iEarly 1800s 1834 GUILDS NATIONAL TRADES’ UNION In the US, worker cooperatives were organized by During the early 1830s was the first great rise of unions in some of the very first North American labor unions the US. Workers' wages were lagging behind prices and cost of living, due to runaway paper-money inflation, and in the early 1800s. The earliest unions came out of employers also hit workers with wage-cuts and layoffs. They guilds, which included both masters and formed trade unions to fight back; many struck and lost, then journeymen, and structured the industries. They turned to worker cooperatives. were basically mutual aid organizations. At the American wage-earners' experience had long taught them point that masters became bosses, the journeymen that small strikes, guerrilla battles, were not getting them the broke away and formed separate organizations. larger things they wanted even when they won. Offensive strikes, waged when the bosses needed workers (often when These developed into what we know as unions. the economy was on an upswing), sometimes did win. But They too specialized in mutual aid. In many of the even then their gains were usually soon whittled away, by earliest strikes, the journeymen formed worker speedup, inflation, by any of a hundred tricks. As soon as cooperatives, sometimes temporarily to support recession hit, layoffs and wage-cuts were shoved down themselves during the strike, and sometimes to workers' throats. Defensive strikes, against these, almost invariably lost. The bosses simply didn't need them any continue on a permanent basis. These cooperatives more; unemployment created a large labor pool so workers were facilitated by the fact that most industrial had to compete furiously to survive and bosses could call all production was still done with comparatively the shots. It was during and after these defensive strikes, that simple hand tools. (Curl, 2010) wage-earners first formed cooperatives. Many soon realized that this was a bit late, and unions later formed cooperatives in expectation of hard times. The cooperatives would take in unemployed union members. Less unemployment meant less competition in the labor market and therefore higher wages. In 1834 the Philadelphia cabinetmakers union opened a cooperative warehouse; by '36 it was one of the largest in the city. Soon much of the Philadelphia trade union movement swung to cooperation: the hand loom weavers opened five shops in '36, soon followed by the tailors, hatters and saddlers. That same year shoemakers unions opened cooperatives in New Brunswick, N.J., Cincinnati, St. Louis and Louisville; in the last three cities, tailors unions followed suit. Painters' unions in New York City and Brooklyn lost strikes in 1837, then formed cooperatives. In the early 1830s unions began coming together into city- wide federations, "trades' unions," the first organizations of American wage-earners that cut across trade lines and looked to the interests of wage-earners as a class. Very soon these trades' unions joined into the National Trades' Union, the first national labor organization. The third annual convention of the NTU in 1836 appointed a committee on cooperation, which recommended that all unions investigate setting up cooperatives, because "until a system of Cooperation is adopted by which the producers of wealth may also be its possessors...the great burden of the evils of which we so justly complain, will never be removed.” (Curl, 1980) 1866 1869 NATIONAL LABOR UNION KNIGHTS OF LABOR The NLU was the first national labor federation in The K of L (officially "Noble and Holy Order of the United States. Founded in 1866 and dissolved the Knights of Labor") was the largest and one of in 1873, it paved the way for other organizations, the most important American labor organizations such as the Knights of Labor and the AFL of the 1880s. Its most important leader was (American Federation of Labor). It was led by Terence V. Powderly. The Knights promoted the William H. Sylvis. The National Labor Union social and cultural uplift of the workingman, followed the unsuccessful efforts of labor activists rejected Socialism and radicalism, demanded the to form a national coalition of local trade unions. eight-hour day, and promoted the producers ethic The National Labor Union sought instead to bring of republicanism. In some cases it acted as a labor together all of the national labor organizations in union, negotiating with employers, but it was never existence, as well as the "eight-hour leagues" well organized, and after a rapid expansion in the established to press for the eight-hour day, to mid-1880s, it suddenly lost its new members and create a national federation that could press for became a small operation again. labor reforms and help found national unions in It was established in 1869, reached 28,000 those areas where none existed. The new members in 1880, then jumped to 100,000 in 1885. organization favored arbitration over strikes and Then it mushroomed to nearly 800,000 members