During World War I there was an increase in strikes that allowed employees to get higher wages and better conditions. However, after the war unions started to weaken due to considerable high wages for the time period. After the war, many soldiers came back looking for work. This caused various employees to not fight for better wages because there was always a possibility that the soldiers who came home can take their jobs. Another factor that caused workers to not fight was the cost of living, people were living a wealthy life in which they paid with credit. The amount of debt that people had was huge and caused the 1929 stock market crash. The decrease in the flow of the economy caused a depression and put workers in a state of unemployment.
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Many workers in the United States were discouraged by the aftermath of World War I and the unemployment brought on by the Great Depression. The citizens of the United States in the 1920s were living in luxury but that all came crashing down once the stock market crashed. The depression was compared to “a biblical plague” where there were “shuttering factories, closing banks, [and] foreclosing on farms” (Who Built America 391). Around 1933 about “fifteen million people-nearly one of every four wage-earners could not find jobs” because businesses were cutting back on production (Who Built America 392). Residents of the United States were saving the money they did have causing the government to go deeper into debt. Employees lost everything they had since “they were without jobs and their families were going hungry” (From the Jazz Age to the Uprising of the 1930s 315). Various people were being forced out of their homes because they did not have enough money to pay rent. Workers were starving, being taken away from their jobs, and homes. In addition, employees did not get the respect that they deserved from employers. Respect plays a huge role in unions because if employers believe they are superior to the workers,
Many workers in the United States were discouraged by the aftermath of World War I and the unemployment brought on by the Great Depression. The citizens of the United States in the 1920s were living in luxury but that all came crashing down once the stock market crashed. The depression was compared to “a biblical plague” where there were “shuttering factories, closing banks, [and] foreclosing on farms” (Who Built America 391). Around 1933 about “fifteen million people-nearly one of every four wage-earners could not find jobs” because businesses were cutting back on production (Who Built America 392). Residents of the United States were saving the money they did have causing the government to go deeper into debt. Employees lost everything they had since “they were without jobs and their families were going hungry” (From the Jazz Age to the Uprising of the 1930s 315). Various people were being forced out of their homes because they did not have enough money to pay rent. Workers were starving, being taken away from their jobs, and homes. In addition, employees did not get the respect that they deserved from employers. Respect plays a huge role in unions because if employers believe they are superior to the workers,