Immigrant Labor: The Labor Movement

The labor movement in the United States grew out of the need to protect the interest of workers. For those in the industrial area, organized labor unions struggled fighting for better wages, reasonable hours and much safer working conditions. The labor movement fought to stop child labor, give better health benefits and provide help to workers who were injured and/or retired.

The formation of unions helped workers of similar nature band together and demand better wages for their work. Many workers went on-strike, demanding higher wages, but living paycheck to paycheck it was difficult to weather out an entire strike. With the onset of industrialization and the automation of many factory jobs, the amount of jobs available decreased and further dumbed down the jobs, requiring less education to operate effectively, and further increasing the market for competition. Immigrants just wanted to sustain a good job that can make them enough money to support their family and live comfortably, but had a tough time being affluent in America while working wage-labor shifts in poor working

This situation sounds familiar in American labor history, where immigrants have been a mainstay in the national workforce. It wasn't until the labor movement gained strength that workers in the U.S. were able to turn “exploitive jobs into occupations that enabled them to support their families and improve their living conditions” (Dougherty, 2004). Higher wages have also increased their purchasing power, stimulated economic growth, and higher standards of living.

During the 1970’s, Mexican Americans were involved in a large social movement called the "Chicano movement." Corresponding with the great development of the black civil rights movement, Mexican Americans began to take part in a series of different social protests in which they demanded equal rights for themselves. Composed mainly of Mexican American students and youth, these activists focused on maintaining a pride for their culture as well as their ethnicity to fuel their political campaign. Left out of this campaign initially though were Mexican immigrants.

Labor unions have existed in one way or another since the birth of our country in 1776. They were created in an effort to protect the working population from abuses such as sweatshops and unsafe working conditions. From the start of our Nation there were a few unions organized unions in a scattered fashion, but many were disbanded after they had achieved their goals, such as when the printers and shoemakers briefly unionized in Philadelphia and New York City in 1778 to conduct the first recorded strike for higher wages. Three years later in 1971 the first successful strike happened, when Philadelphia carpenters campaigned for a ten-hour workday. This caused the need for skilled and unskilled laborers to skyrocket during the Industrial Revolution and the Civil War and also got the ball rolling with Labor unions. At this point in our Country, there had been nothing done yet for workers’ rights, conditions, pay, and so on. People at this time saw that they could come together and do something to make their lives better for themselves and their families. Many of these dates were important in shaping our country’s labor policies into what they are today. In 1847 New Hampshire enacts as the first state to enforce a 10-hour workday law. In 1909 the International Ladies’ Garment workers’ Union calls a strike in New York, demanding a 20-percent raise and a 52-hour workweek. Within two days, more than 20,000 workers from 500 factories walk off the job. This largely successful uprising

This federation was named the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The creation of the American Federation of Labor was caused by the weakness of a labor union at the time called the Knights of Labor. Because the Knights of Labor had internal conflicts such as competition among the labor unions. Members of the AFL were required to pay 6 cents per year as a due for being within the union and under the protection of the union. The president of the union was paid $1000 per year for a full-time job of guiding the union. The American Federation of Labor spread rumours about the Knights of Labor, causing them to collapse. Despite this, the labor union’s growth was not fast, even though they had taken out their biggest rival. It wasn’t until 1892 that they hit the 250,000 member mark. A possible reason for the slow growth of the union were their beliefs against immigration. During that point in time, there were still many immigrants coming to America mainly from the European countries and some Asian countries. The American Federation of Labor were against the immigrants because they took away jobs from the already citizens of the United States, a situation much like the present day. One thing the American Federation of Labor did do was play a big role in the creation of labor laws in the United States. With the creation of worker’s rights, the workplace became safer and they were able to have influence over laws concerning immigration. During World War 1, the United States government encouraged industries and companies to compromise with the labor unions rather than face strike, otherwise it would stunt the production of supplies needed for the war in Europe. The American Federation of Labor signed an agreement to help with the war and to eliminate socialist and communist labor unions in the United States. They did this because it was in both

The immigrants who migrated to the United States to live a better life and the working class people encountered historical events which impacted our working industry today. The American Dream is accessible to everyone who is willing to achieve it. The social divisions amongst the wealthy and the poor lead to the numerous conflicts that affected the working class people such as the development of the Unions, protests which lead to violence against the working class, and the impact of social

Labor laws in the 20th century played a major role in the lives Mexicans and caused massive deportations as well as economic concerns with congress and Anglo-Americans in the United States. Labor laws were crucial part of the immigration waves through the 20th century and made an impact to voting patterns in the U.S. Natalia Molina discuss how, “Employers

