Collective Bargaining

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at labor relations in America. These have undergone many changes, with the development of unions giving the workers a voice and a degree of power, so as to use their solidarity as a bargaining tool. The paper also examines how the union movement evolved and the history behind it, including the various acts that have been passed by the legislators, with emphasis on the Railway Labor Act. The paper concludes that numerous changes have been made in the collective bargaining laws and in various agreements between labor and management, though the basic idea of collective bargaining and of protecting the process has remained strong.

From the Paper:

"In the nineteenth century, there was a kindred spirit between artisans and all types of skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled labor, which developed into a bond of common interest that would in time lead to the development of the American labor movement and to massive changes on the American labor scene. The stabilization of labor unions would also result in the expansion of collective bargaining and wage and salary demands. Labor organizations in the United States were founded long before factories were developed. Between 1790 and 1799, shoemakers, printers, carpenters, and other craftsmen organized "societies" in eastern cities, and as needed they conducted strikes for higher wages and closed shops. The earliest authenticated strike in the U.S. was in Philadelphia in 1786 when the printers union gained a minimum wage of $6 a week. The labor philosophies of these organizations were highly influential in the development of subsequent groups, notably the Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations in 1827. As industry expanded at a time of soaring prices following the discovery of gold in California in the 1850s, trade unionism was revived. Officers from 25 unions gathered in Columbus, Ohio in 1886 to organize all trades and to form the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The organization adopted the policy of collective bargaining to deal with employers on wage matters. By the turn of the century, though, there was a greater need for union organization. Hundreds of items were then manufactured under strenuous circumstances in homes and shops nicknamed "sweatshops," which were overcrowded, inadequately lighted, unventilated, and lacking in proper sanitary facilities. Men, women, and children worked under these conditions for low wages. The AFL worked incessantly for legislative relief to eliminate these working conditions, to abolish child labor, and to introduce workmen's compensation and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Massachusetts passed the first minimum wage law in 1912, followed by eight other states in 1913 (Zollitsch and Langsner 30-32)."

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