Labor Unions
The Discipline Literacy Activity will allow students to delve deeper into the entity of Labor Unions by analyzing
different relevant resources and looking at Labor Unions through different lenses. This activity will give the
students an opportunity to think as historians and to enhance their understanding of how and why labor has
changed the fabric of the American workplace.
Contents
Teacher Background Material
Graphic Organizer/Guiding Inquiries
Excerpts
Political Cartoons
Quotes
Photos
Procedures: The student will complete the graphic organizer (that contains the guiding inquiries) by analyzing the different resources i.e.; excerpts, photos,
quotes and political cartoons. These activities can be done in a group setting or as individuals. At the conclusion of the lesson, the students will complete the
Reflection Activity that has been provided.
Guiding Inquiries
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


Why was their a need for labor unions to develop in the United States?
How did labor improve the lives of minorities? Cite examples.
What changes were brought about as a result of child labor abuses?
What makes a strike an effective strategy from the perspective of labor and management?
Reflection Activity

After completing the Disciplinary Literacy Activity put the students in pairs and have the students
summarize what they think are the most important parts of the activity in 31 words or less. Then they
will exchange papers and create one paper with parts of their respective papers. At the conclusion the
students will share the finished product with the class.
Labor Unions
Objective: To gain multiple perspectives about the nature of labor unions and how
labor unions have changed the fabric of the American workplace.
Guiding
Inquiries
Why did labor unions
develop in the United
States?
How did labor unions
improve the lives of
minorities? Cite
examples
What changes were
brought about as a
result of the abuse of
child labor?
What makes a strike
an effective strategy
from the perspective
of management and
labor?
Excerpts
Quotes
Photos
Political
Cartoons
Teacher Background Material
In the United States unionism in some form is almost as old as the nation itself. Crafts that formed
local unions in the late 18th and early 19th cent. included printers, carpenters, tailors, and
weavers. Their chief purpose was to keep up craft standards and to prevent employers from
hiring untrained workers and importing foreign labor. From 1806 there were numerous
prosecutions by employers of unions as combinations in restraint of trade. The early 1830s, a
period of industrial prosperity and inflation, was a time of union development; however, the
financial Panic of 1837 halted this growth. After the Civil War, in 1866, the National Labor Union
was formed; it had such objectives as the abolition of convict labor, the establishment of the
eight-hour workday, and the restriction of immigration, but it collapsed with its entry into politics in
1872.
Among the most important of the early national organizations was the Knights of Labor (18691917), organizing among both skilled and unskilled workers. That policy brought them into conflict
with the established craft unions, who joined together to form the American Federation of Labor
(AFL; see American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations ) in the 1890s
under Samuel Gompers. The Knights, thereafter, declined in numbers and effectiveness. The
leaders of the AFL opposed the entry of the federation into politics. In 1905 a huge, unwieldy but
militant industrial body arose—the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). It concentrated on
unskilled workers—lumbermen, migrant workers, and miners. With the conviction of most of its
leaders under the Espionage Act during and after World War I, IWW membership shrank, and the
organization became ineffective in the 1920s.
During the depression of the 1930s, unions experienced a rapid growth in membership. At this
time the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was formed; it was made up at first of
dissident unions of the AFL and was led by John L. Lewis . During the administration of President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, steps were taken to restore seriously deteriorated standards of
employment and to facilitate the development of trade-union organization. The accomplishment of
those goals were sought through the passage of such acts as the National Labor Relations
(Wagner) Act of 1935, an enactment that enlarged the rights of unions and created the National
Labor Relations Board , and by protective labor legislation such as the Fair Labor Standards Act
(1938) and the Social Security Act (1935). There were often severe conflicts between the AFL
and the CIO during the 1930s and 40s. It was therefore considered a momentous step when in
1955 the two labor groups merged to form the AFL-CIO. The AFL, the larger of the two
organizations, was given a proportionate share of the offices of the new federation, and its
president, George Meany, was unanimously elected president of the combined body. Industrial
unions of the CIO were given a department of their own within the merged organization.
