AFL CIO Massachusetts Labor History Scholarship Exam

What is a union?

__________ is when a group of workers who join together at their workplace to improve their working conditions through collective action on and negotiating a contract with their employer around wages, hours, and working conditions. It gives workers a voice and respect on the job. Unionized workers are able to negotiate better wages and benefits in the workplace, as well as grievance procedures to make sure they are treated fairly.

What is the labor movement?

When unions from many different workplaces and many different industries join together to

support each other and to advocate for public policies that promote fairness, equality and opportunity

for all working people, they are acting as a labor movement. Just like other movements you may

know of, like the civil rights movement or the women’s movement or the gun control movement, the

labor movement combines the collective power of all workers to make a better world.

What types of workers have unions?

The first groups of workers to form unions were artisans, railway workers, miners, factory workers, and construction workers. However, now unions represent an incredibly diverse group of employees in all industries and professions -- including, for example, nurses, bus drivers, writers, engineers, teachers, office workers, flight attendants, pilots, farm workers, actors, firefighters, student workers, and many more.

How does a union work?

1. They are chosen through a democratic process at the workplace,

2. The highest governing body in a union is the membership

3. Unions are funded by their members through union dues

How do workers form a union?

The process typically starts with co-workers discussing shared concerns and identifying workplace issues. If there is sufficient interest, they can approach a local union for assistance, gather support through union cards, or hold an election to formally establish the union.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

A U.S. government agency that oversees union elections and enforces labor laws regarding collective bargaining.

What benefits do union workers have?

Being in a union means that you can come together collectively to voice your concerns in your workplace, and work collectively to create concrete changes. Union workers bargain a new contract every few years to improve their wages, hours, and working conditions. This makes union membership critical for bettering the lives of working people.

at-will employment.

A common employment arrangement in which either the employer or employee can terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any reason, without prior notice.

Public sector unions difference

The Wagner Act does not cover them; each state has its own laws regulating labor organizations. In Massachusetts, they are protected by federal laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as well as Chapter 150(e), the state law that gives them the right to unionize and bargain collectively.

Private sector unions

You have the right to form a union whether you work for a private company or non-profit organization (private sector) or for the government (public sector).

Union Dues

To support the union to work on behalf of all workers. Dues cover the costs of negotiating collective bargaining agreements and enforcing the contract every day. They pay for staff salaries, legal fees, union organizers, strike funds, grievances and arbitrations, and much more. Without paying dues, workers would not be able to afford many of the legal protections that are afforded to them by being in a union.

Do unions participate in political action?

Many unions research the candidates that support the issues important to their members, and some endorse political candidates who will further those interests. All of these decisions vary depending on the union and the priorities of the membership and leadership -- but most unions engage in advocacy around political issues that matter to their members.

Harriet Tubman (1822 - 1913)

A leading figure in abolitionism, guided over 300 slaves to

freedom. Her work is an integral part of the beginning of labor history in the US because slavery was the result of increased demand for labor, and abolitionists who fought against it were participating in strikes and other forms of withholding labor. This ultimately laid the groundwork for unions and labor activism today.

César Chávez (1927 - 1993)

A Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and Latinx civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, left CSO and founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) in 1962. This organization is now called the United Farm Workers (UFW); it is the nation’s largest union of farmworkers with over 10,000 members. The main goal of the NFWA was to advocate for farm workers’ rights to higher wages and to collectively bargain, and the union was successful in joining forces with other labor organizations such as the AFL-CIO.

Eugene V. Debs (1855 - 1926)

He was active in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and later co-founded the American Railway Union, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the Socialist Party of America. As President of the American Railway Union, he helped broaden industrial unionism and advocated that the union should be for all workers regardless of skill level. As he became more radicalized, he formed the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) which sought to take control of industry. The IWW believed there should be “one big union” as opposed to many small craft unions, and held radical political views compared to the AFL. The IWW was founded on the ideal of a peaceful workers’ revolution and aimed to organize the entire working class in solidarity. He eventually ran for president of the United States five times as a Socialist, and then ran for Congress in an attempt to establish a more socialist U.S.

Mother Jones (1837 - 1930)

She worked with the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers union, and she co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). She was called “the most dangerous woman in America” by U.S. District Attorney Reece Blizzard because she was so successful at organizing mining families against mine owners. Her approach to organizing was much different from most people at the time because she included African-American workers, women, and children when organizing strikes. Due to her incredible success, she was often banished from mining towns and jailed many times. She was also instrumental in organizing against child labor, eventually leading a march of 100 children to President Theodore Roosevelt’s home on Long Island, to protest the use of children working in mines and silk mills.

Samuel Gompers (1850 - 1924)

The first president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) (1886 -1894 and 1895-1924), the largest coalition of labor unions in the United States. Under his guidance, the AFL’s influence grew in the US and abroad. Used a different approach he thought would be most effective to win rights for union workers.

