The necessity to defend the shared interests of workers gave rise to the labor movement in the United States. Organized labor organizations campaigned for greater pay, more flexible hours, and safer working conditions for people in the industrial sector. The labor movement spearheaded initiatives to end child labor, offer health benefits, and aid injured or retired workers. American society was altered by industrial progress.
It created a thriving middle class and a new class of affluent industrialists. Additionally, a significantly larger blue collar working class was created. Millions of recently arrived immigrants and much more migrants from rural areas made up the work force that enabled industrialization. The diversity of American society increased more than ever. The majority of workers were frequently unemployed for at least a portion of the year, and when they were worked, their earnings were generally poor. Many workers supported and joined labor unions as a result of this circumstance. In the meantime, farmers also experienced difficulties as a result of rising production and competition, which resulted in lower prices for agricultural products.
Some national unions did move toward an industrial structure when profound technological change started to undercut the craft system of production, most notably in the coal mining and the garment industries. However, the majority of craft unions either declined or failed to organize the less skilled, as in the iron and steel and meat-packing industries. Additionally, because skill lines frequently followed racial, ethnic, and gender boundaries, the trade union movement also developed a racist and sexist undertone. The AFL temporarily fought such propensity. However, in 1895, unable to establish its own mixed-race machinists’ union, the Federation went against its former moral convictions and established the whites-only International Association of Machinists.
The color bar then extended throughout the trade union movement, formally or informally. Black people made up only around 3% of the overall membership in 1902, and the majority of them were separated in Jim Crow locals. Similar changes occurred in the treatment of eastern European immigrants and women, who were in theory welcomed as equals but were in reality excluded or segregated. (The only aspect of Asian workers’ fate that wasn’t troubling was the fact that the AFL had never actually fought for their rights.). Considering all of the abovementioned, the main principles of the labor movement were the protection of workers rights, improvement and ensuring of the safer working conditions, fair division of labor and standard working hours. Such principles represent the humanitarian perspective.
On the contrary, corporations were aiming at achieving maximum profit without considering the lives of the workers and the conditions they work in. Industrialization and technological advancements allowed corporations to increase their profit, which led to massive layoffs and unemployment. The song “John Henry” acts as an primary source that shows how a man was challenged to compete with the machine. Yet, he was not the one to gain profit of it as everything that he produced belongs to the corporation. Hence, the economic profitability was the key principle for corporations.
The differences in principles and power dynamics were workers were exploited and not protected from the abuse has caused labor movement to organize. It acted as a foundation for women’s movement and contributed to the movement of Black people in the United States. Finally, labor movement had a long-lasting effect as unionization has shaped employer-employee relationships in 20th and 21st centuries.