Journey Through Time: Make Labor Union Sexy Again

At the height of the United States Port strike, the media's representation of the situation gave a bad light on strikes and unions. They call the strikers greedy while creating a story that this strike would be cataclysmic to the economy.  On the other hand, they demanded a basic right to protect themselves. They gathered and unionized their power to voice their concern to the firms.

"I'm going to fight for it because those greedy companies are making billions of dollars and they don't want to share."

-Harold Daggett

While unions today are considered weak, it's not always been like that. Historically, unions in the United States have been a formidable force in shaping labor rights. But now, their appearance is declining every year. Where are they now and should we bring them back?

The Beginning

Even though the labor movement in the United States had already appeared in 1619, labor unions really started in 1866 when The National Labor Union was founded in Baltimore, Maryland. Their movement became the beginning of the campaign for an 8-hour workday. Over the next decades, it became more and more widespread with the progressive campaign of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 and the Adamson Act in 1916 (Terrel, 2020)

On October 24, 1929, the stock market crashed and the United States entered the Great Depression. unemployment reached 25%, wage was halved,  and productivity dropped to its lowest point. In March 1930, hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers marched through New York City, Detroit, Washington, San Francisco, and other cities in a mass protest (FDR  library, n.d.). 

President Herbert Hoover seemed to do little to stop the crisis. In a widespread backlash over his weak leadership, which caused voters to overwhelmingly elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. Roosevelt ushered in a broad range of economic programs designed to improve conditions under the aegis of the "New Deal."(FDR  library, n.d.).

"Employees shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representative of their own choosing, and shall be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers."

-National Labor Relations Act 1935