The Solidarity of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union

The Labor Movement’s number one concern is to address problems associated with social inequality. The labor movement was created in order to fight for the rights of labor workers. The goal was to have better wages, safe working conditions, and reasonable working hours. Unions were formed in order to achieve this. However, this was always enough. Workers reached a point where they came together and participated in strikes which the main goal was to have their employers listen to them and come to an agreement.

Collective bargaining, as its name implies, is achieved when two or more parties come together to make a decision about something. Specifically, it is achieved when employers and a group of employees work together to decide important terms and conditions regarding employment. These terms and conditions include compensation as well as rights and responsibilities of employees, employers, and unions. They can also include guidelines for resolving problems such as grievances and disputes (Budd, 2010, p. 13).

This article talked about the general things of the National Labor Union back in the 1800’s. It mostly talked about the negative effects of the NLU such as exclusion of women, racial prejudice, and failing to enforce the eight-hour labor law. The article did mention about groups of skilled, unskilled, and farmers were unable to share and participate in united political views unless they were intensely focused on labor union. After William Sylvis death in 1869, the NLU suffered politically and dealt with the Depression of 1873, where the NLU finally collapsed.

The labor relations movement has been one of the most successful driving forces behind such efforts as: providing aid to workers who were injured or retired, better health benefits and to stop the practice of child labor in the workforce. Ostensibly, unions in the United States arose out of the need to better protect the “common interests” of laborers. Today, many of the social movements and alliances forged are created under the guise to better protect the employer from a plethora of interests made against the organization, rather than, increasing wages, improving reasonable employment hours and/or enhancing work conditions.

Despite being able to cause a small improvement in workers’ pay and hours, labor unions ultimately died out by the 1900s due to their methods. Unable to truly focus on the plight of skilled workers, most labor unions instead focused on that of unskilled workers, pushing aside the skilled workers. (Doc D). The actions of labor unions ended up being counterproductive, forcing companies to wage war against the labor unions. These stricter contracts such as that of Western Union Telegraph Company, forced workers to affiliate themselves against labor unions. (Doc E) One important thing to note is that the workers’ rights advocates were never able to coincide on one factor. As evidenced in an illustration in 1887, labor unions had to compete with other movements such as socialism, anarchism, and other labor unions. (Doc F). Because of this, the media, although recognizing the labor union movement, began viewing the labor unions as dangerous entities. Although the initial strikes such as the Wabash strike were successful, the ones that followed proved detrimental to the movement, and caused the steady decline of the labor unions. Because some of the strikes were dangerous, many strikes resulted in the deaths of those involved, such as the Homestead Crisis, and Pinkerton (Doc G). Combined with events such as the Wildcat strike, Haymarket strike, the Pullman Strike, the public began to associate a negative

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

Before the 1930s, labor unions had little to no voice in the contracts of industrialized companies. Labor Unions “are organizations of workers whose primary objectives are to improve the pecuniary and nonpecuniary conditions or employment among their members” (Ehrenberg & Smith, pg. 451). The Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) and the United Automobiles Workers (UAW) are different unions in Canada and the Unites States. Even though they have some similarities, the two groups have many differences as well. Some similarities include how they bargain and negotiate. However, they differ in the type of union, what they stand for, how large they are, why and when they started, and what they negotiate for.

Laws: are persistent to guarantee employee rights and standards have been protected and addressed through local, state and federal legislation. Recent anti-labor legislation in several states has limited collective bargaining rights; impact union membership (Anderson & Bowen, 2013). Public policy has hindered union memberships. The first labor laws were written during the Great Depression and have seldomly changed (Wilson, 2017). Republicans are wanting to do away with union dues to accelerate union membership but will put pressure on labor unions to collectively bargain in projects.

Labor Unions were made to help the worker. The first know labor union was in New York in 1768 when New York Journeymen protested wage agreements (History.com Staff). Then later in 1794 a bunch of journeymen otherwise known as shoemakers formed together to form what was the first known Union (History.com Staff). Labor Unions actually started with skilled workers. Not many factory workers were part of a union. One of the most famous Labor Unions is known as the Knight of Unions and is also when the national labor union was formed in 1866 (history.com Staff). In 1825 the first all-women’s Union was created (Unions-news.org).In 1999 almost 75,000 works were unionized in Los

Labor unions are groups of workers who come together to accomplish specific objectives. Gaining notoriety in the 19th century, labor unions have accomplished many achievements that have helped workers in areas such as increasing their income, improving working conditions and dispute resolution. Workers have been known to use these unions to help negotiate for the betterment of all workers. Becoming a member of a labor union requires workers to apply for membership and pay union dues. In order for labor unions to become certified there are certain steps that have to be followed. According to this week’s Lecture Hall, the National Labor Relations Act (1935) gave workers the right to create or join a union, discouraged union discrimination and created unfair labor practices.

Labor Unions were and still are an essential element in today’s businesses. In earlier years, labor unions aided employees by serving as the main voice to their employer. Today, the struggle continues as labor unions help workers by ensuring their voices are heard, their rights are upheld, their pay and benefits are fair and by eliminating injustices. In order to understand what lies ahead for the future state of labor unions, it is important to recognize its history, but also understand current challenges faced that will likely shape the future.

The topic of labor unions has been the focus of many political debates in recent years, with these discussions having people advocate for and against the unions. Labor unions are organizations that represent a collective group of employees to protect and further their rights and interests. Labor unions were first introduced in the eighteenth century with increasing numbers around the United States and the world, but unfortunately during the past decade, these numbers have drastically decreased. Resulting in less education and achievement of solidarity among employees and companies. Solidarity is the unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest. Workers in the United States would benefit more

This brief history of more than 100 years of the modern trade union movement in the United States can only touch the high spots of activity and identify the principal trends of a "century of achievement." In such a condensation of history, episodes of importance and of great human drama must necessarily be discussed far too briefly, or in some cases relegated to a mere mention.

Labor Unions have become an important factor in our industries. For many years, labor unions have served as the main voice of the workers to their employers. The continuous effort of labor unions in helping the laborers ensure their rights in their jobs, acquire all the benefits they need and to eliminate the injustice experienced by workers in their workplace is still an ongoing process. In order to understand labor unions in general, knowing the roots of it is the best way to start. In this paper, the progress of the labor unions throughout history, the issues faced the developments it achieved, laws passed and the problem faced by today’s unions will be tackled.

The National Labor Relations Act was enacted by congress in 1935 in order to define and defend the rights of the employment relationship. The act allows employees of a company the right to form a union and have the union organization represent them through collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is the process of negotiation between both parties; Union representatives and a corporation, with the purpose of reaching an agreement for the best interests of employees and the corporation. In the negotiation process the attempt is to establish primary factors of importance which are advantages the union fights for and ultimately provide for its stakeholders that would otherwise not have