1. Craft and trade unionism. He favored more specialized unions by trade and craft.

2. “pure and simple unionism,” an ideology that advocated against unions becoming very politically involved and simply focus on improving the economic conditions of members. He thought that the labor movement would be more successful if it focused on action in the workplace, improving wages and workers’ rights rather than forming political coalitions.

3. believed that the labor movement should practice political nonpartisanship and focus on supporting candidates who were on the side of labor, no matter what political party they represented.

Ai-jen Poo (1974 - present)

Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. In 2000, she co-founded Domestic Workers United in New York, an organization of nannies, house cleaners, and caregivers. Lead by her, the group fought a seven year battle to pass the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights which entitled this group of workers to overtime pay, one day off per week, protection from discrimination, and three days of paid leave per year. Poo was recently instrumental in the Department of Labor’s change to include caretakers of elderly and disabled persons in federal minimum wage and overtime protections. Her focus is largely ,on building coalitions and finding common ground across diverse groups ,of people to leverage collective power and improve the working ,conditions of domestic workers. Her campaign, Caring Across Generations, aims to change long-term care in the US by providing better care for elderly and disabled people while improving job quality for ,caretakers.

A. Phillip Randolph (1889 - 1979)

One of the most important labor and civil rights leaders of the 20th century. In the 1920’s, he worked to organize and became the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) union. The BSCP was most notable for being the first predominantly African American union to be recognized. Before the union, black workers at the Pullman Company, which was the largest employer of African Americans at the time, faced poor wages and widespread racial discrimination. Randolph led the BSCP to win its first contract in 1937 which brought massive pay increases for workers alongside a shorter work week and overtime pay. During World War II, Randolph threatened to bring over 100,000 workers on strike in response to

discriminatory practices in the defense industry, leading

President Roosevelt to order an executive order banning

discrimination in this labor market as well as establishing a Fair

Employment Practices Commission to monitor employers’ hiring

practices. On top organized labor, Randolph led many civil rights

campaigns. Most famously, Randolph organized the 1963 March on

Washington for Jobs and Freedom, often remembered for Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have a Dream

speech.

Rose Schneiderman (1882 - 1972)

A prominent labor leader as well as a feminist and suffragist who worked to advance the rights of women in the labor movement and in government. She was a member and elected leader of the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) of New York which organized women into unions and fought against sweatshop labor. She was actively involved in the Uprising of 20,000 which protested against the conditions of immigrant workers in the garment industry. She continued her work against unsafe working conditions after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 which took the lives of over 100 workers, many of them young, immigrant women. As a suffragist, she fiercely advocated for women’s right to vote. During the 1930’s, she served in the Roosevelt administration on the Labor Advisory Board and continued to advance the interests of women, immigrants and workers in government.

William Green (AFL 1924-1952)

The second long-term president of the American Federation of Labor, serving from 1924 until his death in 1952. An advocate of labor-management cooperation, legislated wage and benefit protections and industrial unionism, he continued the federation's evolution (begun under its first president, Samuel Gompers) away from the "pure and simple unionism" of its origins and toward the more politically involved "social reform unionism" characteristic of mid-century.

John L. Lewis (CIO 1938-1940)

President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1920 until 1960 and founding president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), he was the dominant voice shaping the labor movement in the 1930s. The CIO owed its existence in large measure to him, who was a tireless and effective advocate of industrial unionism and of government assistance in organizing basic industry.

Philip Murray (CIO 1940-1952)

President of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) during its most tumultuous decade and helped transform the volatile movement of industrial unions begun by John L. Lewis into a stable and powerful organization. As president of the CIO, he cemented the alliance between the industrial unions and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. He also created a more amicable relationship with the larger and older American Federation of Labor (AFL), laying the foundation for the merger of the CIO and the AFL in 1955.

Walter Reuther (CIO 1952-1955)

President of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) from 1946 until his death in 1970. Reuther became president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1952 after the death of Philip Murray; he immediately joined with George Meany, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), to negotiate a merger between the two groups, which took effect in 1955. He became director of the federation's Industrial Union Department (IUD). As head of the IUD, he called for large-scale 1930s- style organizing drives and broad-based grassroots political action committees. He fought tirelessly for civil rights protections and an enhanced welfare state that would benefit all Americans.

George Meany (1955-1979); (AFL: 1952-1955)

George Meany was the builder of the modern AFL-CIO. He was born into an

Irish Catholic family in New York City. In 1910, Meany joined the United

Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters as an apprentice at the age of 16,

working as a plumber in New York for the next decade. After rising through

the ranks of union leadership, Meany was elected to the presidency of the AFL

in 1952 on the death of William Green. He assumed the leadership of a

divided labor movement. Many of the nation's industrial unions were part of

the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which had been created in the

1930s. He immediately sought to unify the movement, an effort that

culminated in the founding convention of the AFL-CIO in 1955. Meany was elected unanimously as

the first president of the merged labor federation. Meany modernized and expanded the national

AFL-CIO, making the organization a powerful voice in the nation's political and legislative arena.

