Labor History in the United States Of America

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After the American Civil War that lasted from 1861 to 1865, American industrial workers wanted to enlarge their rights at workplaces and be able to create strong labor unions to improve the quality of the work.

At the beginning of 1990s, a considerable part of workers died each year because of poor working conditions: accidents at factories and mines, constant injuring, and inconveniencies with work. Industrial workers hoped that numerous labor unions would provide them with safety at working places and the families of killed people with the necessary financial support and other benefits.

The international influence of the United States started rising at the beginning of 1910s and lasts until now. Rising of American impact considerably influenced the vast majority of American industrial workers; the processes of mobilization, liberal consensus, and nationalism affected American labor unions in different ways: on the one hand, these changes advanced workers’ rights by providing the benefits, and on the other hand, they hurt workers’ interests and cause numerous misunderstandings.

The influence of America has been powerful for a long period of time. It is a nation full of immigrants and industrial workers from the whole world. The United States opens its gates to lots of people and provides them with an opportunity to earn for living.

However, at the beginning of 1900s, the situation was a bit different: people, who came to the United States faced lots of problems, Asian and Mexican workers had to pass a strong control to visit the country and start working. Some people just had no chance but accept all the conditions offered by the American government in order to find some job; usually it was work at factories and mines including running the machines.

Native American industrial workers faced certain problems with work as well. For the government, it was easier to hire people from other countries in order to pay less money and use the same labor force.

This is why rising of the international influence of the United States attracted too many people from different countries, and Native American industrial workers got less opportunities to get good jobs. “The use of undocumented workers as a highly exploited or reserve labor sources” (Ngai, 58) – this is what was inherent to those times and was the major obstacle for American workers.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, one of the most significant conflicts in the labor movement was a conflict between the representatives of craft unions and industrial unions.

Craft unions, also known as trade unions, restricted the membership in unions to specific traders: shoemakers, plumbers, etc. In their turn, industrial unions were such organizations, which were eager to accept the workers of any ranks: skilled and unskilled. The representatives of the Knights of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World may serve as the best and well-known labor union organizations, which made a certain impact on the rising of industrial workers in the United States.

The conflict between those labor organizations was considerable, and in order to smooth it, John L. Lewis decided to organize the Committee for Industrial Organizations (C. I. O.) and tried to organize all unskilled workers into one group. Black workers were also eager to join this organization in order to have more or less stable position at the labor-markets. After all, the industrial workers won their independence by means of violent fights and mobilization of their memberships.

Mobilization is a process of gathering people into the certain groups with common interests and purposes. Lewis chose one of the most effective ways to achieve the desirable results and created a membership of works of different levels. Because of its simplicity and clear marking of the purpose, lots of workers started joining that union.

Nationalism is one more factor that influenced the development of American labor. Nationalism is defined as an ideology that focuses on the interests of the nations. It is probably one of the strongest phenomena inherent to each country. National flags, armies, and anthems – all this is a banal example of nationalism.

The idea of one race, ethnicity, and even one language was also crucially important to the American industrial workers. As for nationalism of American industrial workers, one the one hand, it advanced their interests and helped to achiever the set purposes and achieve the equality in the labor market. One the other hand, the idea of nationalism was not the only leading factor in the development of American labor.

In fact, the idea of mobilization was the initial one, and in order to win craft unions, industrial unions had to be united without taking into account the ethnicity factor. Due to this simple fact, Native American industrial workers should put aside their personal preferences and use as more people as possible to gain the desirable recognition.

One of the most important ideologies, which played the final role in the development of the American industrial labor, is the idea of the liberal consensus. Cold War and liberalism that was one of this war’s main objectives turned out to be the dominant paradigm in the United States.

“At times, a confluence of economic, social, cultural, and political factors has impelled major shifts in society’s understanding (and construction) of race and its constitutive role in national identity formation. The Civil War was obviously one of those times; the present multicultural moment is another.” (Ngai 7)

In general, the rising of the international influence of the United States considerable affected the vast majority of the American industrial workers. The process of mobilization of both skilled and unskilled workers of different race and gender advanced the interests of American labor and encourage them to work and present more effective production.

The war between craft unions and industrial unions, described in the works by Mae Ngai and Eileen Boris, the liberal consensus, which put the final full stop in the labor conflict, and American workers’ nationalism – this is what was crucially important during the 1910s till the 1990s.

Between 1924 and 1965, the times analyzed by Ngai, the restriction policies did not concentrate on exclusion of the unskilled workers. Their major purpose was to determine geographical and racial gaps between the workers in order to abolish the rights of the illegal aliens and underline the importance of the national origins of the workers.

Civil War was rather predictable, taking into consideration the situation between the unions and inhabitants. “Cold War liberalism’s emphasis on America’s image abroad narrowed the concept of immigration reform to a question of formal equality.” (Ngai 245) The results of that war put the end of the war for independence, equality of rights, and freedom.

Works Cited

Boris, E., Lichtenstein, N. Major Problems in the History of American Workers: Documents and Essays. D. C. Heath, 1991.

Ngai M.M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton University Press, 2004

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Labor History in the United States Of America

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