http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us
Excerpt 1
Labor unions in the United States are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many
industries. The most prominent unions are among public sector employees such as teachers and
police. Activity by labor unions in the United States today centers on collective bargaining over
wages, benefits, and working conditions for their membership and on representing their members
if management attempts to violate contract provisions. Although much smaller compared to their
peak membership in the 1950s, unions also remain an important political factor (especially within
the Democratic Party), both through mobilization of their own memberships and through coalitions
with like-minded activist organizations. Today most unions are aligned with one of two larger
umbrella organizations: the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Federation, which split from the
AFL-CIO in 2005. Both advocate policies and legislation on behalf of workers in the United States
and Canada, and take an active role in politics. The AFL-CIO is especially concerned with global
trade issues. American union membership in the private sector has in recent years fallen under
9% — levels not seen since 1932. The labor force in unionized automobile and steel plants, for
example, has fallen dramatically. In another example, Construction trades now only represent
approximately 14% of the labor market. The inability to prevent non-union companies from taking
significant market share has undercut union membership.[citation needed]American unions remain an
important political factor, both through mobilization of their own memberships and through
coalitions with like-minded activist organizations around issues such as immigrant rights, trade
policy, health care, and living wage campaigns. Unions allege that employer incited opposition
(including engaging in what is commonly termed "union-busting": running "anti-union" campaigns,
employing "union-busters" - a.k.a. "union avoidance" consultants, or engaging in unfair labor
practices, like firing workers who support the union, which is illegal) has contributed to this decline
in membership.Unions are currently trying to diminish employers' opportunities to run anti-union
campaigns by advocating new federal legislation that would allow workers to elect union
representation by signing cards, a process often referred to as card check recognition. This
proposed legislation is known as the Employee Free Choice Act. Under this proposed Act, once a
majority of employees in a workplace have signed a card, the employer will be obligated to make
a good-faith effort to bargain a contract with the union. Significantly, the card signing is to be
performed in front of a union representative, who can identify the signer. The current process
established by federal law requires at least 30% of employees to sign cards for the union, then
wait 45 to 90 days for a federal official to conduct a secret ballot election in which 50% plus one
of the employees must vote for the union in order to obligate the employer to bargain. Unions
report that, under the present system, many employers use the 45 to 90 day period to conduct
anti-union campaigns. Since the 2008 elections, the Employee Free Choice Act now has the
support of majorities in the House and Senate, and of the President.
http://en.wikipedia.org/
Excerpt 2
Child labor in factories
Children as young as six years old during the industrial revolution worked hard hours for little or
no pay. Children sometimes worked up to 19 hours a day, with a one-hour total break. This was a
little bit on the extreme, but it was not common for children who worked in factories to work 12-14
hours with the same minimal breaks. Not only were these children subject to long hours, but also,
they were in horrible conditions. Large, heavy, and dangerous equipment was very common for
children to be using or working near. Many accidents occurred injuring or killing children on the
job. Not until the Factory Act of 1833 did things improve. Children were paid only a fraction of
what an adult would get, and sometimes factory owners would get away with paying them
nothing. Orphans were the ones subject to this slave-like labor. The factory owners justified their
absence of payroll by saying that they gave the orphans food, shelter, and clothing, all of which
were far below par. The children who did get paid were paid very little.