Under his leadership, the American labor movement won unprecedented gains for ordinary working

Americans. Meany, a staunch supporter of civil and equal rights his entire career, put the federation's

muscle behind the civil rights movement, insisting that the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act call for an

end to both workplace and community discrimination.

Lane Kirkland (1979-1995)

Upon Meany's retirement in 1979, he was unanimously chosen to

lead the federation. President of the AFL-CIO from 1979 to 1995, he

inherited a labor movement under heavy assault. Moving quickly to stem

labor's decline, he initiated significant institutional innovations and

secured the re-affiliation of almost all the large national unions that remained

outside the AFL-CIO. He also nominated the first woman to the AFL-

CIO's Executive Council and increased the role of African Americans, Latinos

and Asian Americans in the organization.

John Sweeney (1995-2009)

First elected president of the AFL-CIO in 1995 on a platform of revitalizing the federation. The 1995 election was the first contested election in AFL-CIO history. Previously, he served for 15 years as the president of the Service Employees International Union.

Richard Trumka (2009-2021)

The president of the AFL-CIO from 2009-2021. He joined a insurgent campaign and was elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO in 1995 prior to being elected president in 2009. He served as the President of the United Mine Workers from 1982 to 1995.

Liz Shuler (2021-Present)

The current president of the AFL-CIO. She was elected in 2021 and

previously served as the organization's Secretary-Treasurer. She is the first

female to serve as President of the AFL-CIO, and was also the organizations

youngest ever Secretary-Treasurer. She began her union career

with IBEW Local 125 in Oregon.

Harriet Hanson Robinson

1825-1911

A prominent labor activist and suffragist, she was a leading figure in the early labor movement. Robinson was known for her work in organizing women in the textile industry and advocating for improved labor conditions. Her experiences as a child worker in a cotton mill fueled her passion for labor reform and women's rights.

Francisco Jimenez

1943 - Present

A prominent figure in the labor movement and immigrant rights advocate, He has worked to improve the lives of migrant workers in the United States. As a former farmworker himself, he has dedicated his life to advocating for the rights and dignity of agricultural laborers. Urges young Latinx people to transform their lives through education and solidarity.

German Lopez

1990 - Present

When writers and staff at Vox Media decided to organize a union in 2017, German Lopez

opposed the idea. Lopez, a senior writer at the website Vox.com, tweeted, “I am against

#VoxUnion.” His said Vox was “a generous company” and “some people want to take advantage of

that.” Lopez’s Twitter feed exploded with comments from those who agreed and disagreed with him.

Two weeks later, Lopez had learned more about unions, and he stated publicly that he had

changed his mind. What convinced him? His coworkers reminded him that, although things were

good for him at the moment, the company’s generosity was not set in stone, and at any time new

management could take away the rights and benefits he enjoyed. Workers at other online media

companies, including Vice Media, ThinkProgress, Salon, Thrillist, MTV News, and HuffPost

organized unions and negotiated contracts, winning improved job security, wages and benefits.

In December 2017, Lopez posted that he had signed a union card. He and his coworkers

voted to join the Writers Guild of America East, which represents many groups of digital media

employees. Vox management recognized the union and stated that they expected the union to

improve the workplace and make Vox a great company. The workers were relieved that major

decisions about their wages and working conditions could never again be made without input from

the people doing the work.

Labor and the Issues of Our Time

Beyond the workplace itself, organized labor has played a significant role in the fight for social

justice and economic justice. Labor leaders throughout history have understood that many social

movements are connected, and groups working on social justice issues are stronger when they work

together. Historically, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia have been used to divide the

working class against itself -- when working people distrust other working people who are different

from themselves, the bosses win. To build a successful labor movement, organizers and workers

must overcome these kinds of divisions and fight for all workers in the workplace, in the political

sphere, and in the community.

Combating income inequality

Beginning in the late 1800s with the founding of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the labor movement has been a strong proponent of the “living wage.” The living wage movement fights for all workers, not only union workers, to be paid a wage that gives them a good quality of life. This movement continues today with the Fight for $15. Currently the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Had our federal minimum wage kept up with the pace of productivity and adjusted for inflation, it would currently be at $18.67. Fight for $15 not only works to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, but to advocate for unionization in sectors that typically pay minimum wage like the service industry. To effectively ensure a living wage, workers need the power of unions. While the minimum wage has declined in value, the wealth of CEO’s has rapidly grown. In 1965, a CEO on average made about 20 times more than their average worker, in 2019 however, an average CEO makes 278 times more than their average worker. This growth in income inequality has corresponded with the decline of union density in the US. In this time of urgent income inequality, unions play a consequential role in combating an economic system that benefits elite interests at the expense of the conditions of workers.

