by Stephen Koppekin | Mar 8, 2018 | History of Labor Laws, Labor Laws, Organized Labor, Stephen Koppekin |
Founded by Oliver Kelly in 1867, the Grange began as a fraternal farming organization. Kelly, a Minnesota farmer working in US Bureau of Agriculture, was directed by president Andrew Johnson to survey Southern farmlands devastated by the Civil War. The goal was to...
by Stephen Koppekin | Feb 6, 2018 | History of Labor Laws, Labor Laws, Organized Labor, Stephen Koppekin |
Working hard to enjoy a better life is a quintessential American value, and it helps to explain why men and women have stood up throughout the nation’s history to demand better wages, safer working conditions, and fair treatment and respect from their employers....
by Stephen Koppekin | Jan 23, 2018 | Business, History of Labor Laws, Organized Labor, Political Climate, Stephen Koppekin |
The nascent labor unions of the 19th century sought to rally workers in order to secure favorable wages and working conditions, but two divergent strategies emerged over how to best organize them. Advocates of craft unionism supported the belief that unions should...
by Stephen Koppekin | Dec 27, 2017 | History of Labor Laws, Labor Laws, Organized Labor, Political Climate, Stephen Koppekin |
Crippling unemployment, low wages, and labor uncertainty characterized workers’ lives during the torturous years of the Great Depression. Although President Franklin. D Roosevelt’s New Deal created jobs and relief programs for millions of Americans, by 1940, the...
by Stephen Koppekin | Dec 18, 2017 | Business, History of Labor Laws, Labor Laws, Organized Labor, Political Climate, Stephen Koppekin |
During World War II, the federal government kept labor unions on a tight leash for fear that their organizing might undermine industrial production for the war effort. However, with the end of the war, unions’ power and influence surged. By 1954—less than a decade...
by Stephen Koppekin | Dec 4, 2017 | History of Labor Laws, Labor Laws, Organized Labor, Stephen Koppekin |
Before their strike in 1934, dockhands on the West Coast were paid a pittance in exchange for performing bone-crushing physical labor. No matter how heavy or dangerous the cargo, it fell upon the longshoreman to haul it almost entirely by hand: Workers pulled and...