“On 'A Day Without Immigrants,' workers take to US streets” by CNN and “US Cities to Hold 'Day Without Immigrants' Protests” By Al Jazeera both covered stories on the widespread protest in America. On February 16, 2017 took place a nationwide protest that was supposed to advocate for immigrants and their importance in America. It is called “Day without Immigrants”, reminding America that this country is made up of immigrants and built by them. Immigrants, no matter where they come from, seek a better life and try to make that happen by sacrificing themselves from sleep and time with their family. Recently, Donald Trump has been making threatening rhetoric at immigrants, especially Mexicans. He is trying to keep immigrants out of the country because most of them are “criminals and rapists”, as he said in his first campaign speech. There are also 11 million undocumented immigrants who he wants to deport, which eventually caused this social unrest. This is actually a false belief because without immigrants America would be nothing. Therefore, it was on February 16 when schools were almost empty, restaurants and other businesses closed for the day making it certainly, a day without immigrants.

With the increase in salary many Mexicans would feel the money made would be enough to support their family, and live a more comfortable life. The growth of immigrants sparked around the 1970’s, and continued to grow as decades passed. According to the pewhispanic.org the immigrant population had a seventeen fold increase from the decades before. (seven hundred sixty thousand immigrants were currently in the United States in the nineteen seventies.) Even with the increase in salary Mexican americans were still unsatisfied, and believed they deserved more money, more respect, and less racial segregation. The leader of the United Farm Workers movement Cesar Chavez helped organize boycotts and strikes against the farm owners, and got others to stop buying grapes; this severely hurt the grape growing business. Not only did the increase in salary encourage others to immigrate to the United States, but better working conditions did as well. With more immigrants entering the United States, many Mexicans would find themselves to be illegally in the US. Chavez was strongly against those who were in the US illegally and would refuse to help them. Though these people were not receiving the UFW benefits, it encouraged them to apply for citizenship.

During the years of the Great Depression, Asian and Mexican immigrants had to take up the agricultural jobs in the United States. These immigrants made up the majority of the poor and faced problems with immigration, taxes, and the labor system, along with racial discrimination and a sense of inequality within society (Tejada-Flores, “The United”) Workers were surviving on 90 cents per hour with an addition of 10 cents per basket gathered for working in the fields and worked in poor environments and conditions. There were no toilets in the fields and no electricity or a plumbing system in the metal shacks that they were forced to pay two dollars or more per day for (“Fighting For Farm”). People then created and joined labor unions such as The United Farmworkers Union, which was established by the Mexican-American, Ceasar Chavez, to fight against injustice without violence for all farm workers. Chavez took all his important values, life lessons, and work experience to make a difference in the United States (Tejada-Flores, “Cesar Chavez”). Although he faces opposing opinions, he still managed to successfully lead the Delano grape strike and boycott and even help create the nation as we know it today.

Immigration and labor unions strongly impacted the American. Immigrants mostly impacted the American industrial worker negatively, because of more competition to earn jobs and also the immigrant’s willingness to work for lower wages. Labor unions were created in order to help the workers, but in the end, both created tension and depersonalized the work

Among those masses were southern European immigrants. In the late 19th century, the immigration rate increased significantly (Document 1). Eventually, the U.S. government created immigration quotas to monitor the movement. The people entering the U.S. were desperate for work, so they would work for close to nothing in horrific conditions. Due to the decreasing wages, the idea of nativism was growing in popularity Josiah Strong reflects this point of view in his piece The Dangers of Cities (Document 2). Parties such as the Know-Nothings and the Native Americans emerged from the growing nativism. American workers began to form unions to fight for better pay and conditions. One such union was the American Federation of Labor who fought specifically

Labor unions have been instrumental in the lives of workers throughout American history, and have led to important advances in the American workforce. Throughout history there have been patterns of exploitation of immigrant workers by businesses in order to increase profits; the Mexican migrant workers of southern California are the most recent historical group to fall into this pattern of exploitation mostly from their lack of organization. Cesar Chavez, a great organizer, and leader in fighting for farm workers’ rights was head of the United Farm Workers Union. As a Mexican-American, he would become a noticeable union leader and labor organizer who was toughened by his early years as a migrant worker who founded the National Farm Workers

Between 1860 and 1920, immigration was at its highest than ever before with over 12 million immigrants arriving in America. Many arriving through either Ellis or Angel Island. But with the increasing immigration came with employers taking advantage. They often paid them less and had them work more hours because they did not have the same rights. Immigrants also had less of a voice than any other manual labor worker. But soon came the rise of labor unions. The most popular labor unions were the American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor. The American Federation of Labor was the organization that focused on skilled workers. Knights of Labor made the most difference with lower class workers, as well as, immigrant workers with the use