Nicholas Valdez HST 345 12/1/15 The Longshoremen Strike All the labor history that was covered in History 345 was all surrounding the East Coast. Large labor strikes plagued the 1880’s up to World War II most of them that I knew were on the East Coast. For my blog topic, I wanted to focus on a labor strike that didn’t surround the East coast and start my focus on the West coast. A strike that struck a lot of foci was during the 1930’s that were the Longshoremen Strike. Prior to The Longshoremen were seen as the low class and were even called Wharf rats. Even though most people were out of jobs in the 1930’s the wharf had a large influx of workers coming to work at the docks every morning. The owners of the ships were just going to the …show more content…
This strike consisted of the longshoremen who are the people who work the docks who load and unload ships versus the Shipowners. The Longshoremen wanted better working-conditions, better hours, the recognition of their Union. Things that the National recovery Act was trying to provide. The National recovery act was a part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal that tried to provide economic assistance to the people by cutting the length of workdays, and would get rid of unsafe work practices. With the passaging of this legislation, the workers had the right to gather representatives bargain with their bosses. The Loading and Unloading of cargo from ships were important, considering the cities in which strike took place. The General strike took place in cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Oakland, and Seattle. In cities hit hard from the strike Such as San Francisco because it’s a waterfront city. It wasn’t just the dockworkers, but the seamen, the engineers as well as other unions that helped back them. The strike reached 35,000 people participating in the strike. The strike spread across the west coast from the top to the
The Delano Grape and Strike and boycott had an impact on the farmworker movement and on American society more broadly. The strike and boycott brought national attention to the plight of farmworkers, and they helped to raise awareness about the need for better working conditions and protections for agricultural laborers. The movement inspired other workers and activists to fight for their rights, and it helped to pave the way for the creation of labor laws and regulations that improved working conditions for many Americans. In addition to its impact on the labor movement, the Delano Grape Strike and boycott also had important cultural and social implications.
In result to it ending, African Americans strikes soon ceased to exist. Many of them were still not given pay close to those of other workers, but they did get pay raises. There was more than one hundred people were killed throughout the strike, many gained a sense of peace at the end, which over all is a great result to everyone and their
*Pullman Strike * The Pullman Strike was widespread by the United States railroad workers, approximately a quarter-million worker were on strike at the peak and it impacted the expedition the railroad system across the states. The strike between the American Railway Union and George Pullman changed the course of future strikes when President Grover Cleveland ordered federal troops to break up the strikers; its influenced how the federal government and the court system would handle labor issues. The labor issues during the Pullman Strike were not limited that of rights of the workers, the role of management in the workers private life, and the roles of government resolving labor conflicts. Pullman planned communities for his workers how he determined
In the mid 1800s industry was advancing and children of all ages were working in dangerous factories. People attempted to strike against these rules, while some decided not to. In the book ¨Lyddie¨ by Katherine Paterson, the main character Lyddie has a job in a factory with very poor conditions and long hours. Since this was only the 1800s, child labor laws were not yet established and Lyddie was recently introduced to her idea of rebelling against the rules for more rights.
After the police stopped several of these meeting the workers didn’t stop there, they started to publicly express the wrongs in these industries. Some of these actions would be creating small strikes, creating slogans heard everywhere like "Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for What We Will!" or "Shortening the Hours Increase the Pay". , or even creating songs like "the Eight Hour Day". Soon after that the works started to arrange marches through the middle of down town. Nearly 100 thousand workers marched through the middle of down town chanting about the eight-hour day.
The organized labor of 1875-1900 was unsuccessful in proving the position of workers because of the future strikes, and the intrinsical feeling of preponderation of employers over employees and the lack of regime support. In 1877, railroad work across the country took part in a cyclopean strike that resulted in mass violence and very few reforms. An editorial, from the Incipient York Time verbalized: "the strike is ostensibly hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and splenetic demonstration of resentment by men too incognizant or too temerarious to understand their own interest" (Document B). In 1892, workers at the Homestead steel plant near Pittsburg ambulated out on strike and mass chaos the lives of at least two Pinkerton detectives and one civilian, among many other laborers death (Document G).
In Braddock the work day went from eight hours to twelve hours, and in Homestead workers had to agree to the mills terms to return to work. Kratcha did not like the strikes, but Andrej approved of them saying, “While you’re losing a dollar, Carnegie will be losing thousands… Take a penny from [the millionaires] and they will bleed” (40). Although many workers, mostly those in support or in unions, approved of the strikes, they still made it difficult for many workers to support themselves when they were receiving no pay due to a shutdown mill. With the strain that strikes put on low income workers, Unions made it difficult for laborers, like Kratcha, to earn a steady income,
However, the economic crises in 1837 collapsed the labor unions because of economic hard times, and with immigrants coming in surplus willing to work for cheap, regular people could not compete and thus had to work at the beckon of the factories. Labor unions worked when the economy was resilient, but when the economy was shocked, everyone was too afraid of demanding more when there were those willing to work for
The Homestead Strike, which culminated with a day-long gun battle on July 6 that left 12 dead and dozens wounded, led to a wave of de-unionization. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) began organizing unskilled iron and steel workers into federal unions in 1901. The AFL did not account for the hardening anti-union attitudes of U.S. Steel executives and plant managers, and the federation had no real plan to counterbalance the vast financial resources the company would pour into anti-union espionage, strikebreaking and union avoidance measures.
Problems like these angered the workers and caused labor unions to form. Some labor unions included the American Federation of Labor (AFL), or the Knights of Labor (KoL), which were the first two industrial labor unions. The industrial unions did more physical rebellion such as strikes or walk-outs, but both the industrial unions and the farmer unions were formed due to the people’s
The AFL advocated for most of the same things as the Knights of Labor. The American Federation of Labor used strikes and boycotts against owners to try and get what they wanted. Two major strikes that occurred were the Pullman Strike and the Homestead Strike. Both strikes were very dangerous and had millions of dollars of damage. Some of the strikes and boycotts did work and wages were raised, however some backfired and many workers ended up losing their
This was most likely due to the fact that when the shipyard workers decided they must go on strike in order to be heard, they did not wish to make the lives of other working men and women like themselves any harder than they needed to be, so they set up ways that services such as the fire department continued running. However, while crime decreased drastically during this particular time of strike, Zinn points of the reality of chaos that occurred afterwards. Raids and arrests of Socialist Party members and members of the IWW happened
After the fire, the horrible event made factories transparent to Americans and Americans realized that industrial workers were being treated unfairly. The tragedy exposed the inhumane working conditions that the industrial workers had to the government also, so social reform became the nation’s number one issue to focus on. Countless state and federal laws were passed in direct relation to this incident. This event affects Americans today because it played a key role in the laws and regulation we have in the
The strike became one of the most influential events in the history of United States labor law. The labor law in 1894 in the United States was changed in a significant way after the strike, as it was the first strike that received national attention and tested labor laws. The government intervened in the relationship between employers and their workers. For the first time an injunction by the government was used to break up a strike and block a major union activity. Many industrials and unions were affected by this intervention.
Strikes are only taking people out of the work force for however long they go on. Without work people aren't usually able to support their family's. In some cases people can get by for a little bit wthout a change in their lives, but after a certain amount of time funds run out without a steady supply of income. In The Grapes of Wrath we saw how the migrant workers lives changed dramatically when they went on strike. Many if not all of the strikers family's couldn't afford the necessities for survival, and what for just to prove a point.