in called for the creation of a national labor party as 1886, but its frail organizational structure could not an alternative to the two existing parties. cope and it was battered by charges of failure and violence. Most members abandoned the movement in 1886-87, leaving at most 100,000 in 1890. Remnants of the Knights of Labor continued in existence until 1949, when the group's last 50- member local dropped its affiliation At the same time as the Knights of Labour fought for higher wages and better working conditions, they were also attempting to construct a vast chain of cooperatives. Their mission was to abolish what they called “wage slavery” and replace the capitalist wage system with workplace democracy in what they termed a Cooperative Commonwealth. This concept arose autochthonously in America, parallel to the growth of the socialist movement during the same period, to which it was conceptually interrelated. The Cooperative Commonwealth vision was based on free associative enterprises in a regulated market economy, with the government relegated to infrastructural and public utilities functions, such as maintaining and managing water systems, roads, railroads, etc. This concept was fundamentally distinct from the state socialist concept of the government running the entire economy with all workers as government employees. The Cooperative Commonwealth vision was Jeffersonian. (Curl, 2010) 1869 1806 NATIONAL COLORED COMMONWEALTH VS. LABOR UNION PULLIS The CNLU arrived shortly after the development Commonwealth vs. Pullis was the first reported of the National Labor Union, which happened to case arising from a labor strike in the United be the first major organization founded by Andrew States. It decided that striking workers were illegal Cameron in 1866. The National Labor Union was conspirators. In 1794 Philadelphia shoemakers dedicated with helping unions such as construction organized the "Federal Society of Journeymen and other skilled groups and even sometimes Cordwainers" (the name came from the cordovan farmers. leather they worked with) in an effort to secure stable wages. Over the next decade, the union Isaac Myers worked with Sylvis and Fredrick secured some wage increases. Through 1804, the Douglass to break the color line of the National Journeymen received moderate wage increases. In Labor Union. Myers was the keynote speaker on 1805 the union struck for higher wages. The strike that topic at the 1869 NLU convention. collapsed after the union leaders were indicted for Encountering opposition, Myers and Douglass the crime of conspiracy. The jury trial was in the organized the affiliated National Colored Labor Philadelphia Mayor’s Court, which unfortunately Union (NCLU), the first national organization of was not a court of record. The only report it’s kind. Myers was elected its first president, and historians have today consists of shorthand notes Douglass succeeded him in 1872. The NCLU’s by Thomas Lloyd, a young Jeffersonian printer program, like the NLU’s, backed worker who later published the proceedings. cooperatives. Besides the usual advantages, cooperatives could help remedy racist exlision Eight leaders of the Federal Society of Journeymen from the skilled trades. Cooperation was Cordwainers were brought to trial and accused of widespread in black communities across the conspiring to increase their pay rates after leading country, rural and urban. The NCLU led union an unsuccessful strike for higher wages. The organizing efforts in Alabama, Georgia, Teneesee, employers, not the government, paid the and Missouri, and successfully helped organize the prosecution's expenses. The arguments in Pullis longshoreman’s union for a wage increase in promoted the idea '"that workers were transitory, Baltimore. But on the whole, their pioneering irresponsible, and dangerous", and were, thus, efforts did not result in extensive unionization of properly the subject of judicial control'After a three African American workers (Curl, 2009). day trial, the jury found the defendants guilty of "a combination to raise their wages". The union of The CNLU welcomed all workers no matter what Philadelphia Journeymen Shoemakers was race, gender, or occupation. In the end, both the convicted of and bankrupted by charges of criminal CNLU and the NLU began to decline because of conspiracy. The defendants were fined US$8 each new organizations like the Knights of Labor who (the cost of one week's wages) and made to pay the promoted having a national organization which costs of the suit. united workers "without regard to race or color." The Knights of Labor adopted the slogan, "An injury to one is a concern for all." 1835 1842 PHILADELPHIA GENERAL COMMONWEALTH VS. STRIKE HUNT The Philadelphia General Strike took place in Commonwealth vs. Hunt was a landmark legal Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the first general decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial strike in North America and involved some 20,000 Court on the subject of labor unions.