The Untold Story: American Labor in U.S. History Textbooks

A Report by

The American Labor Studies Center

Paul F. Cole

Lori Megivern

Jeff Hilgert

Draft updated September 7, 2009

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction 3

II. Background 4

III. Workers‟ Rights as Human Rights 7

IV. Review Standards 10

V. Method and Approach 18

VI. Observations 22

VII. Recommendations 36

VIII. Resources and Research 37

References 39

Author Biographies 41

Appendix 42

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I. INTRODUCTION

There is an expectation that those who write the histories assigned to American high

school students will deliver a full and balanced account of the peoples, events, and institutions

that have played an important role in the nation‟s history. Of course, textbooks have often failed

to meet that expectation. For example, in past years, the history of social injustice and prejudice

received a very “light touch” in U.S. textbooks. Textbook publishers were loathe to shine too

bright a light on those instances in American history in which government policy and actions, as

well as popular sentiment, fell far short of the ideals set forth in the country‟s founding

documents. The real lives and experiences of minorities, Native Americans and women were

most often given short shrift.

In recent years, however, that imbalance often has been redressed, to the point where

influential textbook critics now suggest that today‟s books focus too much on the dark aspects of

U.S. history, while the inspiring narrative of a country and people striving, with genuine success,

to make the reality of the nation match its ideals, is too often lost. This is a major debate in the

field, an argument fraught with politics and ideology, as are many textbook fights.

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It is fascinating and telling that the debate on what should be in or out of history texts or

what the over-arching narrative of our country should be has taken little note of one institution

that has played a critical role in shaping American society, especially in the 20th

century.

Although diminished and in crisis at this writing, that institution, the American labor movement,

continues to be a major player in U.S. politics and society.

Trade unions in U.S. are nearly always viewed through the prism of labor-management

issues. To some extent, this is how is should be. Study after study has demonstrated that union

members enjoy wages and benefits that are better than nonunion workers. Union people are

proud of this record.

There‟s a downside to this narrow perspective, however. Too often, unions are seen as

just another parochial interest group, among the many interest groups that give money to

politicians and promote their members‟ agenda.

Unionists see their institutions through quite another lens. They strongly assert that trade

unions are a unique civil society institution-- wherever they exist. In this view, unions are one of

the few – perhaps the only -- civil society organization with programs and interests that cut

across each sphere of society: social, economic and political. In a world of narrow factions and

splintering interests, union advocates nearly always bring the broadest vision to the table and are

in touch with the concerns of ordinary citizen.

Unionists argue that freedom of association -- the right of any individual to associate

with whichever organization, group, union, or political party he or she chooses -- is the bedrock

right of any democratic society. It certainly is not an abstract notion for workers. It means the

right to create and join unions, free of intimidation and interference, and to run them

democratically. Unions are a place where members – ordinary citizens --- through the collective

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bargaining process, learn the nuts and bolts of advocacy, representation, and compromise, skills

that are at the heart of healthy democratic process.

The democratic skills, attitudes and education that are intrinsic to unions and from

union membership affect the surrounding communities. When union density is high, voter

participation is high. When union density diminishes, voter participation diminishes. Healthy

unions and healthy democracy are inseparable.

It is the quintessentially democratic nature of unions, those in the labor movement argue,

that accounts both for the depth of labor's enduring commitment to democracy and human rights

and the elaboration of those values in the broader U.S. society. Unions have played a critical

role -- not just on behalf of its own members, but in deploying its energy and resources in the

cause of winning those rights of democratic participation and decent living standards for every

American. There is strong historical evidence for the view that labor unions possess an

encompassing vision of an authentically democratic life and more so than any other force or

constituency in American society, have worked hard to realize that vision, for members and

nonmembers alike.

This perspective – this history – is missing from U.S. textbooks.

This study reviews U.S. history textbooks and examines how unions and labor rights

issues are presented; especially recognizing those workers‟ rights is today viewed as human

rights by international institutions. A collection of U.S. history textbooks was selected from the

four main educational textbook publishers which hold a large majority of the share of the U.S.

high school history textbook market. Labor history was evaluated with reference to relevant

human rights principles and standards, including those found in UN human rights instruments

and ILO international labor standards. References are also made to the U.S. National Council for

the Social Studies Curriculum Standards, which require the study of global issues and human

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rights in U.S. social studies curriculum, including an understanding of “concerns, standards,

issues and conflicts related to universal human rights.”

The goal of this report is to help U.S. history textbook publishers to understand that 1)

unions play a critical role in sustaining democratic values and support for basic human rights in

the U.S., far beyond the narrow scope of their membership; 2) workers‟ rights, including the

freedom of association and the right to collectively bargain, are internationally recognized

human rights; and 3) the important role that workers and unions have played in United States

history is not recognized or adequately treated in U.S. history textbooks. We offer the following

report in good faith to the U.S. textbook publishing industry and to teachers looking a resource

on this subject in order to support alternatives that can more fully satisfy the requirements of the

National Social Studies Curriculum Standards.

II. BACKGROUND

The bias against organized labor in U.S. history textbooks is a problem that dates back at

least to the New Deal era. At that time, with the passage of the National Labor Relations Act

and other legislation aimed at the social protection of workers and trade unions, organized labor

– unions -- had become an active participant in the economic, political and cultural life of

American society. Nonetheless, neither U.S. history textbooks nor high school curricula offered

an adequate treatment of labor‟s significant role in improving the lives and living standards of all

Americans Unions, labor/management conflict, and the rights of working people in textbooks

had become contested terrain, and by the late 20th

century, a number of scholars had documented

the biased treatment of organized labor in high school curricula textbooks. Insightful studies

focused mainly on American history textbooks, but also focused on how organized labor was

either depicted or ignored in both high school and college government and journalism textbooks.

