Labor Unions

Labor Unions are a group of people who come together to protect and further their rights and interests. The earliest recorded strike happened in 1768 when a group of shoemakers came together to argue for better work place conditions, they were then tried in court and convicted of criminal conspiracy. From 1768 to 1842 many people felt that labor Unions were a form of criminal conspiracy. Even though people saw unions as bad, they still existed. In 1842 the Supreme court shot down the idea of criminal conspiracy.  There were a few attempts at organized labor unions during this time period, one of them being, "the New York Workingman's Party" which lasted from 1829 to 1830. There main point was that they wanted a the work day shortened to 10 hours. This was a radical request for the time period, considering they were working 12 hours a day for 6 days a week. The first well know labor union didn't show up until 1869 when "the knights of labor" was created.

 

The knights of labor started as a small labor union of tailors in Philadelphia. Their numbers grew slowly through the 1870's but they really caught hold after the railroad strike of 1877. The Union flourished under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly. Powderly set the organization's goals towards getting an "eight hour work day, abolition of child labor, equal pay for equal work, political reforms including the graduated income tax. By 1890 the membership had fallen from 700,000 to 100,000. This is mostly due to Powderly's erratic leadership and the large amount of repression among labor unions during the late 1880's. 

During World War 1 labor unions as a whole saw a lot more backing than previously because the owners of the factories needed the workers to produce a large number of products. Factory owners had to comply with their workers requests because they wanted their workers to be happy so that they would produce more, hence brining in a larger profit for the company. 

In 1886 the American Federation of Labor or AFL was formed around the same time that the knights of Labor was coming to an end. AFL boasted that they accepted workers of all races, religions, genders, and skill in their Union. However the unions that had come together to create AFL were only comprised of skilled workers, and because skill tended to match with race and gender the union took on a racial and sexist coloration as well. This did not work well for them. AFL ended up limiting their membership to "whites-only international association of Machinists" in 1895. After the American Federation of Labor, unions start to become much more diversified.

Sources: 

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1678.html

http://www.history.com/topics/labor

http://www.history.com/topics/knights-of-labor