Your Collective Voice

1. Chapter 3
Your Collective Voice

2. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
2
History of Labor
Movement
• Employers liked slave type
work force
• Political tradition denied
rights to everyone except
property owners
• Judicial system regarded
unions as anti-society
• In 1794 shoemakers
organized into union
• During Civil War unions
were scattered and weak

3. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
3
Labor Movement Post-War
• Industrial Expansion
• Arrival of large,
impersonal
corporations
• Industrial unrest
increased

4. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
4
First National Labor Group
• Grand Order of the Knights
of Labor
• One Big Union covering
unskilled and minorities as
well as craft groups
• First to call for
– 8 hr. day,
– abolition of child labor,
– direct election of US
Senators and
– graduated income tax
• Grew to 700,000 in its 15
year life
• Faded after series of strikes

5. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
5
First Lasting Labor
Organization
• American Federation of
Labor (AFL) founded in
1886
• Emphasized trade
unionism rather than
political action
• Lead until 1924 by
Samuel Gompers

6. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
6
Strikes in 1890’s
• 1890’s featured big
strikes pitting unionists
against employers, court
system, and sometimes
federal and state troops
– Carnegie Steel (1892)
– Pullman (1894)
– Northern Railway (1894)
– Anthracite mine field
(1902)

7. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
7
Wobblies
• Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW)
• Wanted abolition of
capitalism
• Concentrated on direct
action at the point of
production (including
strikes, sabotage and
violence)

8. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
8
During World War I
• AFL strengthens its position
– Supported war effort
– Gained from government right to bargain
collectively
– Accumulated 4 million members by 1919
– Railway Labor Act in 1926 gave railroad
workers right to form and join unions

9. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
9
Wagner Act of 1934
• Guaranteed right to organize
• Formed the National Labor
Relations Board to police the
labor practices of employers
• In 1935, AFL divided and
Congress of Industrial
Organization (CIO) split to fight
for unionization of the mass
production industries (made
inroads into rubber, auto, steel,
and textile industries)

10. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
10
AFL-CIO
• AFL and CIO reunited in 1955
• AFL-CIO unions negotiated
– Wide ranging health and welfare
– Pension
– Paid vacation
– Supplementary unemployment benefit programs
• Taft-Harley Act in 1947 laid basis for state right-
to-work laws

11. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
11
Strength in Unity
• Pre-
Revolutionary
War Cartoon
– Showing 13
colonies as a
snake cut into
13 pieces
• In unity there is
strength

12. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
12
UA
• UA one of the most
respected and influential
building trades unions in
US and Canada
• UA founded in 1889, 25
years passed before it
became the sole
representative of the
pipe trades

13. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
13
UA Serves and Protects
• Wage rates and working hours
• Personal fringe benefits
– Medical
– Retirement
– Other programs
• Working Conditions
– Employer and employee responsibilities for safety on the job
– What tools are required and how they are to be provided
– Variety of other on-the-job arrangements
• Trade Jurisdictions

14. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
14
UA Beginnings
• In 1884, leaders of five New York Area
locals called a conference in New York
– Formed National Association of Plumbers,
Steam Fitters and Gas Fitters
– Intended to operate under Knights of Labor
– Locals from Chicago, Milwaukee and other
areas signed on

15. Session 1 -
Union Heritage
Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
15
Conflicts with K of L
• In 1886 decided to withdraw from Knights
of Labor
• Formed International Association of
Journeyworkers Plumbers, Steam Fitters
and Gas Fitters
• More locals affiliated but some still loyal to
Knights of Labor

16. Session 1 -
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Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
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New Constitution
• One of most influential
leaders, Patrick Quinlan
– Head of independent local
in Boston
– Prolific letter writer
– Met with Richard O’Brien
from National Assembly
– Adopted new constitution
and United Association was
born

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Battles
• Competition between UA and IA (covering
steam and hot water fitting, sprinkler fitting
and other types of pipe fitting)
• Locals but not national
• Strong in plumbing not pipefitters

18. Session 1 -
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Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
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UA Today
• Membership has grown
• UA has proven strength by dealing with
economic and internal issues
• Continues to upgrade apprenticeship
training

19. Session 1 -
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Module 1 -Union Heritage
and Safety Training
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UA Training Expansion
• 1984 signed national agreement covering
nondestructive testing
• Apprenticeship Scholarship Agreement in
1985 which obligated apprentice to stay in
union for a total of nine years in return for
training
• Piping Industry Information Network
established in 1988 to support local
organizing efforts
• In 1992, Air Conditioning/Refrigeration
Industry to influence regulations published
by EPA regarding CFC and HCFC
• Course guidelines for Conservation and Safe
Handling of Refrigerants
• Certified Control Systems Technician
Program introduced in 1995