Organized Labor Essay

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Organized Labor’s Struggles with Human Rights and Human Dignity
The history of labor organizations is vast. It involves difficult times and conquer of great achievements. Those achievements have created a path for our rights and for our dignity. American workers have an improved life today because workers got organized and fought for their rights.
Organized labor were initiated in the formative years of the American nation. The colonial period had only free workers, such as family members and slavers working in farms. Workers had none or low remuneration and there was not any official labor organization from this period.
After the Civil War, the relationship between employers and workers was worsened, freed slaves and the arrival of new immigrants increased the unemployment and that increased the necessity for labor regulations. During the first two decades of the nineteenth century skilled workers formed the first workers’ societies. They wanted better working conditions and higher wages. The National Labor Union was founded in 1866, was the first national labor federation in the United States. It was later dissolved in 1872. Those societies did not have much success because economic problems in the country during this time.
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They also wanted higher wages, hours of work reduced, exclusive worker control of the workplace, and harmless and sanitary work conditions. Many union organizations pursued their goals through peaceful negotiations and strike actions, like the Pennsylvania-based Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers. Others associations had to use force and violence, creating a chaotic situation in the nation. They used tactics as boycott, strikes, and picketing. It was a very tumultuous time for United

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