Great Depression (1930s)

most working people lived in horrendous conditions and the United States offered no unemployment insurance or social security benefits. As the economy improved slightly during the 1930s, unions increased their activity and recruited thousands of new members, joining the campaign to create a minimum wage to finally set a standard for how workers should be paid. Labor activists formed “Unemployment Councils” that mobilized to fight against the rampant poverty of the Great Depression.

Unemployment Councils, community organizations, and trade unions

_____________ pressured President Roosevelt to implement legislation that would help unemployed people and workers. They eventually won with the implementation of the New Deal, a set of policies and programs including the Works Project Administration, which provided jobs for unemployed Americans. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed which established a minimum wage of $0.25 per hour. Since then, the federal minimum wage has been raised 28 times due to the continued efforts of labor and community organizers. Over time, states (and some cities) have set their own minimum wage laws to ensure workers get a higher wage than the federal mandate. States that have higher minimum wages are also much more likely to have higher union density, which means more workers are in unions. Workers know that we can come together to fight for fair treatment and that when we come together, we win. In the U.S., the minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour -- but in Massachusetts, thanks to a strong statewide labor movement, the minimum wage is set to be $12.75 per hour by 2020 and will rise to $15 per hour by 2023.

Fight for $15

On November 29, 2012, employees in New York City from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King,

Taco Bell, and KFC walked out on the job and staged protests across the city demanding a wage of

$15 per hour and the right to form a union, which no fast food workers had at the time. This action

became the beginning of the “Fight for $15,” a global movement to raise the minimum wage to $15,

and in some places higher than $15. Outside of Massachusetts, the Fight for $15 New York, San

Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles have also passed similar legislation to increase minimum wage

to $15 per hour.

“One Job Should Be Enough.”

While Jeff Bezos is making billions of dollars, many Americans need to work more than forty hours per week and many need multiple jobs just to survive. This has led to a campaign, “________________” This campaign was started by UNITE HERE, a union that includes employees of Marriott. As the largest hotel employer in the world, with annual revenue of $22.9 billion, employees say that one job at Marriott should be enough to provide them a good living. In October 2018, housekeepers and other workers at Marriott hotels in Boston joined Marriott workers across the country and went on strike, making history as the first ever hotel strike in Massachusetts. They won considerable gains including wage increases, enough hours to make a living wage, protection from sexual harassment, paid parental leave, and more.

Overtime Pay

Beyond a living wage itself, unions work to protect ____________ for workers to ensure that they are paid for all of the time they work. Many workers are not eligible for overtime pay, which means they could work dozens of extra hours and receive no compensation. Collective bargaining gives unions the power to ensure that workers are paid for all of the labor they perform, even when they work more than 40 hours a week. Under the rules from the Trump 2016 administration’s Department of Labor, workers will collectively lose over $1.4 billion in overtime pay by rewriting which workers are eligible for overtime compensation. These kinds of attacks harm workers and reinforce the need for union power to guarantee that workers are paid for all of their labor.

Prevailing wages

The AFL-CIO strongly supports laws that institute ____________. They ensure that contractors can fairly compete on public construction projects while still being paid fair wages that typically include overtime pay and benefits. These laws apply when public money is used to directly fund construction projects. They are highly important for construction workers, as public construction constitutes a large portion of the construction market in which union members work. Moreover, the laws not only guarantee stronger wages for construction workers, but they also play a significant role in securing safety standards for these projects, as studies have correlated a lack of a prevailing wage with shoddy construction.

Unions also protect workers within the workplace from health and safety concerns.

A report by the state AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health found that in 2018, 68 people in Massachusetts lost their lives on the job, with the most prominent cause of death being a work related injury. Through organizing and collective bargaining, unions can create protections and measures against unsafe working conditions. This is why statistics have shown that workers in stateswith anti-union legislation have a 49% higher chance of dying on the job, while states with higher union density have lower rates of fatal work-place injuries.

Unions do not just fight for the interests of workers, but they fight for our communities as well.

Increasingly, the labor movement has seen a strategy of bargaining for the common good, in which unions not only demand more for their workers but for everyone as well. While on strike in 2019, the Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) were offered significantly higher salary increases by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s bargaining team in an attempt to end the strike. CTU, however, did not stop striking until they won improvements for the entire school system by demanding resources for homeless students, smaller class sizes, and the guarantee of a nurse in every school - a crucial win for schools with students who otherwise do not have access to proper healthcare. Similarly, nurses unions have repeatedly bargained for lower nurse to patient ratios in order to ensure that patients receive timely and quality healthcare. By bargaining for the public good, unions use their power to create better conditions beyond just their workplace.

Quote by Martin Luther King Jr.