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One of the earliest studies was authored by Will Scoggins in 1966 and published by the

University of California Los Angeles. Scoggins was a high school and college history and

government teacher hired by the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education to investigate

this question in 1964 and 1965. There he researched and published a book-length report Labor

In Learning: Public School Treatment of the World of Work, an extensive study of forty-six high

schools in Los Angeles County. Scoggins‟s objective was to understand how economic and

labor topics were treated in high school history and government curriculum. Among the issues

ignored or inadequately treated in high school history and government texts were collective

bargaining, unfair labor practices, the use of company unions to avoid unionization, the open

shop movement, strikes, right-to-work laws, and the role of government in labor dispute

mediation and conciliation.

Not a single labor topic, except industrial vs. craft unions, was adequately described or

explained in the majority of textbooks. Not a single U.S. History text did more than

mention the political activities of unions, both historically and presently – despite the fact

that the very educational institution the student now occupies is, at least in part, a result

of such activities. Only two of the history texts went beyond mentioning that all-

important labor-management practice of free collective bargaining. None told the student

about the public employment service, a service he will most likely have need of shortly

after graduation. (1966: 90)

The Scoggins study illustrated the challenge posed to organized labor by its depiction and

representation in, if not systematic exclusion from, U.S. high school social studies textbooks.

Scoggins and others understood that high school textbooks had come to reflect a certain

view about organized labor that was certainly prevalent in the business community, as well as in

politics, most especially in some factions of the Republican Party. In a sense, the textbooks took

sides in the intense and contested national political debate about organized labor that dates back

at least to the New Deal era. One episode of this debate unfolded in the tumultuous labor unrest

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of the 1930s, as described by Joseph Moreau in Schoolbook Nation: Conflicts over American

history textbooks from the Civil War to the present.

In 1936, General Motors workers in Flint, Michigan, took over their plant, refusing to

leave until the company recognized their unions. When local police tried to force them to

vacate the premises, workers pelted them with nuts, bolts, coffee mugs, and bottles.

Bucking the traditional patterns set by their predecessors, neither Michigan‟s governor

nor the President intervened on GM‟s behalf, and the strikers won. Law-and-order

conservatives were furious [and] blamed school propaganda for what seemed to them an

inexplicable public sympathy for the autoworkers. “When immature minds are

constantly deluged with attacks on our economic system, the „aristocrat owners‟ and

private property, and with similar appeals to class hatred,” they asked rhetorically, “is it

surprising that in later years they see nothing wrong with the sit-down strike?” (2003:

245)

After the Second World War, the business community devoted significant resources to the

development and promotion of high school social studies curriculum that promoted its vision of

society and perspective on U.S. history, which was skeptical of government programs and wary

of organized labor (Fones-Wolf 1994). Among the more recent studies of the politics of U.S.

history textbooks in the second half of the twentieth century, James Loewen provides the most

critical treatment of organized labor‟s exclusion from U.S. history and how textbooks represent

the contributions of labor unions in the fields of government, economics, and human rights,

including the general depiction of the role of workers as being active and concerned citizens.

American histories textbooks help perpetrate the archetype of the blindly patriotic hard

hat by omitting or understating progressive elements in the working class. Text books do

not reveal that CIO unions and some working-class fraternal associations were open to all

when many Chambers of Commerce and country clubs were still whites-only. Few

textbooks tell of organized labor‟s role in the civil rights movement, including the 1963

March on Washington. (Loewen 2008: 352)

Other studies of organized labor‟s treatment in U.S. textbooks focus on one-issue areas

specifically. John Bekken‟s analysis (1994) of journalism curricula found unions to be neglected

or unrepresented. Robert Shaffer‟s study examined the absence of organized public employees

and public employee unionism from within U.S. history textbooks.

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[There is] an absence in virtually all survey textbooks, as well as in textbooks of the

recent (post-1945) U.S., of any mention of the upsurge in public employee unionism in

the 1960s and 1970s. This silence serves all of our students poorly, and reflects a lack of

perspective about what has been one of the most important legacies of the 1960s to

contemporary life. (Shaffer 2002: 315)

“As I survey these textbooks,” Schaffer reported, “I was at first surprised, and soon appalled”.

Throughout the handful of studies documenting the basic misrepresentation or outright

avoidance of unions in U.S. textbooks, the conclusions have remained the same over time: The

role of unions in the broader society is often left out of textbooks and often not accurately

depicted as a beneficial participant in the political, economic or cultural life of American society.

In an era of globalization, as international institutions increasingly recognize the legitimacy of

universal human rights, especially the universal human rights of workers, these textbook

deficiencies become ever more glaring. Obviously, the rest of the world is no utopia of worker

rights and deep union density. The gap between law and practice with respect to unions has

always been wide and in most countries is widening. Unions in nearly every country, where they

exist, are under great pressure, despite the progress in international law.

This situation only underscores the motivation behind the rise of human rights activism

and the need for accuracy and fairness on labor history in U.S. textbooks.

III. WORKERS’ RIGHTS AS HUMAN RIGHTS

Since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, a remarkable

global movement for universal human rights has emerged and grown. An important aspect of

this movement is the understanding that workers‟ and labor rights are internationally-recognized

human rights. The trend toward recognizing universal human rights in international law, politics

and society creates additional questions and concerns in the assessment of the treatment of

organized labor and workers‟ rights in U.S. history textbooks. The biased and inaccurate

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treatment of organized labor distorts and misrepresents

the historical record and obscures one of the most

important international political developments of the last century: the idea that universal human

rights exist and that the dignity of the individual, in his or her person, demands fundamental

political, civil, economic, social and cultural protections including the right to organize unions.

Supporting this notion of individual rights is the powerful role that independent unions play as a

democratic check on state power, as well as on employer abuses. This critically important

function of unions, which has surfaced in countries all over the world, is never explored in U.S.

texts.

