Union membership in the state declined, but it is hard to tell how much since unions were disinclined to publicize their weakness. Communists declared March 6, 1930, to be International Unemployment Day, and led marches and rallies of the unemployed in most of the major cities in the U.S. Several thousand marched to factories and auto plants to demand jobs and unemployment insurance. The toll increased during the initial years of the Depression. In many places, CP activists organized squads to turn utility services back on. It gave the employee a voice. A Civilian Conservation Corps, designed to stimulate the economy, provided jobs as well. By the mid-1950s, unions in the US had successfully organized approximately one out of every three non-farm workers. This topic is important because it affected the way workers are treated. In 1939, WPA funds were cut, WPA wages were reduced, and workers who had been on WPA payrolls for 18 continuous months were terminated. Source: “Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail” by Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. These leaders were also recognized as the official bargaining agent for WPA workers. The economic collapse also impacted those with low-wage jobs. Thousands of them joined the CP. Organization leaders conducted work stoppages and demonstrations on WPA projects, protesting layoffs and demanding more adequate security wages. The National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) provided for collective bargaining. The reason for that is primarily the employers’ war against workers, using tactics both legal and illegal to bust unions and to deny workers their basic human right to join and form a … Other settlement houses, which were often led by women, also helped provide necessary social services during the Great Depression. Many of the migrant workers had owned their own small farms in the Plains states and hoped to save enough money to start their own farms in California. Protests in local communities originated in sporadic street demonstrations, rent rebellions and the disruption of relief centers. In 1934, there were over ___ strikes in the U.S. Huey Long (Kingfish) ... Why were German soldiers willing to … Today, just 12% of workers are unionized, and the level is substantially lower in the private sector. Demonstrations soon became more massive and well organized; they gained momentum and grew in size and frequency. Unemployment was prevalent in the streets during the 1930s. They held mass meetings and focused on a dual approach of community and trade union unity. While 31.5% of workers were union members in 1950 and 33.2% were in unions in 1955, that percentage fell to 31.4% in 1960, 28.4% in 1965 and 27.3% in 1970. At the WPA’s peak, only about one in four persons actually gained employment. One of the great conflicts within the labor movement existed between the Craft Unions and the industrial unions.When the American Federation of Labor indicated reluctance to organize unskilled workers, John L. Lewis created the Committee for Industrial Organization within the AFL in 1935. The opening up of overseas markets increased competition in many highly organized industries. Tens of thousands of people rallied in 1837, 1857, 1873, 1884 and 1893 to demand a public jobs program from the federal government. While the Great Depression skyrocketed the unemployment rate, it helped create pro labor laws that strengthened the union force. 2827 were, or already had been, introduced in the legislatures of California, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and other states. One of these, the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (also known as the Wagner Act) gave workers the right to join unions and to bargain collectively through union representatives. Joint rallies comprised progressive trade unions, communist activists and alliances of communities. Federal troops made war on unarmed people, while the mainstream press branded the demonstrations as “riots.”. Labor Unions were an important part of the labor movement in the 1920s. Labor gained much during the Depression, in part from FDR finally giving his backing to the development and existing unions, in return for campaign donations. Unionization rates also vary greatly from state to state, from nearly 25% in New York to less than 4% in the Carolinas. Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World. Unavoidable comparison is made to the similar decline of the unions in the 1920s. The first federally dictated minimum wage came about as a result of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which guaranteed “employees who are engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or who are employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce” $0.25 an hour as of October 24, 1938. Virtually identical state versions of H.R. Starting with a chapter on "why labor matters," Fantasia take… Unions were developed to keep employees together, and try to earn what they want. Protesters were often confronted by federal, state and local troops, who aggressively dispersed their actions. drought/dust bowl. Labor Unions fight for all sorts of benefits, such as: health, higher wages, and better working conditions. Some of these were for the railroads, for factory workers, and also for skilled workers. By the early 1980s it was down to 20%. Interestingly, two of the three are not about farm