Labor Union

VI

History of Unions

The first associations of workers, merchant guilds and craft guilds, formed during the Middle Ages in Europe (see Guild). Merchant guilds, which arose in the 11th century, consisted of the merchants and traders in a city who banded together. Craft guilds, first formed in the 12th century, included people who were engaged in a particular craft, and they gradually deprived merchant guilds of their power. In time, journeymen members of craft unions organized their own associations to seek higher wages and improved working conditions. These associations are considered the forerunners of labor unions because of their emphasis on wages and working conditions.

The earliest actual labor unions arose in Western Europe and the United States at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. They were formed by skilled crafts workers in reaction to the rapid changes in the economic environment brought about by industrialization. The concentration of work in large factories left workers increasingly dependent upon their employers.

A

Unions in Europe

The early labor unions in Europe encountered resistance from employers and government. In England, laws passed in 1799 and 1800 declared that combinations of workers to improve their wages or hours were illegal conspiracies in restraint of trade. Similar restrictive labor laws were passed in other European countries.

Gradually, social reformers pressed for laws to relieve the effects of industrialization on workers. England passed a law requiring government factory inspectors in 1833. France enacted a child-labor law in 1841, and Austria followed suit the next year. Barriers to unions were slowly lifted as well. Resistance from employers, however, made many early labor laws and unions ineffective. This resistance to labor reforms helped lead to revolutionary movements in Europe. German political philosopher Karl Marx, for example, argued that the exploitation of labor would lead the working classes to overthrow their governments and set up a socialist, classless society of shared resources. In various European countries, both democratic and nondemocratic, workers’ movements began to advocate socialism and, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, communism.

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A number of European political parties that began with socialist goals continue to represent labor, although today they have much broader bases of support and platforms. These political parties include Britain’s Labour Party, Germany’s Social Democratic Party, France’s Socialist Party, and Italy’s Democratic Party of the Left (formerly Communist Party).

B

Unions in the United States

Early efforts to organize workers in the United States were short-lived, often collapsing after an economic downturn. Strikes, labor unrest, and the occasional riot increased antiunion sentiment. After 1900 unions began to gain strength, and the government made efforts to prevent industrial strife.

B

1

Hostility to Unions

Until the Great Depression of the 1930s, social attitudes and the political climate in the United States were not favorable to labor unions. In the Loewe v. Lawlor decision of 1908, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a judgment against the United Hatters of North America because the union had organized a consumer boycott against a nonunion producer in Danbury, Connecticut (see Danbury Hatters Case). The Supreme Court based its decision on the view that the actions of the hatters’ union reduced the flow of goods in interstate commerce and thus constituted restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. In subsequent decisions, the Court used the antitrust analogy to outlaw strikes that affected interstate commerce. This interpretation of antitrust laws remained in force until 1940. The unfriendly social, legal, and political environment kept union membership in check.

Employers also made frequent use of so-called yellow-dog contracts. These contracts stipulated that as a condition of employment, the worker agreed not to join a union. When unions attempted to organize workers who had signed these contracts, the courts found them guilty of a breach of contract. In 1908 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of yellow-dog contracts in Adair v United States, which overturned a federal law of 1898 that had prohibited such contracts.

B

2

Changes in the Law

As part of the legislative program associated with the New Deal, the legal environment regulating the relationship between labor unions and private-sector firms began to change in the 1930s. Worker protests and strikes were also instrumental in bringing about changes in the political climate. Four major pieces of federal legislation now regulate the labor movement in the United States:

The Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injunction Act of 1932 restricts the employer’s use of court orders to hamper union organizing drives and limit strikes. It also made yellow-dog contracts unenforceable in federal courts.

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, defines a set of unfair labor practices for employers. It requires that employers bargain with unions and not interfere with the worker’s right to organize. Among the specific unfair labor practices prohibited are firing workers involved in union activities and discriminating against workers who support a union. The act also established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent government agency that can investigate unfair labor practices and order the stop of such practices. The NLRB also runs certification elections in which workers decide if a particular union is to represent them in collective bargaining.

The Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, also known as the Taft-Hartley Act, curbed union power by permitting states to pass right-to-work laws. These laws prohibit unions from requiring that workers become union members as a condition of employment in unionized firms. The Taft-Hartley Act also gave workers the right to hold elections that would decertify a union from representing them in collective bargaining. This emphasis on the rights of workers not to join unions and not to participate in collective bargaining represented another shift in the political climate regarding labor.

The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, known as the Landrum-Griffin Act, requires the complete disclosure of union finances. The Landrum-Griffin Act also requires unions to hold regularly scheduled elections so as to make the leadership more accountable to the members.

Labor policy was also influenced by the executive branch. Executive Order 10988, issued by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, granted federal government workers the right to organize. Until then, federal workers were prohibited from joining unions. A number of state laws later extended the right to organize to state and local government workers in many jurisdictions. Only 18.5 percent of public-sector workers belonged to unions in 1970. By 1999 this percentage had risen to 37.3 percent.

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