Louis Brandeis

The laborers demanded a 20%, greater protection and rights, and have the work day reduced to nine hours instead of ten. The stubbornness of the corporation would ultimately be their own defeat. The strike was becoming a substantial burden on the United States due to the diminishing amount of coal being produced. Due to this, Roosevelt decided to intervene. It is true that Roosevelt threatened the mine owners when no negotiation was met, but this would be the first time a president sided with a union over corporations. This is quite a revolutionary action for unions, because Roosevelt heard the people’s voice and answered. The owners agreed, and the workers got the terms the union had been fighting for. Roosevelt is known to be overly expressive, so he also convinced Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, and the Meat Inspection Act. Congress was cautious in passing these acts due to the amount of influence the meat industry had, but Roosevelt was the man that convinced Congress. These acts protect

(DOC G) It did rule that child labor is a state matter, but is showed that the Supreme Court at that time did not always reflect the Progressive Era.

Workers went on strike to earn a fair living wage and in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt stepped in. His commission saw the truth awarded mine workers a wage increase and a nine-hour day. The department of Labor formed to help fix problems of the American worker. New York banned children from working under the age of sixteen for more than nine hours in a factory. To improve safety, in 1911, New York passed laws requiring fire escapes, fire drills and wired windows in all factories. In the next year, New York also passed a law requiring factory workers to have a “one-day-of-rest-in-seven”, meaning they needed to have at least one day break each week. After that, New York also made it illegal to hire children to do factory work in tenements or canneries, and made a fifty four- hour workweek the maximum for any working person under eighteen. (Doc 2)

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), also known as the Wagner Act, was enacted in Congress in 1935 and became one of the most important legacies of the New Deal. Prior to the passage of the NLRA, employers had been free to spy on, interrogate, discipline, discharge, and blacklist union members. Reversing years of federal opposition, the statute guaranteed the right of employees to organize labor unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes. The act also created a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to arbitrate deadlocked labor-management disputes, guarantee democratic union elections, and penalize unfair labor practices by employers. The law applied to all employees involved in the interstate

Imagine your parents died at work when you were a young child, and your family was in poverty. This happened all of the time in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s because of the lack of rights for workers. It was the job of many early labor unions of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s make working conditions for workers better. Early labor unions such as the Knights of Columbus, the American Federation of Labor, and the National Labor Union were all successful in creating rights for workers and making working conditions better. There are many ways that labor unions have affected modern day society.

The 14th Chief Justice of the U.S Supreme Court, Earl Warren changed the course the nation through landmark decisions that reflected progressive thinking. With Warren in charge, the Court brought about a significant amount of social change, rooted in establishing racial equality and protecting civil liberties. Despite being nominated on the basis of his conservative governorship, Earl Warren’s s nomination for Chief Justice gave him a new perspective, especially on crime. He now viewed the Court as a protector of the public, and with astounding leadership brought the Court to a consensus in many landmark decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Mapp v. Ohio (1961), and Gideon v. Wainwright (1963).

These actions are similar to the actions taken by Theodore Roosevelt during the progressive era. The ideas of the National Recovery Administration contains ideas that further the ideas and events during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt intervened in the coal strike of 1902, where he showed strong support for the workers. This is similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies that involved the Federal Government directly helping the working class people. Furthermore, the progressive era showed strong support “for legislation regulating child labor and workplace safety” (Reform). Through the National Recovery Administration, child labor was ended (The Great). Even after the Supreme Court ruled the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional in the Schechter case, the basic principles of both the progressive era labor union reforms and the National Recovery Administration were carried through in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This new act readministered many of the regulations issued by the National Recovery Administration; this act “set a minimum wage, maximum working hours, and forbade children under 16 from working” (The Great). Similarly, by 1910 of the progressive era, state laws were already established that regulated the minimum age for children to work at an age between 12 and 16 and also set a maximum length to a workday and a

In 1976 Rene Levesque won the provincial election and became premier of Quebec with his party, Parti Quebecois. The separatists wanted to strengthen the French language and didn’t care about official bilingualism. So not long after taking office, the Parti Quebecois passed Bill 101, which is also known as the Charter of the French Language. It decreed that French was the single official language of the province of Quebec and that employees of the government had to work in French. Outdoor commercial signs had to be in French only and the children of immigrants would have to go to French schools. The Quebecois likes this new law because they thought their language and culture was becoming endangered. Birth rates in Quebec had gone down and the

