Another great factor which limited the development of labour representation was the fact that along with the authorities, the courts supported the employers and indeed in the first decade of the twentieth century, a series of Supreme Court decisions further impeded attempts to give workers their rights, a prime example being Lochner v. New York (1905). To make the situation even worse for the workers, some factory owners even placed federal injunctions on unions that organised strikes attempted to boycott unfair employers or encouraged others to do so.
In spite of these bad situations, unions were established, such as the Knights of Labour, founded in 1869, which was one of the first attempts not only to unite skilled and unskilled labour, but also to remove the barriers of racial and cultural origin imposed by existing local labour associations. In many ways, it was ahead of its time and highly successful, however, after the violence of the Haymarket Affair its reputation was destroyed and its influence and support dwindled. Ultimately, in aiming to better their situation through striking, the workers made things worse for themselves, for violence clearly wasn’t a successful policy to undertake.
The development of union membership and representation for black labour represented a landmark in the movement for black civil rights. The rejection of black workers, initially, by white unions forced them into forming their own labour associations. This contributed to their own self awareness and solidarity, even though they faced great discrimination and often, violent intimidation. However difficult it was for black union members, it could only be a matter of time before white union leadership recognised and accepted that the movement for labour rights could succeed only if labour were totally united. This would mean admitting African-Americans and others rejected ethnic minorities into the unions.
This point was not entirely lost on those attempting to establish s national labour movement in the late nineteenth century. The Knights of Labour had certainly wanted to admit black members as well as members from other ethnic groups, unfortunately at the same time white unions operated a closed shop in many firms, this effectively undoing the good work of some and more importantly excluded African American workers from entering those industries and so further divided the total workforce.
As early as 1869, blacks had begun to form their own unions. The National Negro Labour Union was founded in that year and attempted and unsuccessfully, to affiliate with white skilled unions. The blacks made various attempts to unify, for example, A. Philip Randolph’s BSCP, however, this usually failed. It seemed the workers had much opposition; however, the white’s ignorance in not uniting caused them greater problems in the long term, since there were so many groups with differing objectives.
Fortunately in 1935, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) formed, and was actively committed to organising labour, regardless of race and indeed, broke down racial barriers to unite labour and to some degree of success.
The years of the First World War saw a slight improvement in the position of trade unions. In spite of the racial tensions caused by the influx of immigrant and African American labour into northern industrial areas, the needs of the war and the opportunities it offered to industrialists encouraged a more conciliatory policy towards unions. Nonetheless, the Great Depression made the situation disastrous for labour workers with factory closures and bankruptcy for many businesses, thus, a recovery was necessary and new initiatives were introduced to aid this recovery and these had a great effect on trade union members. Perhaps the most significant introduction was a law giving workers the right to organise trade unions and take part in collective bargaining, a great step in the right direction in the trade union movement. Another great factor was the Wagner Act of 1935 which gave workers the right to join trade unions and to bargain collectively through their own chosen representatives. It also set up a three man National Labour Relations Board that had the power to bargain on behalf of the workers and to stop companies from using blacklists and company unions. Having established and protected the rights of labour, the Act facilitated the expansion of trade union membership. This rose from 3.7million members in 1933 to 9million in 1938.
The rise in union membership was clearly an indication of the Wagner Acts success. However, disputes between employers and their employees continued to be acrimonious. Moreover, divisions within the trade union movement itself continued to deprive the mass of unskilled workers of their rights. Although its clear divisions still occurred within the labour movement, the Committee on Industrial Organisation (CIO) consistently gave their support to equality in labour and therefore gave African Americans the confidence to take part in strikes (sit ins). This also began the process of black integration into US society, which was further developed by the creation of the Fair Employment Practices Commission, set up by Roosevelt to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination in war industries and eventually the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited discrimination in jobs based on race, colour, religion, sex or national origin.
Although its clear blacks had drastic improvements within their lives, there were also great improvements for all within the trade union movement, such as the 1949 ‘New Deal’ and John F. Kennedy’s ‘New Frontier’ which gave workers increased wages, although not by much, and more importantly, gave women equal pay to men through the Equal Pay Act.
It is quite apparent at this point that there were good things within the labour movement, yet things took a turn for the worse and by the time the workers themselves had began to solve their own differences (prejudice) the trade union bubble was beginning to burst, it started with the introduction of new technology in the 1950’s which weakened the unions greatly (decrease in membership) and although Kennedy’s ‘New Frontier’ and Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ introduced great improvements into the workplace, for example the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1968, the trade union movement was on its last legs; only pockets of resistance still occurred, a prime example being the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees strike of 1975. The unions were declining more and more and basically ended under the Reagan Administration, in which independence given to owners was not in the interests of the workers and finally and decisively, the Air Traffic Controllers Strike in which Reagan sacked most of the nation’s air traffic controllers and de-certified their union in response to an illegal strike.
The union was destroyed and this ultimately led to the death of organised strikes on the national scale and essentially, ended the entire trade union movement.
In conclusion, it is necessary to state immediately that the trade union movement and its rights were greatly hindered. Undoubtedly and undeniably divisions within the movement affected success. These divisions impeded the development of unity and solidarity that labour needed in order to assert its rights and be recognised. At the same time, workers also remained tightly controlled by legislation that established the parameters of acceptable union activity. Organized labour was vulnerable to political swings and fortunes as well as economic change. From the 1960’s, trade unions were in decline, initially as a result of the advent of new industries that ultimately reduced the numbers of workers in traditional industries and consequently, in their unions. The right wing policies of Ronald Reagan after 1981 strengthened the position of employers and further weakened the unions.
Finally, it is clear that the faults of the union members were great but it would be foolhardy to overlook the role of other factors, (as mentioned above) for their role was just as great and important as the failings of the workers themselves.
