•Organization of workers that negotiates with employers for better wages, improved working conditions, and job security

•Capital – intensive

•Factory laborers•60 hours a week•10 cent an hour

•Upton Sinclair

•Described working conditions

• Craft Unions (plumbers, electricians, carpenters) International Union of Bricklayers

• Industrial Unions (United Auto Workers)

• ONE OF THE FIRST UNIONS• Brought skilled and unskilled

workers together• Offered membership to

women and African Americans• Fought For:– 8 Hour workday– Ending child labor–Wanted social and political

reform

•AFL•Union of SKILLED workers

•Higher wages•Better working conditions

•Businesses where workers did not have to join a union

•Workers hired only if join the Union

• CIO• John L. Lewis• Unskilled industrial

workers• Women & African

Americans and other minorities

• United Steel Workers

1. Local Unions (work for a particular company or in a particular area)

2. National Unions (local unions from throughout the country get together)

3. Independent Unions (not affiliated with the AFL-CIO)

•Union membership has dropped dramatically

•Oppose Union because unions mean increased wages and lower profits

•Workers part of management teams•Move to parts of country where Unions aren’t strong

•Other Countries

•Shift from manufacturing-based economy to service-based

•More women and teenagers in workforce

•Companies move factories to another country

•Union members wages are too high

•Opposed to action of Union Leaders

•Adopt a more cooperative spirit in the unions dealings with management

• Government responses to Unions have changed over time– 1800s government favored

business interests over labor Unions• Chicago’s Pullman Palace Car

Company factory went on strike• Government sent Federal

troops in to stop strike• TODAY GOVERNMENT

PROTECTS RIGHTS OF WORKERS