http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us
Photo 1
http://www.historyplace.com
Photo 2
http://www.historyplace.com
Photo 3
http://www.historyplace.com
Excerpt 3
STRIKES AND LOCK-OUTS. A strike, in the labor sense, is a stoppage of work by
common agreement on the part of a body of work-people for the purpose of obtaining or
resisting a change in the conditions of employment. The body of workpeople may be
large or small, and the cessation of work may be simultaneous or gradual; e.g. if the
notices to cease work happen to expire at different dates, the cessation may
nevertheless be a strike, provided it takes place as the result of a common agreement. It
will be seen from the above definition that a strike, though the immediate result of an
agreement, formal or tacit, on the part of work-people to withhold their labor, may
originate in a demand on the part of the employer as well as on the part of the
employees. In the former case the stoppage is often (though loosely) termed a " lockout." It is obvious, however, that to distinguish stoppages as strikes or lock-outs
according to the source of the original demand for a change of conditions would lead to
a very arbitrary and misleading classification. Frequently it is not easy to say which side
made the original demand to which the dispute is to be attributed, and frequently a
stoppage is the result of a break-down of negotiations in the course of which demands
have been made by both sides. Moreover, in so far as the distinction can be drawn, it
would lead to the result that in almost all cases a dispute in times of improving trade
would be termed a strike, and in times of declining trade a lock-out. It is not possible to
frame an entirely satisfactory definition of a lock-out which shall enable it always to be
discriminated from a strike. It may be noticed that the attempt to make this distinction
has been abandoned in the board of trade statistics since 1894, both kinds of stoppages
being now included under the comprehensive title of " trade disputes." The only basis of
distinction between a " strike " and a " lockout," which is sufficiently definite for precise or
statistical purposes, is the source from which the actual notice to cease work emanates,
cessations resulting from notices given by the employers being termed " lock-outs,"
while those which either result from notices given by the men, or from their withdrawal
from work without notice, would be termed " strikes." But whether the term " lock-out " be
restricted as above, or applied, as in the popular use of the term, to any dispute in which
the employers appear to be the aggressors, the distinction does not afford a sound basis
for the statistical classification of disputes. The source of the actual notices to leave work
is often quite an unimportant matter; while, on the other hand, if the ordinary current use
of the terms be followed, there will be many disputes which, according to the workmen's
view, should be termed lockouts, and, according to the employers, should be termed
strikes a difficulty which was well illustrated in the controversy as to whether the " strike
clauses " in admiralty contracts could be invoked in the case of work stopped through
the engineering dispute of 1897. In the present article, therefore, no distinction is drawn
for statistical purposes between a strike and a lock-out.
http://www.fcps.edu/westspringfieldhs
Political Cartoon 1
http://www.celdf.org/
Photo 4
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/
Political Cartoon 2
http://www.cartoonwork.com/
Political Cartoon 3
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/
Labor Quotes
History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement
did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the
living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for
industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production.
Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers
them."
Martin Luther King Jr.
Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue
to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of
poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.
-- Grace Abbott
The first and continuing argument for the curtailment of working hours and
the raising of the minimum age was that education was necessary in a
democracy and working children could not attend school.
-- Grace Abbott
As labor creates the wealth of the country, we demand the passage of such
laws as may be necessary to protect it in all its rights."
-- John Peter Altgeld
Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work.
-- Susan B. Anthony
The most important word in the language of the working class is
"solidarity."
-- Harry Bridges
The role of a labor union is to ensure that the balance is not tipped in favor
of the employer when employees do not receive wages and benefits
commensurate with their contribution.
-- William Burrus
http://www.betterworld.net
Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare,
aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of
American Labor.
-- Jimmy Carter
The people united will never be defeated.
-- Cesar Chavez
The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.
-- Cesar Chavez
We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced
to live. We shall endure.
-- Cesar Chavez
Labor Unions are the leading force for democratization and progress.
-- Noam Chomsky
There was no precise moment when the tide began to turn against labor
unions in America. There was no single catastrophic event – no landmark
strike that was broken, no massive organizing campaign that was turned
back, no key negotiation that went poorly for labor. But beyond any doubt,
since the early 1980s, unions have lost many of their resources and much
of their influence.
GARY CHAISON, Unions and Legitimacy
There was no precise moment when the tide began to turn against labor
unions in America. There was no single catastrophic event – no landmark
strike that was broken, no massive organizing campaign that was turned
back, no key negotiation that went poorly for labor. But beyond any doubt,
since the early 1980s, unions have lost many of their resources and much
of their influence.
GARY CHAISON, Unions and Legitimacy
While historically labor unions have had some positive effect exploitation, I
think perhaps they’ve moved past their usefulness. As this recent report
from Heritage indicates, via analysis that they’ve had a negative impact on
those it claims to help.
http://www.betterworld.net