“Negroes are almost entirely a working people. There are pitifully few Negro millionaires, and few Negro employers. Our needs are identical with labor's needs — decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor's demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth.”

Organized labor has historically played an important role in the struggles against racism in the United States.

Inequalities of wealth and labor have hurt African Americans stemming back to the exploitation of enslaved labor. By treating enslaved people as a source of free labor, the wealthy southern elite were able to divide the working class against itself, as many white working class Southerners identified with more with the interests white elites than with black enslaved people. The divisions and inequalities left by the system of slavery have posed a struggle that the labor movement has had to fight to overcome.

Great Migration

In the early 20th century, more than 6 million African-Americans moved out of the South to other cities across the country. This migration caused a huge demographic shift in major cities such as New York and Detroit, leading an increase in the number of African Americans in the

industrial workforce. Many

African-Americans faced

discrimination in the workplace, in

hiring, and even by some unions.

However, many unions saw the

struggles of African-Americans as

intertwined with their struggles

and began to build solidarity.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) (1909)

provided a way for African- Americans to come together to discuss workplace discrimination. They built coalitions and solidarity with many major industrial unions such as the UAW and is still a huge partner of labor unions today.

Dr. Martin Luther King

He became nationally recognized as a leader of the Civil Rights movement. At the same time, he was building a relationship with labor unions and saw the important link between labor unions and the civil rights movement, telling the AFL-CIO Executive Council that “we are confronted by powerful forces telling us to rely on the good will and understanding of those who profit by exploiting us. They resent our will to organize. They are shocked that active organizations, sit-ins, civil disobedience, and protests are becoming everyday tools just as strikes, demonstrations, and union organizations became yours to ensure that bargaining power genuinely existed on both sides of the table.” He emphasized that African Americans are “almost entirely a working people” which recognizes the importance of the labor movement to fight intersectional struggles. He frequently spoke out about the gender pay gap, recounting the history of wages for women that had only steadily increased in his lifetime. He was also a proponent for social welfare programs that would give everybody a “tolerable” life, including older people who have small pensions or no pensions at all. His focus was on creating a wage system that would not just let people live, but thrive, and the content of many of his speeches focused on this narrative. When he was murdered, he was in Memphis, Tennessee, marching with striking sanitation workers demanding respect and economic justice.

Quote by Dolores Huerta

“Every single day we sit down to eat, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and at our table we have food that was planted, picked, or harvested by a farm worker. Why is it that the people who do the most sacred work in our nation are the most oppressed, the most exploited?”

How many immigrants make up the US?

There are currently 47 million immigrants in the US, many of whom work closely in and with the labor movement and community organizations to advocate for workers and social equality for everyone. The most common pathway to immigration is through sponsorships for work visas, so labor law and immigration law are largely intertwined.

Anti-immigration sentiment

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, many Americans were concerned about the influx of

immigrants. Anti-immigrant sentiment became prevalent, leading to passage of anti-immigration

legislation. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) passed resolutions in favor of literacy tests for

immigrants designed to keep unskilled workers from immigrating. They favored the Chinese

Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited immigration of Chinese laborers, and wanted it to expand

to include other immigrant workers. At the time, many unions feared that new waves of immigrants

would threaten job prospects for US citizens during economically turbulent times. Ironically,

proponents of anti-immigration legislation included the United Farm Workers, founded by Cesar

Chavez and Dolores Huerta, who were afraid that undocumented immigrant workers would

undermine union labor in the US -- because new undocumented immigrants would be willing to

work in poor conditions and for low wages. The UFW even attempted to prevent Mexican

immigrants from entering the US by setting up a “wet line” along the southern border. Employers

pitted U.S.-born workers against immigrants, and used the conflict to their advantage. In many

industries, employers relied on immigrant labor when locking out their workforces and breaking

strikes.

Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) (1986)

Set standards and restrictions for immigrants. Created a guestwork policy that allowed immigrant workers to enter the US for seasonal agricultural work, offered amnesty for undocumented immigrants who entered the US before 1982, and penalized employers for hiring undocumented workers. The AFL-CIO supported the bill because they believed that punishing employers would stop undocumented immigrants from entering the US to compete with union members, while many labor activists opposed the bill. After it passed, coalitions organized between immigrant rights groups, worker centers, and unions, to support undocumented immigrants applying for amnesty. The coalitions’ work was important in spreading a pro-immigration message in the labor movement. This led to more organizing of immigrant workers through workers centers and labor unions.

When did AFL-CIO change their stance on immigration?

In 2000, the AFL-CIO took a clear stand and called for undocumented immigrants to be granted citizenship. The national federation passed a formal resolution in 2002 that officially embraced the cause of immigrant workers in the United States. The AFL-CIO promised to actively campaign for new laws to benefit immigrant workers and their families, including the right of immigrant workers in the U.S. to live and work in this country, to become citizens, and to unite with their families in the U.S.

Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) members from the eastern US region march for immigrants' rights

In 2003, the AFL-CIO along with its affiliates that represented most immigrant workers, organized a national mobilization that included labor, business, political, religious, community, immigrant, civil rights and others, to demonstrate to Congress and the President that there was widespread support for immigration reform. They called on the government to recognize “the contribution of immigrant ,workers to the quality of social, cultural, political and economic life in the United States.” For the past 20 years, the AFL-CIO and many individual unions have been at the forefront of national and local campaigns for immigrants’ rights and social justice.

Undocumented workers

As the political landscape of the 21st century has changed, many groups have stepped up to support these workers. Theyare covered by the NLRA and have the same workplace rights as documented workers performing the same jobs. However, the power dynamic between employers and ___________ creates an environment of intimidation where workers are unlikely to raise concerns about safety and harassment because they fear being fired and deported. Labor unions are using arbitration and collective bargaining to try to improve their lives ________ and documented workers alike. Some unions try to bargain over immigrant-protective clauses in contracts that would limit the employer’s ability to take action against employees for their documentation status. Many unions work closely with worker centers and immigrant rights coalitions to fight for protections and economic justice for all. For example, the National AFL-CIO has produced an extensive tool kit for organizers on how to fight back against I-9 and ICE raids to protect them.

Quote by Mother Jones

“No matter what the fight, don't be ladylike! God almighty made women and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies.”

Women’s rights

Women have always fought for equal recognition for their work which has been historically

undervalued throughout history and into the current day. Women have always been expected to care

for others without compensation. As the Industrial Revolution expanded in the mid-19th century,

factories began recruiting women

workers. In Lowell, Massachusetts,

textile mills recruited young women,

who made up about three-quarters of

workers.

The Lowell Mill Girls

____________were paid half the wages of their male counterparts, but for the first time they were able to earn income to help support their families. In the 1830s and 1840s, their wages were cut, conditions became more dangerous, and women faced misogyny in the workplace. They fought the cut in their wages by striking and protesting to restore their pay to prior levels. Despite their incredible efforts, management had many more resources and refused to agree to most of the demands. By the 1840s, they pursued broader political actions to improve their working conditions. Women could not vote, but they fought for legislation including a 10-hour workday, and they fought to organize other textile workers in New England. They were the first of many groups of women to take strong leadership roles in the labor movement.

the International Ladies Garment Workers

Union (ILGWU)

In 1900, women in New York organized this union which unionized hundreds of thousands of garment workers over a century. Beginning in New York City, with mostly Italian and Jewish immigrant workers, the union made important gains. In 1909, “the Uprising of the 20,000” was a massive strike led by Clara Lemlich and the __________. The strike exposed the oppressive and exploitative workplace conditions faced by immigrant workers in the garment industry. Two years later, a fire broke out that killed 146 women who were locked in, further exposing the dangerous working conditions for immigrant women and raising awareness among the American public about the importance of unions.

Reason for Equal Pay Act 1963

Women were paid less, fired when they became pregnant or had children, and kept out of the highest paying occupations. In some cases, unions accepted the existence of pay gaps, as men saw women’s equality as a threat to their hard-won benefits. But eventually, labor leaders embraced gender equality as an issue that could be solved by fighting for equal pay for equal work. The labor movement was the key group fighting for the act. Congress finally passed the law, for the first time stating that wage discrepancies between men and women were illegal. This was seen as a huge win for gender equity and was achieved after a long fight by labor unions together with feminist organizations.

Domestic workers

While some women were organizing and fighting to be paid equally with the men who worked

beside them, women who worked in all-female occupations also suffered from discrimination.

Domestic workers, including nannies and house cleaners, had been excluded from formal labor

protections including the right to a minimum wage. They were also primarily Black and/or

immigrant women who worked in white households. Several organizations of domestic workers

organized to push for higher pay, labor protections, and dignity for domestic workers. They were

ultimately successful in gaining federal minimum wage for household workers in 1974. They

continue to organize at the state level. With leadership from unions in the state, Massachusetts

passed a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2015, guaranteeing domestic workers the right to

minimum wage, overtime pay, all wage and hours laws, and special protections including rest time

and rules for live-in workers.

Gender Pay Gap

Today, women still earn less than men, and many women face other forms of discrimination including sexual harassment. Women of color also make less than white women, and transgender women earn even less. Black trans women are arguably the most economically vulnerable members of our society, earning much lower wages, and are often forced to rely on alternative economies and community currencies to survive. For all of us to thrive economically, we need to address these issues of drastic wealth inequality and focus on the most affected members of our society. This is an issue that is addressed in the labor movement through coalitions with community organizations, the push for public policy and laws that limit employment and wage discrimination, and contract language that equalizes the playing field. However, the wage gap is much smaller for union workers -- and unions continue to lead the fight for Women earn less than men at every education level. Average hourly black-white age gaps pay equity on behalf of all workers. Labor organizations improve women’s working conditions through contract language and direct action. Unions benefit all women workers by passing legislation and serving as a strong voice in the struggle for minimum wage increases, parental leave, family and medical leave, and much more.

