History Labor: The Height Of The Roaring Twenties Economy

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History of Labor
Introduction
The period between 1920s and 1940s was momentous for American workers and their unions. At the height of the “Roaring Twenties” economy, the chances for unions and working class political activism was on a record low. Nevertheless, workers embarked on rebuilding the labor movement in the 1930s during the Great Depression, and many unions consolidated their gains in the 1940s during World War II. Prior to the Depression unions were mostly clustered in few industries including garment manufacturing, railroads, construction, coal mining, and some of the specialty crafts (Roy 429). Restrictive court decisions, management hostility, and corporate sponsorship of tame unions had effectively blocked the organizing efforts of other industries. This paper examines some of the major developments and events that created the possibilities for unions to grow. It identifies ways in which the power of union was still limited and how the growth of the labor movement affected workers and their employers. Finally, the paper establishes if all the workers were able to share equally in the growth of the labor movement.
While the future of labor unions in the early 1930s looked grim, the fortunes would later change. The many gains that labor unions during the 1930s resulted from the pro-union stance of the Roosevelt administration and the legislation that was enacted during the early New Deal by Congress (Library of Congress np). The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 laid the foundation for collective bargaining. Another law known as the Wagner Act or the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 also demanded that businesses bargain with all unions supported by the majority of their employees in good faith. In addition, the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) broke away from the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to become much more aggressive in organizing unskilled workers that were poorly represented hitherto. During this time, strikes of all forms became critical tools of the CIO and its members. In the first three years of the Great Depression, the high unemployment rate made the workers and their employers extremely cautious, but strikes were nonexistent since the union membership had dropped below 10 percent if the total national workforce (Roy 429). However, this trend did not take long to change and 1933 was a turn of events to have the chance of labor movements and unions to blossom.
In 1933, things changed when workers dramatically began to embrace collective action. In the 1930s, the trade unions in the United States tripled in membership and their economic and political power increased in a tremendous manner (Roy 430). Through the organization of the great mass production industries of that time such as the automobiles steel, rubber and electrical products, the unions had not only raised the standards of living for numerous families, but had injected an element of democratic and popularity into the many hearts of the American industrial life. Even the textile and agricultural strikes, which vanquished in defeat, had mobilized thousands of workers and brought bear the shortcomings of the legislations of the N...