In response to the growing influence of the human rights movement, national

governments and courts have increasingly understanding that workers‟ rights are human rights

and that the experience of union membership has positive impacts beyond better wages and

working conditions. In June 2007, for example, the Supreme Court of Canada placed workers‟

freedom of association and collective bargaining on a “human rights foundation,” based on

Canada‟s national bill of rights, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court ruled that “The

right to bargain collectively with an employer enhances the human dignity, liberty and autonomy

of workers by giving them the opportunity to influence the establishment of workplace rules and

thereby gain some control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their work.” The Supreme

Court also argued that collective bargaining “is not simply an instrument for pursuing external

ends… rather [it] is intrinsically valuable as an experience in self-government” that “permits

workers to achieve a form of workplace democracy and to ensure the rule of law in the

workplace.” It noted that other countries from South Africa to Italy have also recognized

workers‟ freedom of association as a fundamental constitutional right of all workers.

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The bias against unions in U.S. history textbooks

is all the more ironic given the great push made over the

last twenty years toward incorporating human rights and

fundamental freedoms into school curricula worldwide.

The United Nations General Assembly in resolution

49/184 of 23 December 1994 (UN 1994) proclaimed the

ten-year period beginning January 1st, 1995 as the

“United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education.”

Other declarations have also noted the importance of

education for human rights.

The World Conference on Human Rights in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of

Action (1993) stated that human rights education, training and public information were

essential for the promotion and achievement of stable and harmonious relations among

communities and for fostering mutual understanding, tolerance and peace. The

Conference recommended that States … should direct education towards the full

development of the human personality and the strengthening of respect for human rights

and fundamental freedoms. It called on all States and institutions to include human

rights, humanitarian law, democracy and rule of law as subjects in the curricula of all

learning institutions in formal and non-formal settings. (2009)

How has the U.S. responded to this call to incorporate universal human rights and fundamental

freedoms into school curricula? The record is mixed.

National curricula standards in the United States do incorporate the study of universal

human rights. According to the National Council for the Social Studies Curriculum Standards,

“Global Connections” is a key performance expectation. In high school, the middle grades, and

even in the early grades, the “concerns, issues, standards and conflicts related to universal human

rights” must be included in social studies programs (1994). As our review of U.S. high school

history textbooks demonstrates, however, these standards are not always followed by U.S.

What Are Human Rights?

Human rights are the rights a person has simply because they are human

Human rights are equal rights, possessed universally by all humans

Human rights are inalienable, universal, interdependent and indivisible

Human rights are thought of as moral rights of the highest order

Human rights often challenge existing institutions, practices or norms, as the appeal to human rights testifies to the absence of specific rights being realized.

From: Jack Donnelly (2003) Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice 2nd Ed. Cornell Univ. Press.

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textbook publishers. If human rights are mentioned, they are often presented as abstract ideals

removed from the context of key historical events, especially key events in U.S. labor history.

These omissions are compounded because the same Curriculum Standards on Social

Studies that require a demonstration of universal human rights also require an understanding of

unions and their relationship to other economic institutions within the economic system. The

curricula standards on unions should be strengthened, to take into account the fact that worker

rights fall in the category of internationally-recognized human rights and that unions play a role

in society that cuts across social, economic and political spheres. They are not solely economic

institutions. We hope our report will encourage this movement.

To conduct a review of U.S. high school history textbooks requires a firm grasp of the

key human rights issues of relevance to organized labor. These workers‟ rights issues are

addressed in international human rights and standards. We turn now to these global labor

standards, and begin by identifying and outlining four issue areas that are central to workers‟

rights as human rights and to our review of the treatment of these rights in high school history

textbooks.

IV. REVIEW STANDARDS

Unions have played an important role in all aspects of the life of American democracy.

Unions defended workers‟ rights as human rights, and have been a pillar of democratic

participation. They have played a crucial role in sustaining and enlarging democratic values and

practice in the U.S. Studies have found a connection between union density – the percentage of

workers that are unionized – and democratic participation like voter participation and progressive

legislation. (Davis 2000; Flavin and Radcliff 2009; Gray 2000; Radcliff 2001; Zullo 2009). This

dimension of unionism has existed throughout American history, and is a natural outgrowth of its

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human rights advocacy. Any evaluation of organized labor in U.S. history textbooks needs to be

reviewed with these important elements in mind. They form the bedrock foundation for human

rights.

Certain workers‟ rights have been identified as universal human rights under international

human rights standards. These standards and principles can be found in documents called the

International Bill of Human Rights. The International Bill of Human Rights includes the U.N.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights (1966), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).

Workers‟ rights as human rights are further elaborated by the International Labor Organization,

the UN‟s specialized agency focused on labor affairs. The ILO has adopted dozens of treaties on

labor issues called international labor standards. International labor standards cover a variety of

workplace-related topics, from occupational safety and health to the right to organize a union and

collectively bargain. In addition to these numerous international labor treaties, which are called

“conventions,” the ILO has also adopted solemn declarations on issues that are important to the

protection of workers‟ rights and the development of “decent work for all.” Among the most

recent of these documents is the ILO‟s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at

Work (1998), which has identified a short list of what have come to be known as “fundamental

core global labor standards.”

As part of this review, we have identified four categories of workers‟ rights drawn from

these international human rights standards. We then grouped our observations around each of

these human rights. As often happens when designating categories, there is overlap between

groups and often the labels do not describe perfectly every situation, but they still provide a

useful analytical tool for this investigation. Let us briefly summarize these four categories of

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human rights at work, their importance as workers‟ rights issues, and underlying basis in global

human rights standards.

1. The freedom of association and collective bargaining

The freedom of association, the right of workers to form a trade union, and the right to

join together to collectively bargain with regard to employment terms and conditions have been

identified as universal human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) defines

worker and labor rights throughout the declaration, including in Article 23, a key provision on

workplace rights. Article 23 includes a number of important human rights at work. This article

states “Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”

The rights of workers to organize and to collectively bargain have been repeatedly

defined as universal human rights by both the United Nations and the International Labor

Organization. ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to

Organize (1948) and Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining

(1949) further elaborate the rights of workers to organize, to associate “in full freedom” from

management coercion, and the right to bargain collectively with their employer the terms and

conditions of their employment. All ILO member nations are obligated to respect these

fundamental rights, regardless of whether or not they have signed the international treaty.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the ICESCR)

describes the “right of everyone” to form trade unions in Article 8. Article 8 section (d) also

identifies the right to strike as a protected right. The ILO has also reiterated the right to strike as

an important dimension of workers‟ freedom of association under international labor standards.

