Labor Unions and Nursing

Labor Unions and Nursing

K Salcedo

The American Labor movement in the United States has a history dating back to the beginnings of the industrial revolution. Its existence is due to poor working conditions and exploitation during the beginning of that time. Labor unions have had a long history of using their most powerful weapon, strikes, to fight their battles. Even today, with the diminishing numbers of union members, strikes appear in the news sporadically. History of Labor Unions The first strike is thought to be by printers in Philadelphia in 1786 (Maidment, 1997). Working conditions, pay and benefits were so poor, leaders in the southern United States used them to justify slavery. Their contention was that slaves were treated better than the workers were in the North. (Maidment, 1997) Unions attempt to rectify poor working conditions, pay and benefits through collective bargaining. An individual has very little power when negotiating with an employer, however many individuals, collectively have the power to achieve results through bargaining and negotiating. The ultimate bargaining tool that the collective bargaining unit has is the right to strike. Strikes The United States has the most violent and bloodiest labor history of any industrialized country (Foner, Garraty, 1991). In 1850, police killed two New York tailors while attempting to disperse strikers. These were the first of over seven hundred documented caused by strike-related violence. In 1913, National Guardsmen attacked striking Colorado miners known as the Ludlow Massacre. In 1937, police killed Ten Chicago steelworkers during a strike, which came to be known as the Memorial Day Massacre. More commonly, though, strike related deaths are attributed to lessor known confrontations. Strikes in the United States are generally linked to the business cycle. Strikes are more common when unemployment is low with the lowest strike rate being during the Great Depression. The first American strikes in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s were by shoemakers, printers, and carpenters led by their trade societies and were generally effective because of the limited labor pool skilled in those trades. The strikers simply refused to work until their pay demands were met. The strikes were generally short, peaceful and successful. Successful litigation by employers inhibited the spread of these strikes and the trade societies. After an economic upturn in the 1820s, strike activity was revived. Throughout the 1800s, strike activity continued to wax and wane based on economic conditions. Women participated in strikes as early as the 1820s. After the Civil War, the labor movement started to more closely resemble today’s labor movement. In order to discourage strikes, instead of unilaterally setting wages and striking, unions started negotiating with employers, addressing wages, work rules, hours and grievances. This method of “arbitration” led to binding contracts between the collective bargaining units and the employers. The Knights of Labor, the most important labor organization of the 1800s, discouraged strikes. Mediation Union leaders, particularly those in the craft unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), continued to question the efficacy of strikes in the early 1900s. Instead of strikes, the craft unions turned to private mediation groups to help settle disputes. In mediation, “the third party assists the negotiators in their discussions and also suggests settlement proposals.” (Mathis, Jackson, 2000) An expansion of the union movement was created by four years of depression in the 1930s. The violent strikes by autoworkers, truckers, longshoremen and textile workers in 1934 sparked the passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA). The NLRA is the law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector. It guarantees the right of employees to organize and to bargain collectively with employers. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency created by Congress, which administers the NLRA. Under the direction of the NLRB, strikes continued in the 1940s (after WWII) and while some were very long, most were peaceful. The NLRB saw to it that employers who were legally obligated to bargain with unions, did so. In addition, strikers were given legal protection. In the 1950s the number of strikes dropped sharply, as the relationships between unions and employers became more predictable. The 1960s saw a rise in public employee strikes (teachers, transit workers and other local government workers) and in 1970, the wildcat strike of 180,000 postal workers became the largest public employee walkout in U.S. history. Declining strike volume during the 1970s and 1980s are attributed to recession, as strikes are less common with economic downturn, conservative political climate and declining