workers: instead, they focus on the people who interpreted the California farm labor story of the 1930s. Unions formed a backbone element of the New Deal Coalition and of Modern liberalism in the United States. The growing differentiation between rich and poor in the countryside, the expansion of resource industries (see Resource Use), the construction of canals and r… Under the 1935 Social Security Act, the federal government paid a share of state and local public assistance costs. At the time, it was common for many Canadians to support themselves as independent farmers, fishermen and craftworkers. March was the record month, with about fifteen and a half million unemployed. By 1936, 2.5 million WPA jobs had been provided, but nearly 10 million people were still unemployed. During the 1930s, the Communist Party played a leading role in fighting for the demands of African Americans — who were devastated by the Great Depression — and helped mobilize them for their struggle. The Great Depression was a trying time for United States citizens in the 1930s. The Wagner Act, in particular, legally protected the right of unions to organize. The Unemployed Councils’ headquarters served as meeting halls and places where tired job searchers could rest and talk. Members of the Black working class subsequently became leaders of the Black liberation movement. Rising anger led to defiance and resistance. The decline gained speed in the 1980s and 1990s, spurred by a combination of economic and political developments. In reality, U.S. Communist Party members were often concerned with creating better conditions for workers within the capitalist system. The AFL, which was comprised mainly of skilled workers’ unions (many of them segregated), did not see itself as the representative for all American workers. Of the 14.7 million wage and salary workers who were part of a union in 2018, 28% were Black and 25% were women. And if the USWA and other unions had maintained their civil rights focus, the course of the civil rights struggle and of history might have been altered. Political demonstrations by the unemployed in big cities marched under Communist Party banners with slogans like “Fight—Don’t Starve.” The Unemployed Councils also led mass protests against police oppression and brutality. They called for the “abolition of the profit system.”. Congress of Industrial Organizations: the CIO. During the 1930s, the Communist Party played a leading role in fighting for the demands of African Americans — who were devastated by the Great Depression — and helped mobilize them for their struggle. The CP also undertook food collections in the Black community of Harlem, N.Y., where unemployment had risen to as high as 80 percent. Unless unions rethink how they represent workers they will remain irrelevant to 21st-century employees. The 1930s produced the largest movement of the unemployed and poor that the country had ever known. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/depwwii/unions/, http://depts.washington.edu/depress/strikes_unions.shtml. At the beginning of the 1930s, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the largest workers’ organization in the country, did not even support unemployment insurance. Communist Party-led trade union organizations fought against the white chauvinistic policy of the American Federation of Labor, which excluded Black workers, and demanded a united labor movement based on equal rights for all workers. One of the most important was the Knights of Labor, which inaugurated the Labor Day holiday in 1882. The mid-19th century saw an ever-increasing number of new industrial unions created to fight for workers' rights. About the Author. US Labor Unions History: Industrialization in America US Labor Unions began forming in the 1860's in response to the social and economic impact of the Industrial Revolution and Industrialization in America.It was the era in US history that saw the emergence of important industries in agriculture, oil, mining, the railroads, steel, textiles and manufacturing. Mounted and unmounted cops used bare fists, night sticks and tear gas in mass arrests and even killings to disperse the crowds. The act established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to punish unfair labor practices and to organize elections when employees wanted to form unions. Wobblies, Knights, AFL. 1,800. Job quotas fluctuated wildly with no apparent relation to unemployment, and workers never knew when they might be laid off. In 1936, most major groups of the unemployed merged, and a national poor people’s alliance was formed that agitated and protested to get legislation implemented. * Las… As a result, the government took the stance that less had to be done for them. Thousands of unemployed veterans descended on Washington, D.C. This period represented the peak of labor’s power, as the ranks of unionized workers shrank in subsequent decades. The unemployed became less of a threat because they were divided, and the most skilled were absorbed into the WPA. The organizing, then, of over 300,000 woodworkers (an industry that existed across the deep South, 50% of whose workers were African-American) had the potential to make a tremendous difference. The jobless rebelled against the inequalities produced by capitalism, an institution of rising profits for the wealthy ruling class. 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