In the early days of the United States, the idea of unionization was one of minimal value. Colonization of the country was the top priority, and jobs outside of the home and personal farm did not really exist yet. The mid-eighteenth century, in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, however, brought forth a shift from individualistic, self-sustaining lifestyles to urban living with a dependency on factories and larger-scale companies providing a living wage for American families. With this changing dependency and an onslaught of people needing work to sustain their families’ lives, demand for jobs far outweighed the supply that companies could provide. This made for a huge scramble–workers accepting poorer and poorer conditions just to get by. Eventually, workers realized their power as a unit and came to be fed up with these harmful conditions. And thus: unionization was established in the United States.
Unionization started slowly and then all at once. In the late seventeen hundreds, a few labor groups of singular fields, such as New York City printers in 1778 and Philidelphia carpenters in 1791, formed unions for a common purpose but then often disbanded once their goals had been met. The years following these small-scale, mini-union formations would be much more conducive to the cause of the betterment of labor conditions.
In 1866, the National Labor Union was formed–its goal being to use its power of its many members to convince Congress to regulate the hours of federal employees to no more than eight hours per day. This success in the public sector, however, was not mirrored in the private sector–working conditions for laborers of private companies were simply no better and unhelped by the National Labor Union.
Nevertheless, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions was formed in 1881, and the American Federation of Labor was founded five years later. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions had several goals: shorter working days, higher wages, child labor laws, employers’ liability laws, apprentice laws, lien laws, the exclusion of Chinese immigrants, and the abolition of prison and foreign contract labor. Although there were many goals and many members in the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, they had little money and no authority, thus were condemned to shouting on their soap boxes and little more. The American Federation of Labor was much more effective. Calling attention to the unionization of only skilled workers, the American Federation of Labor sponsored boycotts, strikes, and protests, effectively convincing many organizations to create better working environments for their laborers.
Following these organizations of unions, Congress became more sympathetic of laborers and their agenda and created the Department of Labor to act as a federal regulator of labor conditions. Later, the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 was passed, giving the right to strike and boycott employers to employees. The Public Contract and the Fair Labor Standards Acts was also passed and mandated a minimum wage, additional pay for overtime work, and basic child labor laws.
As time went on and companies got bigger, unions became a norm in the working world. Chances are, if you are a public school teacher, transportation facilitator, construction worker, or manufacturer of goods, you are in a union–it is commonplace.
Private sector union membership in the past three decades, however, has decreased from about twelve million members to about seven and a half million members. Speculation of the reason behind this trend is all over the place, but the idea of unionization has again come to the forefront of the news world as many Democratic presidential candidates are calling for and allowing the unionization of their campaign staff members.
Advocating for socialist-leaning policies (some leaning very, very far, others more moderate), many Democrats have allowed for some of their members to unionize. Bernie Sanders, arguably the most socialist Democratic candidate, announced last week that he has allowed his campaign team members to unionize, making them “the first major party presidential campaign in history to have a unionized workforce.”
Personally, I don’t really think that is something to be proud of–a unionized staff will simply make for a more expensive campaign and a distraction from the true purpose of the campaign’s existence–to get their candidate elected. Could you imagine if Bernie’s staff decided to strike? In no way would that benefit him.
Comment your opinions.
Over and out.
-Courtney