“If you’re working in a factory, in a public school, in municipal government, or in a hospital, these

are all places where unions have been active and successful. These are also places where queer

people work. One of the truths of our world and slogans of our movement is that we are

everywhere.”

Quote by Miriam Frank, author of Out in the Union

LGBTQ Rights

Their struggles were largely invisible to historians, and only in the late 1900s labor and the fight for _________became explicitly linked.

Stonewall Riots

On June 28, 1969 the New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay and lesbian club in Greenwich Village, and LGBTQ people decided to fight back in a series of demonstrations known as the _______. These riots were a turning point in the LGBT rights movement, and it forced LGBT rights into the spotlight in the US and around the world. Out of this rebellion came the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organization of transgender and queer people founded by Sylvia Rivera and Martha P Johnson. STAR served many needs of the LGBTQ community but was primarily an LGBTQ youth shelter and the first transgender worker labor organization. STAR functioned similarly to other labor organizations by making sure workers were not exploited and teaching them how to negotiate their wages.

Effect of the Stonewall Riots

LGBTQ rights were at the forefront of the American political consciousness and unions began working more directly with LGBTQ organizations to improve the working conditions of LGBTQ workers. In 1970, the American Federation of Teachers passed a resolution that “the American Federation of Teachers protest any personnel actions taken against any teacher solely because he or she practices homosexual behavior in private life.” The National Education Association, the largest labor union in the US, stood by this decision and included sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policy in 1973.

Coors Boycott

In 1974, the Teamsters approached Harvey Milk and Howard Wallace, two openly gay politicians and activists in San Francisco, to support a boycott against Coors. Coors was an anti-union beer company, which screened potential employees with a lie detector test asking their opinions on unions, as well as whether they were a “homosexual.” Milk and Wallace supported the boycott on the condition that the Teamsters advocate for hiring openly gay truck drivers. After Milk and Wallace endorsed the Coors boycott, they pressured about 100 bars in San Francisco to boycott as well and the sale of Coors beer plummeted. The combination of pressure from the LGBT community and from the Teamsters was successful and made this boycott one of the most visible and powerful at the time.

What did AFL-CIO pass in 1983 relating to LGBTQ rights?

A resolution in favor of gay rights and urged the federal government to include sexual orientation in employment discrimination. During the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, unions fought to protect employees with HIV/AIDS from discrimination. At the same time, workers at HIV/AIDS clinics sought to unionize their workplaces. Forming a union would help workers care for AIDS patients by increasing staffing and giving them more say in the day-to-day functions of the clinics.

Pride At Work

In 1997, it was affiliated as a constituency group of the AFL-CIO. Since its inception, they has been fighting for LGBT workplace rights by mobilizing LGBT union members and forming chapters all over the country.

What are current negotiations for LGBTQ workers?

Better family and medical leave protections, expansive understandings of “family,” healthcare benefits that cover trans- and queer-specific medical procedures, and much more. Unions in Massachusetts, from building trades to teachers to service workers, were proud to support Question 3 in 2018, which prohibited discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of gender identity. The labor movement continues to work with other movements to promote social justice and economic policies that benefit all working people and their entire communities.

Union Membership over time

Has risen and fallen over the course of history. Employers have used a variety

of tactics to prevent workers from organizing -- union spies, arresting and sometimes murdering

union leaders, pitting workers of color

against whites and vice versa -- but even

when union organizations have been

destroyed, throughout history workers have

risen up once again.

What was the goal of the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable in the 1970s?

To lower union density. In the 1970s, a new kind of anti-union tactic emerged. Corporations began to organize to counteract the power of the united labor movement. Working with right-wing political groups, think-tanks, and conservative foundations they organized the wealthiest businesses and corporate executives. Together they used their significant resources to craft a unified agenda to protect business interests. Their first goal was to destroy unions. Unions were central to the fight for social and economic justice -- and they also provided the resources and person-power for many Democratic political campaigns. The corporate attack against labor was quite successful in the private sector, and union density began to fall as employers were emboldened to fight back. Union-busting law firms and consultants helped employers destroy organizing campaigns and prevent worker mobilization.

What happened as union density got lower and lower, eventually reaching below 10% in the private sector?

Share of income going to the top 10% went up. Employers were able to eliminate pensions and benefits, and to turn good jobs into part-time positions without benefits -- and there were not enough unions to fight back. The wealthy special interests turned their attention to the public sector, where unions had continued to be strong and organized almost a third of all workers.

