American Labor Movement: Development Of Unions

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These immigrants poured into cities, desperate for any kind of work.(Working People, 1)
Child labor in the factories was not only common, but necessary for a family’s income. Children as young as five or six manned machines or did jobs such as sweeping floors to earn money. It was dangerous, and they were often hurt by the large, heavy machinery. No laws prevented the factories from using these children, so they continued to do so. (AACTchrNET, 1)
"Sweatshops" were created in crowded, unsanitary tenements. These were makeshift construction houses, dirty and unbearably hot. They were usually formed for the construction of garments. The wages, as in factories, were pitifully low, no benefits were made, and the worker was paid by the number of pieces he or she completed in a day. Unrealistic demands were put on the workers who could barely afford to support their families. (1)
The United States had the highest job-related fatality rate of any other industrialized nation in the ...

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attempted to improve the current working conditions, but failed due to the financial panic three years later. (AFL-CIO American Federationalist, 1) The National Labor Union in 1866 managed to establish an eight hour work day in 1868 for federal employees. However, it fell apart once their leader had died in 1873 and an economic depression swept across the nation. (1)

The first large national labor organization to become popular was the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. It was founded in 1869 by garment workers in Philadelphia who believed that one union of skilled and unskilled workers should exist. The union was originally a secret, but later was open to all workers, ...

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