The rationale for this study is based upon the recognition of the importance of workers‟

freedom of association. The recent Shanker Institute and Freedom House report Democracy

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Web: Comparative Studies in Freedom noted the importance of workers‟ freedom of association

by detailing its essential principles. This report concurs with these universal human standards on

workers‟ freedom of association, the right to organize and the right to collectively bargain.

The exercise of freedom of association by workers, students, and others in society has

always been at the heart of the struggle for democracy around the world, and it remains at

the heart of society once democracy has been achieved. Without freedom of association,

other freedoms lose their substance. It is impossible to defend individual rights if citizens

are unable to organize around common needs and interests. As one labor leader put it,

"Freedom of expression without freedom of association is the right to speak freely in the

wilderness." (2009)

Given the importance of workers‟ freedom of association, the right to organize, and collective

bargaining, we have identified this group of rights as the primary category through which this

report analyzes the textbook curricula content.

2. Just and favorable conditions of work

A union is defined as an organization of

workers joined to protect their common interests

and improve their working conditions. The most

common interpretation is that it is an

organization of employees formed to bargain

with the employer. With respect to seeking “just

and favorable conditions of work,” it is

important to distinguish between a “union” that has collective bargaining rights with an

employer with the broader “labor movement” that includes regional, state and national

components of a particular union as well as local, state and national “federations”, such as the

AFL-CIO, that include a wide array of labor organizations.

Article 23 of the United Nations

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 23

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of

work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without discrimination, has the right to

equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if

necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and join trade

unions for the protection of his interests.

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Unions as “collective bargaining agents” promote just and favorable conditions of work

primarily by negotiating contracts or collective bargaining agreements that set standards for

wages, benefits, hours and other conditions of work. They also provide a “voice” for workers to

improve quality and efficiency in the delivery of products or services in both the private and

public sectors. A number of unions play a leading role in defining quality standards that guide

the nature of work. Many, including the building and construction trades, teachers, health care

professionals and others, play a significant role in the education and training of their members. In

most instances, these are in formal programs in cooperation with their employers such as

registered apprenticeship programs that date to the medieval guilds.

Unions also work directly, or with and through their affiliations, to promote broader

measures that improve the lives of workers and their families. Of paramount concern is labor‟s

constant interactions and conversations with elected legislative and executive leaders and their

staffs at the local, state and national level. (discussed in more detail elsewhere in this

report).Unions are also active in support of a variety of civic and charitable organizations though

their community services activities.

Missing from all textbooks is any description or discussion of labor‟s international work,

to promote independent unions and “just and favorable conditions of work.” In virtually every

sector, there is an international labor organization known as a Global Union Federation or GUF.

A global union federation is an international federation of national and regional trade unions

organizing in specific industry sectors or occupational groups, previously known as international

trade secretariats (ITSs). Their primary mission is to insure that the global economy conforms to

the internationa human rights standards outlined in this study. A comprehensive analysis of the

GUFs is available in the study Making a World of Difference: Global Unions at Work at

www.global-unions.org/IMG/pdf/MakingWorldDifference.pdf

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The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), based in Brussels, Belgium, is a

Confederation of national trade union centers, each of which links together the trade unions of

that particular country. Membership is open to bona fide trade union organizations that are

independent of outside influence, and have a democratic structure. The ITUC cooperates closely

with the International Labor Organization (ILO). It promotes trade union and workers‟ rights

internationally.

In the United States, various international unions participate in international activities

primarily through their respective GUF. The AFL-CIO has been involved in international

activities since the time of Samuel Gompers and sponsors a global institute, called the Solidarity

Center, which conducts programs around the world and works with the ILO and international

union groups and NGO s.

The international role and activism of unions dates to the 19th

century. In an era of

globalization, which is increasingly covered by U.S. textbooks, it is impossible to omit the

concerns and activities of organized labor and still present an accurate picture of that unfolding

story.

The right to a safe and healthy workplace, to employment freely chosen, and to humane

conditions of work together have been grouped into a second category of human rights at work

for this report. Article 23 states that everyone has the right to “free choice of employment” and

“to just and favourable conditions of work”. The International Covenant on Economic, Social

and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) also defines the right to safe and healthy working conditions. The

ICESCR in Article 7 states that everyone has a right to “safe and healthy working conditions”.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Article 4 also states, “No one shall be held in

slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” These

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provisions are important in evaluating history

textbooks, especially considering the history of

slavery and indentured servitude in United States

history.

The ILO was founded in 1919 as a result

of the post-World War I Versailles Treaty, which

also created the League of Nations (the ILO

subsequently became a part of the League). It is

an interesting historical footnote that the ILO

Constitution was drafted between January and

April, 1919, by the Labor Commission (set up by

the Peace Conference). The Commission was

chaired by an American, Samuel Gompers, who

was president of the American Federation of

Labor.

The ILO is concerned with improving

working conditions. The organization estimates

that 2.2 million people die each year from work-

related injuries and illnesses (Takala 2003).

Dozens of ILO international labor standards have

been advocated to address various aspects of poor

working conditions, from the control of cancer-causing chemicals and other workplace hazards

to child labor protections, to protections for workers in certain hazardous occupations and

industries. ILO labor rights conventions argue that all workers deserve a safe and healthy

Articles 7 and 8 of the International

Covenant

on Economic, Social

and Cultural Rights

Article 7

(a) Remuneration which provides all workers, as a minimum, with: (i) Fair wages and equal

remuneration for work of equal value without distinction of any kind, in particular women being

guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to those enjoyed by men, with equal pay for equal

work; (ii) a decent living for themselves and their families …

(b) Safe and healthy working conditions;

Article 8

(a) The right of everyone to form trade unions and join the trade union of his choice, subject only to the rules of the organization concerned, for the promotion and protection of his economic and

social interests. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those

prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national

security or public order or for the protection of the rights and freedom of others;

(b) The right of trade unions to establish national federations or confederations and the right of the

latter to form or join international trade union organizations;

(c) The right of trade unions to function freely subject to no limitations other than those

prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national

security or public order or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others;

(d) The right to strike, provided that it is exercised in conformity with the laws of the particular

country.

