Download A Brief History of the Labor Movement

THE LABOR MOVEMENT:
A SHORT HISTORY PART I
By Eileen Bissen, Business Agent, Martinez Office
In honor of Labor Day, Local 1 would like to provide a brief history of
seminal events that gave rise to the modern labor movement. To know
where we are going, we must remember where we have been.
LABOR DURING THE
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The Industrial Revolution (1820-1870)
changed the very nature of work for millions of Americans. Previously, workers
engaged in hand and home production,
working for themselves or in a small shop,
crafting raw materials or growing crops.
With the Industrial Revolution, however,
came an emphasis on factory jobs, where
workers engaged in repetitive manufacturing work for large companies. Workers
toiled, often in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. Those conditions, along
with the long hours and increasing use
of child labor, contributed to the growth
of labor unions. To help publicize their
problems, workers organized strikes and
work stoppages.
RAILROAD STRIKES AND
THE BIRTH OF LABOR DAY
In 1877, a strike among railroad workers in
a dozen cities shut down half the country’s
rail network and rocked the nation. That
strike, known today as “the Great Railroad
Strike of 1877,” began after railroad companies cut already low wages ($1.75 a day
for a twelve-hour day), and ignored soaring deaths and injuries among workers,
including the loss of hands and feet. The
12
PUBLIC EMPLOYEES UNION, LOCAL 1
strike, which began in West Virginia,
spread to three additional states over a
45 day period and was ended violently by
National Guardsmen and federal troops.
Never forget that people bled and died
for workers’ rights and safe working
conditions.
In the early 1890s, the Pullman Palace
Car Company severely cut wages in its
factories. Dissatisfied workers joined the
American Railway Union (ARU), led by
Eugene V. Debs. ARU members across the
nation boycotted the Pullman cars, refusing to switch them onto trains.
President Grover Cleveland, citing the
effect of the strike on the mail system,
ordered troops to break the strike. 13
workers were killed and 57 were wounded.
As a political move, President Cleveland
pushed to make Labor Day an official
HISTORIC
ACHIEVEMENTS
UNIONS FOUGHT
FOR AND WON
FOR WORKERS
holiday. On June 28, 1894, just
six days after the end of the
Pullman Strike, Congress unanimously passed the Labor Day
legislation.
Labor Day was first observed
on September 5, 1882 in New
York City.
8-Hour Work Day
40 Hour Work Week
HAYMARKET
SQUARE RIOT
In 1886, the labor movement
took a turn for the worse with
the Haymarket Square riot.
On May 4, 1886, a rally at
Haymarket Square in Chicago to
protest the killing and wounding of several workers by the
Chicago police turned violent.
Toward the end of the rally,
policemen arrived to disperse
the crowd. When they did, an
individual threw a bomb at
police. The individual who threw
the explosive was never identified. The
police opened fire. Chaos ensued. Seven
police officers and at least one civilian died
as a result of the violence. Countless others were injured.
Labor organizers were rounded up by
the police in Chicago and elsewhere. Some
were beaten during interrogation; a number of forced confessions were obtained.
In the end, eight people were put on trial
and seven were convicted of conspiracy to
commit murder and given death sentences.
On November 11, 1887, four of the men
were hanged. One of the men committed
suicide on the eve of his execution, and the
other two had their death sentences commuted to life in prison by Illinois Governor
Richard J. Oglesby.
Public opinion was divided. For some,
the events further fueled anti-labor sentiment; others strongly believed the men
were unjustly convicted martyrs.
TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST
FACTORY FIRE
In 1911, a tragedy occurred in New York
City that highlighted the deplorable conditions under which people were forced to
work and the need for organized labor. On
Overtime Pay
Mandatory Breaks
The Weekend
Abolition of Child Labor
Abolition of Sweatshops
Social Security
Medicare
Pensions
Minimum Wage
Unemployment Insurance
Workers Compensation
Workplace Safety Rules
Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, a fire
broke out on the top floors of the building
that housed the Triangle Waist Company, a
sweatshop factory. The fire spread quickly.
Management had refused to install sprinklers, and the factory had been arranged
for maximum production output, not for
safety.
The safety exits on the burning floors
had been locked, allegedly to prevent theft.
The predominantly female and immigrant
workforce, some as young as 14 years old,
had to make a quick choice: burn to death
or leap from the windows to the city
streets, and certain death, below. In the
end, 146 employees perished.