Prior to the 1950s, American public sector workers could not join unions. Because of job security and reasonable benefits, it was considered unnecessary for public sector workers to unionize and collectively bargain with their government employers. However, in 1958, Robert F. Wagner, then mayor of New York City, signed an executive order granting city workers the right to unionize. Other local and state legislators followed suit, allowing public sector workers the right to join unions. In 1959, the state of Wisconsin passed the first state law granting the right to public sector collective bargaining after extensive campaigning in the state by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (Fraser & Freeman, 2011). And in 1962, President John F. Kennedy granted federal employees the right to unionize and collectively bargain. Since then, the expansion of union activity in American government has closely mirrored the decline of union influence and strength in the American private sector (Masters, Albright, & Gibney, 2010)

NLRA was considered to be the law that affected the relationship among the federal government and private enterprise; this measure considerably increased the government’s powers to arbitrate in labor relations. Prior to this law, employers had the emancipation to chastise, spy on, question for no reason and fire union members. Work stoppages commenced in the mid 1930’s (Gould, 1986), which included striking by factory and industrial occupational workers. By the time the strikes came to a halt, America had a more conservative Congress. This Congress led to balance the power between employers and unions. While the Wagner Act addressed only unfair labor practices by employers, it was added to the enactment of

This progressive act officially set up a national minimum wage, set up a forty hour work week, guaranteed 'time-and-a-half' for overtime, and prohibited oppressive child labor (Friedrich). These acts dramatically improved labor conditions. A clear improvement in labor could be seen from before to after the New Deal labor reform.

Title VII of the act banned employment discrimination based on "race, color, sex, and nationality," it also created a permanent equal employment opportunity commission to enforce its provisions. The act also for the first time included obligations not to discriminate to private employees, labor unions, and governmental agencies.(Urofsky 17). In executive order 11246, issued on September 24, 1965, Johnson require that federal contractors take affirmative action to recruit, hire, and promote more minorities. Two years later in executive order 11375 Johnson added women to the group covered by previous anti- discrimination order" (Urofsky17). Each new order was a modification of the previous one. Increasing minorities' and women's chances to compete in the job market. When Richard Nixon took office in 1969, he asked Art Fletcher, the Assistant Secretary of Labor and a black man himself, to find a way to enforce the hiring provisions of Title VII in a way that it would withstand court challenge. Fletcher did, and in 1971 Nixon unveiled the Philadelphia Plan. The Philadelphia Plan made federal contractors meet specific numerical goals in hiring minorities. Each contractor was to have nine percent of its work force be made up of minorities and women. Even with all these Executive Orders, Civil Rights Act, and Amendments passed, only a small percent of minorities held position in the job force. In recent years, in order to combat job discrimination in the employment market,

Robert Wagner, the state senate majority leader, and Alfred E. Smith created bills which led to the Factory Investigating Commission Law that passed on June 30, 1911. Outraged citizens demanded change from Tammany Hall, which was very pro-business, only looking out for people who could give them money. People wanted the government to show that they could represent all people and all workers, not just the wealthy and privileged. Al Smith and Robert Wagner set up a factory investigating commission, which brought along many leading reformers, such as Frances Perkins, who later became the first female Secretary of Labor, Rose Schneiderman, a labor union activist, and Clara Lemich, the “Catalyst of the Shirtwaist Uprising.” The Factory Investigating Commission had investigations all over the state. They looked at fire precautions, wages, and hours. Smith and Wagner even personally inspected the factories, and they were amazed to see young girls working twelve to fourteen hour work days. After four years, the commission ended its investigations and thirty-six of the laws it drafted were passed in New York. Also, in October, the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law was

adamantly opposed any recognition of the union. Thus, the union members decided to strike over wages, safety

Workers had simple demands, such as a 52-hour workweek, a 20% pay raise, and the right to organize (von Drehle, 59). The strikers dealt with many problems, such as fierce strikebreakers, and when brought to the attention of the police, strikers tended to be the ones arrested (von Drehle, 64). This strike brought the support of many wealthy people including Anne Morgan (Von Drehle, 71), Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont (Von Drehle, 66), just to name a few, who helped bring attention to the strikers cause. This helped in bringing attention, but was not enough to keep the strike going and formally ended in winter 1909. The strike did not lead to very many gains, and it would take the death of 146 workers (Von Drehle, 265) for any actual change to be brought about. The biggest benefit to labor that came out of the fire was the Factory Investigating Commission, which was born officially in June 1911 (Von Drehle, 212). The commission had virtual self-governance, and had investigators that would personally check the conditions of New York factories (Von Drehle, 213). The commission had a small set of cities it investigated, but was later expanded throughout the state of New York (Von Drehle, 214). The commission was the product of Wagner and Smith, the so-called “Tammany Twins”, and also brought in Frances Perkins, who would later become the Secretary of Labor