“Right to work” laws

An anti-union strategy legislation that weakens unions by allowing workers to benefit from union representation without paying dues or agency fees to cover the costs of the union’s work. Workers can benefit from the union’s work without contributing to it in any way. Unions often call this “______ for less” because states with these laws generally have lower rates of unionization, lower wages, and fewer protections for working people -- and states with these laws have lower wages overall, less health insurance coverage, and higher rates of poverty.

What did the Supreme Court decide in Janus vs AFSCME?

that public-sector unions cannot require workers to pay fees (sometimes called “fair share fees” or “agency fees”) to cover the costs of bargaining contracts and advocating for workers’ rights.

Billionaires and right-wing organizations intending to weaken unions by making them suffer financially.

Who/what promotes “right to work” the most and why?

Result of Janus decision

Organizers have been working even harder to protect and organize public sector unions by pursuing strategies that involve greater participation among rank and file members -- and public-sector union members are responding by organizing and winning.

What is happening in the private sector?

Wages have not kept up with productivity and the cost of living, and companies pass on the costs of healthcare and dental benefits to employees. We have seen an increase in the “gig economy” of independent contractors such as Uber or Lyft drivers, SAT test graders, and tech workers. Because companies do not classify these workers as employees, they are denied the rights of employees, including the right to form a union to collectively bargain their wages, hours, and working conditions.

Cons of being a “gig” worker

In many cases they do not even make minimum wage for the work that they do. They also have no healthcare benefits, retirement funds, or ways to voice their concerns. While they can set their own hours, their pay changes depending on algorithms that increase prices when there is higher need. Workers have no idea whether they will receive work or adequate income to live. Drivers have incentives to compete against each other in a race to the bottom, until no one is making any profit at all.

In 2018 how many teachers went on strike and why?

almost 50,000 teachers went on strike in states around the country -- fighting for their students more than themselves. They protested low wages and slashes to benefits, but also focused public attention on inadequate school funding, racial and economic disparities, and overcrowded classrooms. Despite many states’ laws that prohibit public sector workers from striking, teachers decided topour into the streets in thousands, risking their jobs to fight for justice in their communities. And they won. In every case, the strikes resulted in better working conditions for teachers as well as better learning conditions for students -- and often higher wages and better funding for other public services as well. The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), a union representing teachers across the state, worked to form the Fund Our Future coalition. Fund Our Future successfully fought for the passage of the Student Opportunity Act which will increase state spending on public education by 1.5 billion dollars over the next several years.

What are workers also using their power for?

To resist state violence such as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attack on immigrants and separation of immigrant families. When Amazon was discovered to be marketing facial recognition software to the US government, hundreds of Amazon technology workers signed a letter demanding Amazon stop contracting with law enforcement agencies. In addition, they urged Amazon to stop providing infrastructure for tech companies that create immigrant-tracking technologies for ICE.

What are worker centers for?

As unions represent fewer workers and labor laws have become more anti-worker, worker centers have become a new tactic of the labor movement and worker organizing. Worker centers, which started to grow rapidly in the mid-1990s, are community groups that mostly organize workers that do not have the ability to form a union. For example, most US worker centers focus on organizing immigrants, domestic workers, and agricultural workers due to their vulnerability and legal exclusion from collective bargaining rights. While worker centers fight for worker rights, they are not unions and they do not have the right to be recognized and to bargain collective agreements. Here in Massachusetts, the Brazilian Immigrant Center and the Pioneer Valley Workers Center work alongside unions and within their communities to build protections and fight for the rights of workers.

What is the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)

A worker center in Immokalee, Florida that fights for

better wages and workplace protections for tomato harvesters. Through years of protesting and

organizing boycotts, the CIW has implemented a Fair Food Program. Food retailers and restaurants

(primarily fast food restaurants) can buy tomatoes that are certified through the Fair Food Program

which ensures higher wages for tomato harvesters and other workplace protections such as better

channels for reporting sexual violence and worker education programs.

What can unions now also represent other than factory workers and building trades?

All sectors of the economy are expressing interest in organizing unions. In April of 2018, for example, Harvard University graduate student workers voted “Yes” to form their union, and entered into negotiations with the University. Throughout their campaign, they used social media to spread their message. They created videos with workers and prominent politicians, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, voicing their support for the union. Workers are finding creative ways to spread their message and fight for their rights.

Who can start a union in their workplace?

Anyone can! It just takes one person, maybe someone who read a labor history study guide for a scholarship exam, to get their coworkers together and begin the process of forming long-lasting change in their workplace, community, and society.

What has collective action shown us throughout history?

We have tremendous power in our numbers and even when we feel small, our collective action can triumph. Throughout the course of history, we have always been stronger when we come together not just with our fellow workers, but with other vulnerable and oppressed members of our society. All of our struggles are linked, and through our convergence of struggles we can create a more just world.