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workplace. No human being should be injured or made ill or killed from their workplace if their

universal human rights are protected.

3. Social protections and a dignified human existence

People who work for a living are also

afforded additional social protections under

human rights standards. Article 23 of the

Universal Declaration states “everyone who

works has the right to just and favourable

remuneration ensuring for himself and his

family an existence worthy of human dignity

and supplemented, if necessary, by other

means of social protection.” The Universal Declaration in Article 22 states “everyone has the

right to social security” and Article 25 states “everyone has the right to standard of living

adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing,

housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of

unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in

circumstances beyond his control.” In addition to the Universal Declaration, the ICESCR says

people have a right to “fair wages” and “a decent living for themselves and their families”. ILO

has also addressed social security in Convention No. 102 (1952) on the minimum requirements

for a social security system. Convention No. 102 covers the social security topics of Medical

Care, Sickness Benefits, Unemployment Benefits, Old-Age Benefits, Employment Injury

Benefits, Family and Maternity Benefits, and Invalidity and Survivors‟ Benefits.

4. Equality and the freedom from discrimination

Article 22 and 25 of the United Nations

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 22 Everyone has a right to social security

Article 25

Everyone has the right to standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his

family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness,

disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

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The freedom from discrimination in

employment and the right of equality are also

recognized as universal human rights. The ILO

identified the elimination of discrimination in

employment and occupation as a core labor

standard in the 1998 Declaration on

Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

These rights are detailed in ILO Convention

No. 100, the Equal Remuneration Convention

(ILO 1951) and Convention No. 111, the

Convention on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958). These ILO international

labor standards protect against distinctions, exclusions or preferences based on race, color, sex,

religion, political opinion, nationality, or social origin. They also elaborate the principles

identified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Article 7, which states “All are equal

before the law and are entitled without discrimination to equal protection of the law” and “All

are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and

against any incitement to such discrimination.” Article 23 states “everyone, without

discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work”. The ICESCR also includes “Fair

wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value without distinction of any kind, in

particular women being guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to those enjoyed by men,

with equal pay….”

While the main focus of this review is workers‟ freedom of association, the

interdependence of the array of internationally-recognized workers‟ rights requires this report to

some degree to encompass a host of related human rights at work, including equality and the

The ILO Declaration on Fundamental

Principles and Rights at Work, 1998

…all Members, even if they have not ratified the Conventions in question, have an obligation arising

from the very fact of membership in the Organization to respect, to promote and to realize, in good faith and in accordance with the Constitution,

the principles concerning the fundamental rights which are the subject of those Conventions, namely:

(a) freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

(b) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;

(c) the effective abolition of child labour; and

(d) the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

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right to be free from discrimination. These four groups of human rights at work – the freedom

of association and collective bargaining, just and favorable working conditions, social

protections and a dignified human existence, and equality and the freedom from discrimination –

together directed our review standards for this report.

V. METHOD AND APPROACH

With the consolidation of U.S. textbook companies, the review of U.S. high school

textbook curriculum has become easier. The American Textbook Council reports that “four big

publishing companies have absorbed dozens of independent textbook companies” within recent

years as the result of mergers and acquisitions in the industry (Sewall 2005). We selected these

four textbook companies and reviewed the most detailed and advanced U.S. history textbook

from each publisher. We limited our review to the hard copy student editions. We made this

decision because these editions are the actual books to which all students would have exposure in

the classroom. We did not investigate or assess any materials from the teachers‟ editions nor did

we review any supplemental teaching materials. The four companies included in this review

are Harcourt/Holt, Houghton Mifflin/McDougal, McGraw-Hill/Glencoe, and Pearson/Prentice

Hall. All of the textbooks were geared toward eleventh grade U.S. history classrooms. Two of

the textbooks were published in 2009, and one published in 2008 and 2007, respectively. This

group of publishers combined control over 80 percent of the U.S. high school textbook market,

according to teachers and administrators with knowledge of the industry. The exact market share

is not in the public domain. In an effort to get as accurate a picture as possible, we approached

representatives of each publisher at a curriculum conference in June 2009 and asked them for

their company‟s nationwide market share in the U.S. history textbook market. Each of the four

22

textbook publishers said their company‟s market share was greater than 25 percent of the

nationwide market in U.S. history.

Our first task was to identify a

list of labor history topics. W could

not review in detail the treatment of

every issue of relevance to organized

labor and American class relations in

this short review. Accordingly, we

selected a list of three to seven

historically important issue-areas from what we loosely defined as eight historical periods in

United States history that were all presented and addressed within each textbook.

We identified topics for this list based on their importance to labor history, but also with

an eye toward collecting a mix of issues and events across the categories of politics, economics,

society and culture. We remained focused primarily on the representation, treatment and

development of national labor policy from slavery and indentured servitude to the era of

globalization. This is in keeping with our focus on human rights standards but also encompasses

a broad arena of related political, economic, social and cultural issues. We also made an effort

within these boundaries to recognize the treatment of historically marginalized groups like

women and racial and ethnic minorities due to the legacy of exclusion from social participation

through history and, in turn, the official historical record.

Publishing Companies and their

Eleventh Grade U.S. History Textbooks

Company

Harcourt / Holt

Houghton Mifflin / McDougal

McGraw-Hill / Glencoe

Pearson / Prentice Hall

Textbook

American Anthem

The Americans

American Odyssey

United States History

Year

2009

2007

2009

2008

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We reviewed the textbooks a

second time, focusing on our identified

labor history issues of interest for this

review. We recorded our observations of

the treatment of human rights issues in a

matrix which we have included as an

appendix to this report. We then

summarized our notes from this matrix and

have reported these findings in the

“Observations” section of this report.

