Union History

Adam Howard

Eng 203

Unions were not always a part of the American workplace. Trade unions started with the industrialization of the late 18th and the 19th centuries, which drew thousands of workers together in towns and cities to live and work in poverty. The success of U.S. industry was built on the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of workers who worked 14 to 18 hours a day for miserable wages in unsafe factories, and lived in bare and comfortless homes.1 In 1794, printers were the first to go on strike in New York. These workers demanded shorter hours and higher wages. Other early strikes included cabinet makers in 1796, carpenters in Philadelphia in 1797 and cordwainers in 1799.2 Into the mid-19th century, increasing numbers of unions were created to fight for workers’ privileges. In 1869 the Knights of Labor were founded.3 This group was one of the first largely organized industrial unions created in America. In the 1890’s, many craft unions bonded together to form the American Federation of Labor (AFL).4 The AFL believed that unions needed more effective organization.

Most early unions were for males only, but in 1863 a committee in New York City began to help women collect wages they earned but had not received. Also in 1863, women in Troy, New York, organized the Collar Laundry Union.5 The Nation Labor Union was organized in 1866. This organization did not focus exclusively on women’s issues, but did take a stand on the behalf of women. The first