marginalized.
  • US leaders hoped to shape the postwar world by opening up markets to international trade.
  • The US, as the world's greatest industrial power and as one of the few countries physically unscathed by the war, stood to gain enormously from opening the entire world to unfettered trade.
  • The Soviet Union opted not to take part.