There, we highlight our most important

observations within this review. A section

listing the key steps we suggest for future

curricula development in U.S. history is

found in a “Recommendations” section

which concludes this review.

Labor History Reviewed

The Early Nation Early national labor policy; slavery, indentured servitude American Revolution and the drafting of the Constitution The Bill of Rights and the freedom of assembly The anti-labor Conspiracy Doctrine, 1792-1805 Early labor organizing efforts, working life and working conditions Workingmen’s Parties

Civil War Era, Reconstruction Early slave rebellions, the Abolition Movement The early women’s rights movement, women’s working conditions Craft labor organizations in the Civil War, early union efforts

The New Industrial Revolution Early labor union federations to the founding of the AFL in 1886 Industrialization and labor activism in union organizing Labor policy and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 Child labor and the working conditions of industrialization

The Progressive Era, WWI and the 1920’s Government involvement in labor dispute conciliation and arbitration Legislation regulating working conditions The labor management partnerships of World War I Discrimination, the treatment of women and minorities Post World War I nationwide strike wave of 1919 Federal government suppression of labor unions, 1919 - 1922

Great Depression and New Deal National Labor Relations Act and New Deal Labor Policy The creation of industrial unions and the CIO upsurge Enactment of social protection legislation, minimum wages and hours Unemployment and the social strife faced in the depression

World War II and the Cold War Era Labor, management and government relations in World War II FDR’s executive order barring discrimination in contracting Post World War II Labor Strife in 1946 Labor law reform including the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 The impact of the Red Scare on labor unions The 1955 AFL and CIO federations merge Kennedy’s executive order on federal workers’ organizing rights

Civil Rights and the Vietnam War 1960s Grape Boycott and the United Farm Workers Labor’s contribution to the civil rights movement and civil rights laws Public employees organizing movement and state legislation Protective legislation such as OSHA, Medicare, Medicaid, the EPA

The Global Era Reagan administration’s anti-union labor policy Globalization, trade policy, NAFTA’s impact on labor unions The changing labor market, precarious work, the service sector Union decline and employer opposition to labor unions Failure of labor law reform and anti-union NLRB policies Changing demographics of the working class, immigration reform

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VI. OBSERVATIONS

This section describes, under each category, the key observations we made when we were

reviewing the content of each textbook, using the four general categories of workers‟ human

rights outlined earlier in this report,. We begin these observations with the category that is the

primary focus of this review, the freedom of association and collective bargaining. This is

followed by sections on just and favorable working conditions, social protections and a

dignified human existence, and equality and the freedom from discrimination. These sections

summarize our general observations and are not meant to be a detailed point-by-point analysis of

each textbook‟s presentation of workers‟ rights and organized labor issues throughout history. In

the Appendix we present a matrix listing our more detailed observations of each textbook.

1. The freedom of association and collective bargaining

In order to lay the groundwork for this review, we have described how workers‟ freedom

of association and the rights to organize a union and collectively bargain are the most important

elements of international labor standards and internationally-recognized worker rights. We have

established that workers‟ rights for years have been built into the definition of universal human

rights contained in a host of international documents. It is against this background that our

review of history textbooks found a number of areas where improvement is needed. Overall,

we concluded that there is a lack of understanding in the curricula that workers‟ freedom of

association is a human rights issue that encompasses union rights, and is a critical component of

democratic process. The traditional mischaracterizations of organized labor continue.

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Key Observations:

In some textbooks, labor organizing and labor disputes are mischaracterized as

inherently violent social phenomenon, leaving readers no conceptual space to

consider that the exercise of workers‟ rights is a human rights issue and the

important role that unions play in the democratic process and in bringing about

social progress.

Freedom of assembly, as a basic right in the U.S. Constitution and consistent with

the current standards on workers‟ freedom of association, is marginalized in

comparison to other First Amendment rights, and even omitted from commentary.

Major strikes are incorrectly used to typify what organized labor is and does.

They are treated as costly failures, as violent, as lacking public support and

backfiring against unions. The employer role in strikes is glossed over.

There is a failure to accurately represent the many legal restrictions that

government has placed upon workers‟ organizing efforts throughout American

history, from the Conspiracy Doctrine to modern times with National Labor

Relations Board (NLRB) and Supreme Court decisions.

The textbooks fail to provide any human rights analysis of the changes to the

National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), including anti-labor Supreme Court

decisions and, in the post-war years, the various legal reforms like the Taft-

Hartley Act of 1947.

The history of aggressive and at times violent anti-union behavior by employers

that is a signal feature of U.S. history is treated in passing comments only. It is

neither addressed as a significant legal problem nor is it analyzed as a serious

human rights concern.

In all textbooks reviewed there is no acknowledgement of the popular emergence

and expansion of the public and professional employee movement and the

expansion of collective bargaining rights for public sector workers since 1960.

In many respects, the various textbooks reviewed were excellent in their presentation of

many aspects of U.S. social history, and the curriculum seemed to be a significant improvement

in both content and learning activities over earlier editions. The use of documents, primary

sources, glossaries, maps, brief biographies, skill-building exercises such as critical thinking,

analyzing visuals, interdisciplinary activities and other tools, have made all of these textbooks

interactive and enriching learning experiences. We encourage the textbook companies to make

materials on labor-related issues available through these resources. The American Labor Studies

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Center holds a wealth of information which it makes available on-line to high school teachers for

this purpose.