The Triangle Fire illustrated that fire
inspections and precautions were woefully
inadequate. People demanded justice and
action, an end to unsafe working conditions, and protection for the vulnerable
and oppressed.
Workers flocked to union headquarters
to offer testimonies, to mobilize, and to
demand that the owners be brought to
trial. The 146 deaths led to government
regulations setting minimum standards
for wages, hours, sanitary conditions, and
overall workplace safety.
Occupational Safety
and Health Act (OSHA)
Sick Leave
Military Leave
Paid Vacation
Holiday Pay
Pregnancy and Parental Leave
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
Age Discrimination Laws
Sexual Harassment Laws
Civil Rights Legislation
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
Employer Health Insurance
Employee Polygraph
Protection Act (EPPA)
Whistleblower Protection Laws
Equal Employment Opportunities
Equal Pay Act of 1963
Fair and Open Evaluation Process
Free Public Education for Children
The Right to Unionize and
Collectively Bargain
continued on pg. 15
SEPTEMBER 2014
13
when only 11.3 percent of workers were
unionized.
The steady decline in union membership
can be explained by the current anti-union
ideology in this country.
THE LABOR MOVEMENT:
A SHORT HISTORY PART II
By Eileen Bissen, Business Agent, Martinez Office
(EDITOR’S NOTE: SO WHAT’S
NEXT FOR LABOR?)
WORLD WAR II
The Second World War was a boon time
for labor unions. Wartime labor shortages
and increased wartime production needs
put labor in high demand. Labor unions
seized the opportunity to consolidate their
power. Union membership exponentially
increased during and immediately after
World War II. By the end of the war, it is
estimated more than 12 million workers belonged to a union. The good times
would not last though. With the increase
in union membership came a concerted
effort, through anti-union legislation, to
curtail the power unions had gained.
Filipino workforce had started against grape
growers in Delano, California. Under the
leadership of Chavez, Huerta, Vera Cruz and
Itliong, a multiethnic alliance of Latinos
and Filipinos worked in concert to protest
years of poor pay and working conditions.
The strike and grape boycott garnered
international attention, becoming known
as “La Huelga” (The Struggle). At the
height of the boycott, more than 14 million Americans participated by refusing
to buy grapes.
The struggle was not over, however. In
1970, in an effort to keep the UFW out
of California lettuce and vegetable fields,
growers sought a sweetheart deal that
would benefit growers at the expense of
workers. The Teamsters, in a self-serving
move, betrayed their UFW union brothers and signed a backdoor deal with the
growers. As a way to enforce their new deal
against the UFW, Teamsters often resorted
to violence, which is exactly the opposite
practice of leaders like Martin Luther King,
Jr and Mahatma Gandhi.
THE TAFT-HARTLEY ACT
(1947)
Republican majorities in both houses of
Congress—the first since 1930—wanted
to cure what they saw as union abuses
permitted by the National Labor Relations
Act (NLRA), also known as the Wagner
Act. The Taft-Hartley Act, designed to
amend much of the NLRA, was enacted
over President Harry S. Truman’s veto in
1947. The Taft-Hartley Act, a product of
an anti-union climate in the United States
following World War II, declared all closed
shops illegal, forbade secondary boycotts,
and disallowed unions from contributing
to political campaigns. Fanning fears of
Communism and scapegoating Labor at the
same time, one provision of Taft-Hartley
specifically required union leaders to take
an oath that they were not Communists.
Expectedly, Taft-Hartley eroded a number
of union gains.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10988
LEADS TO SURGE IN
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
RIGHTS
Between 1946 and 1962, the number of
state and local employees nearly doubled.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed
Executive Order 10988, granting federal
workers the power to unionize. That
14
PUBLIC EMPLOYEES UNION, LOCAL 1
Executive Order set off a flood of collective
bargaining laws passed by state governments in the 1960s and 1970s, which
bettered the lives and working conditions
of many public employees. Between 1959
and 1984, approximately 35 states granted
collective bargaining rights to at least some
public sector workers. Even today, collective bargaining remains a vital cornerstone
of union workers’ rights.
CESAR CHAVEZ, THE DELANO
MANONGS, RFK & MLK:
WORKERS’ RIGHTS EQUAL
CIVIL RIGHTS
In the early sixties, Cesar Chavez emerged
and changed the face of the labor movement. Along with other civil rights and
labor leaders, he dovetailed methods from
the civil rights movement to garner public attention and support for the plight of
workers.
