Workers Civil Rights Key Dates

1862

Molly Maguires begin (till 1876)

1875

6 assassinations by MMs

1881

Federation of Organised Trade and Labour Unions (FOTLU) formed

1886 (3 things)

Haymarket Affair (May)

FOTLU becomes AFL (Gompers first Pres.)

700,000 KoL, only 100,000 by 1890

1890

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

1892

Homestead Strike (July)

1894

Pullman Boycott (Pres. Cleveland)

1902

Anthracite Coal Strike (Pres. Roosevelt - first one)

1903

WTUL formed

1905

Lochner v. New York

1910

AFL = 2 million members

1911

Factory fire (led to reforms in industrial safety)

1912

Textile mill strike (IWW)

1913

Department of Labour, and Children's Bureau made (pressured by AFL)

1914

Clayton Antitrust Act ended use of Supreme Court injunctions

WW1 (3 things)

1914 to 1918 - factory production rose by 35% and real wages rose by 20%

Union membership: 1912 = 2.7 mil, 1919 = 5 mil

NWLB established

1921

Yellow Dog Contracts introduced

1925 (2 things)

Randolph leads BSCP

1920 to 1925 - loss of 1 million union members

1933

NIRA

1934 (2 things)

Congress amends the Railway Labour act so the BSCP becomes the exclusive union of Pullman Porters

Minneapolis General Strike

1935 (3 things)

CIO founded

NIRA declared unconstitutional

Wagner Act

New Deal

TVA, WPA, CCC, Agricultural Adjustment Act, Social Security Act, Economy Act, Federal Relief Act, Frances Perkins

WTUL left to help women as they were unaffected by New Deal legislation

1938

Fair Labour Standards Act

1940

More than 200,000 AAs in the CIO

1941

Randolph/Pres Roosevelt end segregation in war industries

1942

WTUL pressured the NWLB to establish an equal pay policy during the war

WW2 (5 things)

8.9 million to 14.8 million union membership

Wages rose by 70% (overtime pay)

President's Executive Order 8802

Automation led to decrease in blue-collar jobs (50% reduction in their union membership)

Some unions pushed against unequal pay based on gender

1947

Taft-Hartley Act

1948

Randolph/Truman desegregate the army

1955

AFL-CIO merger (85% of all union members - 16 mil)

Randolph elected VP of AFL-CIO

1955

Aeroplane collision due to overworked controllers

1959

Chavez named executive director of the CSO

1960

Pay gap had widened: 1945 = $1000 vs $2000, 1960: $1500 vs $4500

Women in federal jobs on average a few grades lower

1962 (2 things)

Chavez lobbied for minimum wage etc

Kennedy's executive order 10988 permits federal employees to strike, join unions etc

1963

Equal Pay Act

1964

Economic Opportunity Act

1965

Chavez California Grape strike (AWOC and NWFA)

1968

Age Discrimination Act

1969

Grape strike stops sales across America and leads to signing contracts with all major producers

1970

Occupational Health and Safety Act

1972

Female bank workers strike

1974

Cleveland Board of Education vs La Fleur

1975

California Agricultural Relations Act passed thanks to Chavez

1980

Pres. of CLUW (Joyce Miller) becomes first woman on the AFL-CIO executive board

1981 (3 things)

PATCO strike

3333 strikes 1960, 381 1970, 44 1990

19,843,000 union members 1980 to 16,470,000 1990