The Rise of Labor Unions

By maiya

  • One of the earliest and most influential labor organizations, the Knights of Labor is founded by Philadelphia tailors.

  • The first nationwide strike stops trains across the country. About 100,000 railroad workers are involved. Federal troops are called out to break the strike.

  • Samuel Gompers founds the American Federation of Labor.

  • During a labor demonstration in Chicago, a bomb explodes and rioting ensues. Anarchists are singled out and convicted of inciting violence during the Haymarket Square riot.

  • Violence ends the Homestead steel strike in Homestead, Pennsylvania.

  • The Pullman strike, involving 50,000 rail workers, ends in rioting and violence

  • The International Workers of the World (IWW), a radical union, is formed with the aim of overthrowing capitalism and replacing it with a socialist system.

  • The U.S. government establishes the Department of Labor to protect the rights of workers

  • The Clayton Antitrust Act legalizes nonviolent strikes and boycotts

  • Over the course of the year, a record 4 million workers strike

  • The Wagner Act (also called the National Labor Relations Act) affirms the right of workers to unionize and requires employers to participate in collective bargaining

  • John L. Lewis breaks with the AFL and forms the Committee of Industrial Organization (CIO), later changing its name to the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

  • United Auto Workers (UAW) sign a contract with General Motors after a successful sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan.

  • The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes the minimum wage.

  • The Taft-Hartley Labor Act limits some of the powers of unions and the circumstances under which they can strike.

  • An amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 outlaws child labor

  • The largest U.S. labor organization, the AFL, merges with the CIO, forming the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

  • The Landrum-Griffin Act is passed to help eliminate union corruption.

  • One third of all workers in the United States belong to a union

  • Mexican American labor leader Cesar Chavez garners national attention for the plight of farm workers by spearheading what becomes a five-year California grape pickers strike. Chavez's union, the NFWA, primarily made up of Mexican Americans, joined forces

  • The postal worker strike, involving 180,000 strikers, becomes the United States' largest public employee walkout.

  • President Ronald Reagan orders the replacement of striking air traffic controllers with nonunion workers.

  • Over the last several decades, union membership has dropped considerably. Only 14 percent belong to unions

  • The Teamsters and Service Employees unions announced their withdrawal from the AFL-CIO. The split is considered organized labor's worst crisis since 1935, when the CIO split from the AFL. A few days later, another one of the country's largest unions, the