By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 30th, 2011
The American Spark is proud to present the fourth part of its short history on American Labor.
Why publish this quick study? Because many may not know of the essential role labor unions play in American democracy, or of the essential part they play in the maintenence of this country’s middle class.
Also, an admission: we did not put together this wonderful history. The information seen below comes straight from The Illinois Labor History Society website. Please check out its excellent documentation and resources.
American Labor History: Part IV
The Roaring Twenties: 1921-1929
Labor Related Events of the Period
1921:
The Supreme Court held that nothing in the Clayton Act legalized secondary boycotts or protected unions against injunctions brought against them for conspiracy in restraint of trade.
The Presidential Commission on Unemployment placed the main responsibility for unemployment relief upon local communities.
In Truax v. Corrigan, the Supreme Court ruled that an Arizona law forbidding injunctions in labor disputes and permitting picketing was unconstitutional under the 14th amendment.
1922:
The United Mine Workers was held not responsible for local strike action, and strike action was held not a conspiracy to restrain trade within the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. (Coronado Coal Co. v. UMMA)
In southern Illinois, coal strikers kill twenty guards and strikebreakers in the Herrin Incident.
1924:
AFL President Samuel Gompers dies. William Green becomes the AFL president.
An amendment to the Constitution is proposed restricting child labor, but not enough states passed the measure.
1926:
The Railway Labor Act required employers to bargain collectively and not discriminate against employees who wanted to join a union. The act also provided for mediation and voluntary arbitration in labor disputes.
1927:
The Longshoremen’s and Harbor Worker’s Compensation Act was passed. The Journeymen Stone Cutters’ action in trying to prevent purchase of non-union cut stone was held to be an illegal restraint of inter-state trade. (Bedford Cut Stone Co. v. Journeymen Stone Cutters’ Association, et al.)
1929:
The Hayes-Cooper Act regulating the shipment of prison labor goods in interstate commerce was approved.
The stock market crash in October began the longest economic period in American history.
The Great Depression: 1929-1939
Labor Related Issues of the Period
The Great Depression was devastating to the common working man, but saw dramatic growth in the labor movement.
Use of the sit-down strike strategy brings recognition of unions in several large industries, including the auto industry.
Many of the labor movements battles were fought and decided in the courts.
Conditions in the South caused a massive migration of the region’s Blacks to northern cities.
Labor Related Events of the Period
1929:
The stock market crash in October began the longest economic period in American history.
1930:
The Supreme Court upheld the Railway Labor Act’s prohibition of employer interference or coercion in the choice of bargaining representative (Texas & N.O.R. Co. v. Brotherhood of Railway Clerks).
1931:
In the Davis-Bacon Act, Congress provided for the payment of the prevailing wages to employees of contractors and sub-contractors on public construction.
1932:
The Anti-Injunction Act prohibited Federal injunctions in most labor disputes. Wisconsin created the first unemployment insurance act in the United States.
1933:
Francis Perkins becomes the Secretary of Labor and the first women named to a Cabinet position. The Wagner-Peyser Act created the United States Employment Service within the Dept. of Labor.
1934:
500,000 Southern mill-workers walked off the job in the Great Uprising of ’34.
The first National Labor Legislation Conference was called by the Secretary of Labor to obtain closer Federal-State cooperation in working out a sound national labor legislation program.
The US joined the International Labour Organization.
1935:
The Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) establishes the first national labor policy of protecting the right of workers to organize and to elect their representatives for collective bargaining.
The Guffey Act passed to stabilize the coal industry and to improve labor conditions. Later declared unconstitutional (1936).
Social Security Act approved.
Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) formed within the AFL to foster industrial unionism.
1936:
The United Rubber Workers (CIO), in the first large sit-down strike, won recognition at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.
In Flint, Michigan, United Auto Workers make effective use of the sit-down strike in a General Motors plant.
The Anti-Strikebreaker Act (Byrnes Act) declared it unlawful to transport or aid strikebreakers in interstate or foreign trade.
The Public Contracts Act (Walsh-Healey Act) established labor standards, including minimum wages, overtime pay, child and convict labor provisions, and safety standards on all federal contracts.
1937:
General Motors agreed to recognize the United Auto Workers (CIO) as the bargaining agents for auto workers and to not discriminate against union members following a year of sit-down strikes.
US Steel recognizes the Steel Workers Organizing Committee as the official bargaining agent of the steel workers. Workers also earn a 10% wage increase and a 8 hour day/40 hour week.
The Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) was declared Constitutional by the Supreme Court (NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.).
In south Chicago, 10 people were killed and 80 wounded in the Memorial Day Massacre during the “Little Steel” strikes. Police attacked an unarmed crowd of men and women who were supporting the strike between the Steel Workers Organizing Committee and Republic Steel. The 5-week “Little Steel” strike was broken when Inland Steel employees went back to work without union recognition or other gains.
The CIO is expelled from the AFL over charges of dual unionism or competition.
The National Apprenticeship Act passed which established the Bureau of Apprenticeship within the Dept. of Labor.
1938:
A Federal Maritime Labor Board is created by the Merchant Marine Act.
The Fair Labor Standards Act created a $.25 minimum wage and time and a half for hours over 40 per week.
The CIO becomes the Congress of Industrial Organizations with John L. Lewis as its president.
