Union Timeline

By Nikolayenko

  • Atlanta's Washerwomen Strike

    Atlanta's Washerwomen Strike
    Thousands of black laundresses went on strike for higher wages, respect for their work and control over how their work was organized.

    More than half of the city’s black residents—and half of the black wage earners—were women.
    Reasons: Low wages & Long work day

  • Haymarket Riot

    Haymarket Riot
    Protesting police brutality against labor strikes.
    Eight people died when someone threw a bomb at police.
    Eight labor activists were convicted even with lack of evidence.

  • Sherman Antitrust Act

    Sherman Antitrust Act
    Oposes luck of competition, like monopolies. However, it's not harm "innocent monopoly". This act is also prohibiting the price fixing.

  • 1982 Homestad Strike

    1982 Homestad Strike
    Protested against long hours and low wages. Unions were threatened to be fired. Were used 'militia'.

  • The Great Depression

    The Great Depression
    In 1933, the number of labor union members was around 3 million, compared to 5 million a decade before. The highest unemployment rate. Especially, the hard industry was vulnerable.

  • Norris-LaGuardia Act

    Norris-LaGuardia Act
    Banned yellow-dogs contracts. This Act has outlawed the practice of hiring only workers who agreed not to join the union. This protected the workers self-organization and their liberty.

  • World War II

    World War II
    Unions at World War II was growing its membership. Reason for that are higher wages, more jobs. More than 3,500 strikes took place through 1941, cutting defense production by 25 percent.

  • The Cold War

    The Cold War
    Congress launched sweeping investigations to weed out Communists in government, labor unions, the entertainment industry and even the army. As a result labor unions were forced to purge anyone who had ever belonged to, or had been sympathetic to, the Communist party.
    Labor unions, divided by the domestic crusade of anticommunism, were unable to prevent passage of the Taft-Hartley Act (1947), which strengthened US financial and industrial wealth.

  • Taft-Hartley Act

    Taft-Hartley Act
    Prohibited some of the types of strikes, so made it more difficult to the Unions. Also required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits. In result right-to-work laws passed

  • The Battle of Cripple Creek

    The Battle of Cripple Creek
    Five-month strike by the Western Federation of Miners in Colorado. Reasons: low wage and long working day. First strike, where used militia, also was used firefights and dynamite.