Development of American Labor
Beginning in 1866 until the present time many labor leaders have initiated many effective and important labor laws. Throughout the past one hundred plus years there have been many steps forward in the labor movement along with a few major steps back. The actions of these labor leaders and the accomplishments of the acts that they have helped to pass have paved the way for the American worker in today's society. One of the labor laws that had an impact was the Taft-Hartley Act. The Taft-Hartley act formerly called the Labor-management Relations Act was passed in 1947. Its founders were Senator Robert A. Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley. This act helped in collective bargaining along with allowing workers the right to defer from joining a union. This act required unions to give notification of a strike sixty days before it was to occur. It also outlawed specific union practices that were unfair and required that union officers must deny any Communist affiliations while under oath. Another of the labor acts that contributed to the labor movement was the National Labor Relations Act. It was passed by Congress in 1935. It has been called the Magna Carta of American labor. The National Labor Relations Act guaranteed
A more recent labor issue was the United Parcel Service's strike in 1997. The central issues of this strike were part-time work, pensions, and subcontracting. The union claimed that many part-time workers work full time hours without getting paid the full time rates, which are almost twice that of the part-time. The union also wanted an increase in contributions to its pension and health funds. The union would not budge on this issue and UPS met their demands. The last aspect of the strike was subcontracting. The union claimed that a loophole in their contracts was allowing more than the one percent limit of the business to go to subcontractors. There are many opinions on whether or not the strike was a victory for the union but at the end the workers were back on the job. The case of Muller vs. Oregon is a famous Supreme Court labor case. The focal points of this case were the Fourteenth Amendment versus the Tenth Amendment. In these times in Oregon it was illegal for a woman to work for more than ten hours in a factory or laundry. In 1905, a suit was filed against Curt Muller for making Mrs. E. Gotcher work more than ten hours. After being found guilty, Muller took his case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court would later rule against him. A significant strike of the past was the aforementioned Pullman Strike. The Pullman strike began during the Panic of 1893. The Pullman Company laid off three thousand of its fifty-eight hundred employees. The Pullman workers all lived in houses owned by the Pullman Company and had to pay rent. The remaining employees had their wages cut twenty-five to thirty percent and the housing prices remained the same. After paying the rent on their homes, their paychecks dwindled down to almost nothing. Later, after the depression, two thousand Pullman workers were hired. Again, the Pullman Company did not restore wages of compensate with lower housing rates. In the spring of 1894, the outraged workers called for a strike. The strike was one of peace, that is until Pullman hired strikebreakers. This brought on a violent end to the strike. In conclusion, Pullman fired most of the strikers and named more to a blacklist. workers the right to join unions without fear of being punished by management. In order to enforce this law the Na
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1554
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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