The Right To Strike : The Causes Of Public Labor Strikes

Every year in this country, there are major labor disputes that result in strikes or work stoppages. In each case, the organization, the labor union, and the public are negatively affected. Why can 't there be a better way of resolving disputes between the management and labor unions to avert unnecessary strikes? Why does the relationship between the labor unions and management have to be adversarial in nature? Does anybody benefit from strikes and work stoppages? These are some of the questions that I will explore in this study.

A strike is a collective decision of the union members not to work until certain demands or conditions are met (Noe, 2003). If the majority of the union members vote to strike, the union will strike. Most strikes usually have union employees not show up to work to perform his/her day-to-day duties but rather have the union employees picket outside the organization. While the union employee is on strike, the employer does not pay the employee his/her wage. In many strikes, the unions help the employees compensate their wages while they are on strike. The purpose of a strike is to make the employer lose production because the regular employee 's do not show up to work. The vast majority of labor-management negotiations do not result in a strike, and the number of strikes has plunged since the 1950s (Noe, 2003).

The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike

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

During the Gilded Age, around 1860 to 1910, Unions, in an attempt to improve working conditions, were created, and while strikes from union workers “have been known in America since the Colonial Age… their numbers grew larger in the Gilded Age”: creating a numerous amount of issues that needed to be resolved (USHistory). One specific incidence that demonstrates the problems created was when workers of the Homestead Steelworks, that had unionized, were locked out in an attempt to break the union; however, these workers, recognizing the attempt to hire scabs, blocked the entrance to the steelworks (KhanAcademy). This, in turn, shut down production and angered management, thus a private police force was hired to arm themselves and to “push past

Companies and Industries that were established can be known as the Gilded Age where they were blooming, but on the inside of the area of work was unsanitary, back-breaking and unattractive to the inferred perspective of the company. Labor Unions were created because the Industries were setting very unimaginable hours and poor wages which cannot support one's, family. Strikes soon became a habit during the 18th century in order to establish their right to have a more reasonable and humane working standards. Labor Unions are somewhat successful because although many of the strikes occurred and ended in a violent aftermath, generally resulted in a few major changes. Many companies that dismissed the need for strikes created oaths to prevent workers

Take the Anthracite Coal Strike of Pennsylvania for example. Coal mining was a dirty and dangerous job. The miners felt like they deserved more for their hard work, so about 140,000 miners went on strike. They believed that they should have a twenty percent pay increase and shorter work hours (they wanted nine hours instead of ten). The bosses refused, so they kept striking.

Apart of the Homestead Strike in 1892 there were labor unions formed and protesting before the strike occur. One example will be the Haymarket strike led by American Federation of Labor(AFL). The AFL were wanting similar goals as the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. They both aimed for an eight hour work day and better wages for workers. On May 1,1886 they decided to protest against the businesses after failing to change the employees work hours. Unfortunately, the protest in Chicago ended violently when a bomb was thrown into the crowd and killed 7 officers and injured several. After this situation labor unions were view as rebels by the public. The american public wanted them to be punished for their actions therefore after

To start, the workers had four main reason that cause them to go on strike. The first reason was that the employees were under-rewarded and overwhelming. Their nest reason was that their working hours were unreasonably long. The following reason was the FAA, Federal Aviation Administration, did not really supervise the safety on the work places for the workers. the last reason was

For those of you who can’t recall, the Winnipeg General Strike occurred was due to rising unemployment being accompanied by inflation. This, along with the success of the Russian Revolution in 1917 created an unrest amongst the workforce, which eventually led to the strike of 1919. Beginning in March that year, western leaders met in Calgary to discuss the formation of ‘One Big Union’, on May 15th, this discussion manifested when the negotiations between management and labourers broke down and the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council decided to call a general strike. The Winnipeg General Strike created a wave of controversy amongst many labour groups throughout our country. Sympathetic strikes began to occur throughout our land. Thousands of

The Winnipeg General Strike has plenty of primary sources to examine, such as photos, letters and newspapers. After examining the primary sources from the Winnipeg Tribune, before, during and after the strike, it is apparent that the tone of the articles changed along the way. It is in my opinion that the Tribune by June 25th, 1919, after the strike, was showing a slight bias on the side of the employers. The evidence that the paper may hold a bias is that there is negative press about the strikers, whereas there isn’t as much, if any, that is about the employers. As there is a bias, can this newspaper be considered honest? One would hope as much as the claim of the paper is, “Honest News, Honest Views, Honest Advertising”. This analysis will

Public workers should be able to join unions and collectively bargain because it has benefits to improve their livelihoods.

From an ethical point of view, the debate over whether public employees have the right to strike centers on the political and philosophical differences between 'conservatives' and 'liberals' or progressives in American society. Classical liberals ('conservatives'), with their ethics based on the concepts of John Locke and Adam Smith, assert that the social contract between the people and the state protects the individual rights of life, liberty and property, but beyond that autonomous individuals should be left to pursue their own interests with minimal interference from the state of society. For this reason, they would deny the right of collective organizations like unions to control personal autonomy and free choice, and insist that all persons are ultimately egotistical and self-interested. On the other hand, 'liberals' (progressives and social democrats) would argue that human beings are basically social and cooperative rather than egotistical and competitive, and that they have the right to organize and bargain collectively to pursue their group or class interests. They favor a broader social contract that includes group rights, economic rights, protection of minorities and the welfare state, and believe that social justice and fairness requires labor unions to balance against the power of employers and their influence on the political process. Labor unions, including those in the public sector, are among the largest contributors to the Democratic Party while the

Question 1: What are the arguments for and against reframing labour rights as human rights? Demonstrate your familiarity with the discussion set out in the course materials.

Defined, a strike action is “a refusal to work, initiated by a group of employees as a method of protest, in an attempt to achieve an allowance or allowances from their employer.” (“Difference between Strike and Lockout”, 2016).