On the issue of workers and labor history, the textbooks continue the tradition of focusing

on the conflict between labor and management (and often government) with an emphasis on

strikes as violence. While most of these events warrant coverage in any U.S. history textbook,

they over-represent the role of violence, which is treated as nearly synonymous with labor

unions. For example, section headings like “Strikes Turn Violent” and phrases like “strikes rock

the nation” convey the image that the history of labor is one of violent conflict caused by the

workers themselves. Only sometimes are these events placed in the context of miserable

working conditions or management attacks on workers‟ freedom of association rights. Likewise,

major strikes and labor demonstrations through history (for example the Great Railway Strike,

the Haymarket Affair, the Homestead Strike, the Pullman Strike, the Anthracite Coal Strike) are

often accompanied by photos or other depictions of violence. Emphasis is placed on how the

events influenced public opinion against labor. We would not expect such an authoritative

emphasis on public opinion regarding other important human rights issues in history, such as

forced labor and slavery, without placing them in a broader social and political context. Simply

citing how the events were viewed by the reported views of public opinion in newspapers whose

owners were overwhelmingly anti-union is not enough to place these issues into context. The

textbooks must discuss such events in the context of the evolution of worker-related human

rights in the U.S.

For example, the context of the Haymarket “Affair” in 1886 includes the success of

workers in Chicago who participated in the AFL‟s national May 1 strike

for the 8-hour day. This strike forced employers to grant shorter hours for 45,000 workers. The

Haymarket labor leaders framed for murder also inspired enormous public support, nationally

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and internationally, that continues to be commemorated around the world every year on May 1,

International Workers Day. Instead, the textbooks misrepresent major strikes and labor

demonstrations as failures that cannot reform the industrial system.

The formulation and adoption of the Constitution and enactment of the Bill of Rights is

given extensive coverage in every textbook. Not a single one of these textbooks, however,

provides an analysis of the meaning of freedom of assembly in the First Amendment and how

that right provides the basis for workers to join together to form a union, bargain collectively and

strike. This right has been acknowledged as a foundational basis for U.S. labor law by the ILO‟s

supervisory machinery on workers‟ freedom of association. One example of this omission was

found in a textbook section entitled “Adoption of a Bill of Rights”. The textbook reads “First

Amendment – guarantees citizens‟ rights to freedom of religion, speech, the press, and political

activity.” Describing the freedom of assembly as only “political activity” marginalizes the view

consistent with international human rights that the freedom of assembly includes workers‟

freedom of association. The First Amendment does not mention “political activity” per se

anywhere in its original text, making this description a values-laden inaccuracy in the textbook.

The text of the U.S. Constitution including the Amendments was included in the

textbooks for students to read, independent of the publishers‟ interpretations. Most students are

left to discover for themselves, however, that rooted in America's founding documents there is

the basis for workers‟ rights and for the belief that in a free and democratic society, workers

have an inherent right to combine and to act in concert in furtherance of their common interests.

Historians who are intent upon acquainting students with the full story of American history

should both discuss freedom of association and the right of assembly in the context of

internationally-recognized worker rights and note that employers' past and current denials

violate these rights that are embodied in our founding documents.

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In addition, the troubled legal history of unions in the U.S., especially the resistance of

the judiciary to freedom of association, as it pertains to unions, is not examined. There are many

examples of this critical omission, such as the early acceptance by many U.S courts of the

Conspiracy Doctrine or the fact that unions were defined as monopoly organizations in statutes

such as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Supreme Court decisions that greatly restricted workers‟

freedom of association immediately after passage of the National Labor Relations Act also are

not addressed. The treatment of labor law reform statutes passed by Congress in the post-war

years, like the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 or the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, lack nuanced

explanation. They are simply cast as direct responses to public sentiment. This failure to review

and discuss the many legal restrictions placed upon Americans‟ freedom of association rights

was a problem found in each of the textbooks reviewed.

Throughout U.S. history, it has been the rule, not the exception, for companies to strongly

resist efforts by their employees to organize unions as a matter of policy and practice. What the

courts have called “anti-union animus” by U.S. firms toward union organizing efforts extends far

beyond international norms. In the reviewed textbooks, however, employer responses to union

organizing are presented as the natural pursuit of economic interests, not as practices that

routinely violate international standards. United States history textbooks should recognize not

only the exceptional anti-union policies of U.S. companies throughout the nation‟s history, but

also the more recent rise of the union avoidance industry in U.S. labor relations, a phenomenon

well documented in industrial relations scholarship (Logan 2006). It is worth noting that the

U.S., alone among the developed countries has a multi-billion dollar industry devoted solely to

repressing freedom of association in the context of the workplace.

These issues create significant human rights challenges, none of which are even indicated

as contemporary social problems within U.S. history. Complete silence is the norm.

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Silence is also the norm regarding the great expansion of public sector and professional

unionism in the United States since 1960. This affirms the findings of Robert Shaffer‟s 2002

essay on the absence of public employees from U.S. history textbooks. Given the decline of

industrial and private sector unions over the last generation and the rise of public and service

sector unions throughout the United States, these omissions deny students the opportunity to

fully grasp the impact of the diminished state of the U.S. labor movement today, notwithstanding

its continuing influence on social and political issues. While there is considerable coverage of

some aspects of worker and labor history through the immediate post WWII era, labor drops off

the political map with virtually no coverage after 1960 except for the United Farm Workers and

the PATCO strike, which is highlighted in some texts. These omissions marginalize the vital

role played by labor in civil rights struggles from the 1950‟s to the present, as well as unions‟

leadership role in the Progressive Era and New Deal reforms.

There is no mention of the continuing union voice in the political process. Labor‟s

political voice has become increasingly effective in the last decade. For example, in the 2008

election, 21 percent of voters were union household members despite the fact that organized

labor represents about half that number. Sixty-seven percent of union voters supported President

Obama. In addition, 257 House members and 59 Senators won with labor support. Unions and

their members knocked on 10 million doors, made 70 million phone calls, distributed 27 million

flyers and mailed 57 million pieces of literature. The labor movement continues to play a

significant role promoting state and national legislation issues such as economic development,

health care, and education.

2. Just and favorable conditions of work

30

Just and favorable conditions of work is a category that should hold a special significance

in U.S. history textbooks, given the history of slavery, sweatshop labor, and otherwise

hazardous working conditions that have frequently plagued the nation‟s workplaces. The topic

of forced labor and slavery is addressed in this category. It is true that textbook curricula have

made considerable progress over the previous generation in recognizing the historical

importance of these issues. Most of the reviewed textbooks do a good job. Accordingly, our

review is not intended to provide a comprehensive analysis. We do highlight, however, key

issues that are not adequately addressed resulting in an incomplete understanding of human

rights and worker rights in U.S. Some omissions – the national and international impact of

globalization on workers and society – are especially puzzling.

