American Railway Union

Examples of American Railway Union in the following topics:

• The Labor Wars

  • However, the labor movement came into its own after the Civil War, when the short-lived National Labor Union (NLU) became the first federation of American unions.
  • Discontented workers joined the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V.
  • Paul Railway, appointed as a special federal attorney with responsibility for dealing with the strike.
  • 1894 strike by the American Railway Union.
  • Describe the formation of trade unions and the beginning of the American labor movement

• Labor and Domestic Tensions

  • During the Gilded Age, new labor unions, which used a wide variety of tactics, emerged.
  • These unions used frequent short strikes as a method to attain control over the labor market, and fight off competing unions.
  • The railroads had their own quite separate unions.
  • The strike was led by the upstart American Railway Union led by Eugene V.
  • The new American Federation of Labor, headed by Samuel Gompers, found the solution.

• The Pullman Strike

  • The Pullman Strike was a nationwide conflict between labor unions and railroad companies that occurred in the United States in 1894.
  • Many of the workers were already members of the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V.
  • Debs, which supported their strike by launching a boycott—union members refused to run trains containing Pullman cars.
  • Paul Railway, appointed as a special federal attorney responsible for dealing with the strike.
  • Olney obtained an injunction barring union leaders from supporting the strike, demanding that the strikers cease their activities or face being fired.

• Workers Organize

  • The end of the Civil War saw the formation of organizations that sought to unite multiple labor unions.
  • However, the movement came into its own after the Civil War , when the short-lived National Labor Union (NLU) became the first federation of American unions.
  • Originally a secret, ritualistic society organized by Philadelphia garment workers, it was open to all workers, including African Americans, women and farmers.
  • The Knights of Labor soon fell into decline, and their place in the labor movement was gradually taken by the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
  • Two years later, wage cuts at the Pullman Palace Car Company led to a strike, which, with the support of the American Railway Union , soon brought the nation's railway industry to a halt.

• The Rise of Unions

  • However, the movement came into its own after the Civil War, when the short-lived National Labor Union (NLU) became the first federation of American unions.
  • Women, African Americans, and immigrants also joined in small numbers.
  • The strike, along with the support of the American Railway Union, soon brought the nation's railway industry to a halt.
  • The strike collapsed, as did the American Railway Union.
  • Gompers in the office of the American Federation of Labor, 1887.

• The Diversity of Workers

  • The American Federation of Labor (AFL) offered more support to white men than to women and non-whites.
  • Women, African Americans, and immigrants joined in small numbers.
  • The Railway Employees Department dealt with both jurisdictional disputes between affiliates and pursued a common legislative agenda for all of them.
  • For example, the International Seamen's Union opposed passage of a law applying to workers engaged in interstate transport that railway unions supported.
  • Examine the diversity of workers within the American Federation of Labor

• Peacetime Economy

  • In the spring of 1946, a national railway strike, unprecedented in the nation's history, brought virtually all passenger and freight lines to a standstill for over a month.
  • When the railway workers turned down a proposed settlement, Truman seized control of the railways and threatened to draft striking workers into the armed forces.
  • Although the resolution of the crippling railway strike made for stirring political theater, it actually cost Truman politically: his proposed solution was seen by many as high-handed, and labor voters, already wary of Truman's handling of workers' issues, were deeply alienated.
  • Generally speaking, the period from the end of World War II to the early 1970s was a golden era of American capitalism. $200 billion in war bonds matured, and the G.I.
  • This growth was distributed fairly evenly across the economic classes, which some attribute to the strength of labor unions in this period—labor union membership peaked historically in the U.S. during the 1950s, in the midst of this massive economic growth.

• The Agrarian and Populist Movements

  • The Farmers Movement was, in American political history, the general name for a movement between 1867 and 1896.
  • This movement was remarkable because it involved radical socio-economic propaganda from what was considered the most conservative class of American society.
  • Railways had been extended into frontier states, and farmers resented the absentee ownership of these railways by New York capitalists.
  • In 1867, the Grange began efforts to establish regulation of the railways as common-carriers, by the states.
  • The National Farmers Alliance and Industrial Union, formed in 1889, embraced several originally independent, and sometimes secret, organizations, including the National Farmers Alliance, The Colored Farmers' National Alliance, and the Cooperative Union.

• Work in Industrial America

  • Early labor organizations supported white men over women, African-Americans, and Asians, viewing them as competition.
  • Powderley, was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s.
  • The Knights were also responsible for race riots, resulting in the deaths of about 28 Chinese Americans in the Rock Springs massacre in Wyoming, and an estimated 50 African-American sugar-cane laborers in the 1887 Thibodaux massacre in Louisiana.
  • Women, African Americans, and immigrants joined in small numbers.
  • The Railway Employees Department dealt with both jurisdictional disputes between affiliates and pursued a common legislative agenda for all of them.

• Toward Permanent Unions

  • The American Federation of Labor was a coalition of national unions that proved durable enough to influence national politics.
  • In 1885, the Knights of Labor led railroad workers to victory against Jay Gould and his entire Southwestern Railway system.
  • Unions began forming in the mid-1800s.
  • The American Federation of Labor , led by Samuel Gompers until his death in 1924, proved much more durable than the Knights of Labor .
  • Samuel Gompers in the office of the American Federation of Labor, 1887.