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The Decline of the American Labor Movement

Unions in America have fought for workers’ rights since 1792. With the organization of our country’s first union, The Philadelphia Shoemaker’s Union, workers were introduced to collective bargaining and a hope for equality and fairness in the workplace. Since that time there have been major turning points in labor history that has ensured the rights of American workers. From the Boston Massacre in 1770 to the assignation of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, the American labor movement has been a vicious struggle. Two acts that helped to ensure the rights of workers were the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1937. These laws represented major victories for the workers. “Section 7 of the NLRA gives workers the right to form labor unions without employer interference and compels employers to bargain collectively with unions chosen by the employees.” (Yates 1998, p.30) Whereas, “the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1937 provided for the p...

Posted by: Leonard Herriman

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