Formation of Workers' Unions in America

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History of Labor and Work
America's labor market and economy went through drastic changes in the 1800s. The north specialized in industrialization, while the south focused on agriculture. People from different racial, ethnic, racial and economic classes became wage laborers. Soon, conflict emerged between employers and their workers. The results were the formation of workers' unions to champion their rights. This was also met with various challenges. This paper discusses the major efforts by workers to form workers' unions and political organizations to champion better working conditions in the later 1800s and how difficult or easy it was for the employees to unite. These major efforts by workers to unionize included the formation of Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and the Pullman Strike. It was difficult for these workers to unionize because they had no rights, their employers set all the conditions and opposed the formation of workers' unions or political organizations, most states enforced legal restrictions to the formation of workers' unions and political organizations, and these unionization efforts also led to increased violence. Employers and governments resisted these efforts to form workers' unions because they feared it would interfere with their revenue flow and believed in laissez-fair capitalism and that economy should be free from interference
The formation of Knights of Labor contributed greatly to the formation of workers' unions and political organizations championing better working conditions. It was formed in 1869 and became one of the most influential bodies, advocating for 8-hour working time, abolition of child labor and equal pay (Gourevitch, 2015; Lichtenstein & Rosenzweig 94). The Knights of Labor saw a quick fall due to the suppression of 1886.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL), a radically different type of union organization that learned from the mistakes of the Knights, was formed after the collapse of the Knights of labor in 1886. AFL continued with a similar objective as the Knights. The lessons from the collapse of Knights allowed the AFL to persuade moderate businesspeople to embrace collective bargaining as a viable solution in the face of continued labor unrest, which included equipment sabotage, slowdowns, strikes, and other forms of labor unrest. A potential agreement, though, was still over a decade away. Despite their significant autonomy and independence, the national-level craft leaders provided the federation's head, elected for two years by delegates from each union at national meetings, with some ability to speak on their behalf on broad policy concerns. Samuel Gompers, the first president of the federation, who had previously led the cigar producers' organization, held the position from 1886 until he died in 1924, except for two years.
Another effort to form unions and political organizations is the Pullman Strike. It was an 1894 nationwide railway strike in the United States. The genesis of the strike was that the Pullman Palace Car Company, manufacturing railroad cars, slashed employees' wages without reducing their rent, attracting the strike. Led by Eugene v. Debs, the American Railway Union called for a bo...