Chavez grew up as a migrant worker in
the fields of California, enduring deplorable conditions he would spend the rest
of his life trying to rectify for others.
He eventually rose to prominence for
his involvement with the United Farm
Workers (UFW), which he cofounded with
Dolores Huerta. Chavez, the born leader
and captivating speaker, and Huerta, the
skilled organizer and tough negotiator,
made a dynamic team, but they were not
the only labor leaders behind the UFW.
To form the UFW, Chavez and Huerta
joined with Philip Vera Cruz’s Agriculture
Worker Organizing Committee (AWOC).
Vera Cruz, a Filipino-American labor leader,
farm worker, and activist for the Asian
American Civil Rights Movement, served
as a long-time vice president of the UFW.
Cruz and Larry Itliong, also FilipinoAmerican, and a self-taught labor leader
and founder of the Filipino Farm Labor
Union (FFLU), convinced Chavez and
Huerta to join a strike the predominantly
PRESIDENT REAGAN
UNILATERALLY FIRES AIR
TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS
Strikes by workers as a leverage tool, so
prevalent between World War II and 1981,
would soon come to a halt. In 1981, an
infamous labor dispute between air traffic controllers and the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) ended with the
President of the United States delivering
an ultimatum to workers and breaking
their union.
The Professional Air Traffic Controllers
Organization (PATCO), the union representing the air traffic controllers, sought
an across-the-board annual wage increase
and a reduction in work hours. In response
to the $770 million package sought by the
union, the FAA made a $40 million counteroffer. On August 3, 1981, air traffic
controllers walked off the job after talks
with the FAA collapsed.
President Reagan unilaterally branded
the strike illegal and two days later, fired
more than 11,000 air traffic controllers
who ignored his order to return to work.
This act set off long-lasting implications
to labor. Private employers saw it as the
beginning of the end for collective bargaining and strikes, and routinely replaced
strikers with “scab” workers—often times
less trained or untrained—rather than
negotiate fairer deals.
Today, Reagan’s firing of the air traffic controllers is heralded by anti-union
politicians, like Governor Scott Walker of
Wisconsin, as the roadmap to eradicating
public sector unions.
What Reagan did was essentially remove
the one, final equalizer—a strike—which
objectively, was what kept all employers
from simply ignoring collective bargaining
and imposing whatever terms they desire.
ANTI-LABOR FORCES TRYING
TO ELIMINATE UNIONS
ALTOGETHER
If we were to write the headline for the current status of the labor movement, what
would it say? Sadly, it would likely reflect
the steady decline in the union membership, despite the troubling rise in low-paid
jobs, unemployment and underemployment, declining wages and crippling health
care costs.
While the unionization rate hit its peak
at 35 percent after World War II, in 2010,
union membership in this country fell
to 11.9 percent, the lowest rate in more
than 70 years. Things worsened in 2012,
Frederick Douglas said, “Power concedes
nothing without a demand. It never did
and it never will.”
So it’s the workers. It’s always been the
workers.
Organized and unionized workers must
take the lead and not wait for “friendly”
elected officials to “do the right thing.” If
the history of the labor movement in the
US has taught us anything, it is that workers are taken advantage of and working
conditions deteriorate in the absence of
strong unions.
On the other hand, wages increase and
working conditions improve when workers have strong unions advocating on their
behalf. Strong unions have one thing in
common: strong and active members
willing to act, willing to participate, and
willing to take action.
Today, despite the plight faced by workers, union membership is at a historic low.
Where do we go from here? The answer is
that labor unions must rebuild and thrive,
or perish. Union members must step up,
commit, and invest. Unions are under
severe, concerted attack by wealthy corporate forces, extreme, ideological forces,
and a weak-kneed, feeble media that has
forgotten its role as the fourth estate.
Labor must either band together and
stand up to these forces now, or wait…
Wait for what?
Wait till these forces absolutely crush
Labor, snap the backs of workers, break
the spirit of the working class, and then
take us back to the days of robber barons,
poverty wages, and indentured servitude.
And perhaps, after 30 to 50 years of
those “Darwinian Capitalism” conditions
again, will the heart, passion, and courage
of the working class be stoked enough to
rise again.
The choice is ours.
“Labor cannot stand still. It must not
retreat. It must go on, or go under.”
–Harry Bridges, Labor Leader,
International Longshore and
Warehouse Union
DECEMBER 2014
15