Key Observations:

Many textbooks present slavery and indentured servitude as a purely economic

phenomenon, resulting from marketplace incentives for cheap labor. They ignore

the fact that such practices were legally supported and encouraged as part of early

national labor policy and were deeply embedded in the culture.

Textbooks devote considerable space to the issues of poor working conditions,

sweatshops, and the use of child labor, yet there is no analysis of the human rights

aspect of these abuses; how they occur, who is responsible, and how those

responsible are or are not held accountable.

The era of globalization and deregulation is considered to have originated roughly

around 1970. Surprisingly, the textbooks provide little or no analysis of the

impact that globalization has had on trade union vitality in the U.S. and

internationally. Even more puzzling is the fact that, while globalization‟s impact

on the entire spectrum of labor and human rights has motivated decades of highly-

publicized protests and demonstrations around the world – often led by young

people – there is no discussion of these issues.

Most textbooks highlight the Soviet expansion in Europe following World War II

and the subsequent Cold War. There is no mention of the vital role that the

American labor movement played in support of the establishment of free and

democratic trade unions in post-war Western Europe. American unions helped to

thwart Soviet attempts undermine the Marshall Plan. In addition, there is no

mention of the AFL-CIO‟s support of Poland‟s Solidarity or its efforts to end

apartheid in South Africa or numerous other efforts to support free and

democratic unions as a bulwark against totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.

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These are striking and inexplicable omissions that erase whole chapters of union

history and activism that changed the world.

By favoring narrow marketplace explanations for the early pre-national and national

labor policy decisions establishing slavery and indentured servitude and ignoring the legal

dimension of these practices, textbooks fail to impart how deeply these institutions penetrated

early U.S. society, and the widespread legitimacy they enjoyed. An example is a description of

slavery being established in Virginia. One textbook explains, “As it became more difficult to

recruit indentured servants, planters turned to a new source of labor, enslaved Africans.” This

description was presented without discussion of the Slave Codes or other legal mandates that

made forced labor a legitimate and acceptable economic practice. The textbooks provide little

analysis of the law behind these economic choices and what they might reveal about early

American culture.

Most texts adequately cover deplorable working conditions that characterized labor

systems like slavery and sweatshops, as well as the exploitation of mine workers, children,

women and immigrants. The role of unions, that fought successfully to improve working

conditions by organizing and by advocating state and federal legislation through political action,

is not adequately presented. These issues and conditions are presented as simple labor-

management conflict. The moral dimension of such practices is overlooked or downplayed.

They are not characterized as abuses of human rights but as historical problems. This is a

striking omission,at a time when workplace safety and health, labor trafficking, immigrant

exploitation and coerced labor remain serious and highly-publicized contemporary social

problems in the U.S. and elsewhere. One obvious example are the frequent stories of illegal

workers who suffer horrifying deaths as they are smuggled into the U.S. by unscrupulous

32

traffickers. It is an ongoing, contemporary situation that raises of host of labor, political, social

and human rights issues and yet it warrants no mention in U.S. textbooks.

Through its policies and programs, the labor movement has historically

supported human rights, internationally as well as within the United States. It is a fundamental

principle of nearly all U.S. unions that human rights can only be enforced in democracies and

that healthy democracies require free and democratic institutions including unions. That bedrock

principle underscores workers‟ fundamental rights and freedoms. It is the rationale for labor

rights in international trade agreements.

In a 1983 speech before the National Strategy Information Center, former ALF-CIO

President Lane Kirkland said, “The American labor movement does not recognize the split

between ideals and self-interest that has plagued the foreign policy debate in this country.

Simply stated, we have a vested interest in the promotion of free trade unions and the

elevation of labor standards throughout the world. Experience teaches us that trade unions

can prosper only in a climate of respect for human rights. Absent freedom of association, of

assembly, and of expression, free trade unions independent of the state can neither be

created nor sustained.” The labor movement‟s basic premise is that true democracies

require free and independent institutions to succeed and that free and independent trade

unions are one of those institutions.

3. Social protections and a dignified human existence

Workers‟ rights under international human rights standards are not exclusively defined as

the right to form a trade union and the right to safe and healthy working conditions. International

human rights standards afford workers other protections, social protections, outside those rights

commonly understood to originate at the workplace. In human rights parlance, these rights,

33

social protection rights, are often called “social security.” Organized labor‟s critical role in

advocating for social protections is an important element we focused upon in our content review.

Key Observations:

The critical role of organized labor in advocating for broad social protections

through history is missing; this includes advocacy of Progressive Era and New

Deal reforms, like the Social Security Act of 1935, of Medicare, Medicaid, the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection

Agency, as well. Also missing is the use of collective bargaining as a tool to

create and enforce a wide variety of environmental health and safety protection.

The role of organized labor as “The People‟s Lobby” is absent from U.S. history

textbooks. Social protection legislation is cast as originating from enlightened

political leaders rather than the push and pull of democratic process, led by unions

and others, in which incumbent political leaders often dragged their feet.

The issue of labor‟s position on immigrant workers‟ rights is not treated in

textbooks. The issue has long been a contentious issue for unions who early in

their history viewed immigrants as threats to their jobs, resulting in policies

hostile to immigrants. This attitude has changed significantly. A recent policy

statement entitled "Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform" adopted

jointly by the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, states, "Immigration reform is a

component of a shared prosperity agenda that focuses on improving productivity

and quality; limiting wage competition; strengthening labor standards, especially

the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively; and providing social

safety nets and high quality lifelong education and training for workers and their

families. To achieve this goal, immigration reform must fully protect U. S.

workers, reduce the exploitation of immigrant workers, and reduce the employers‟

incentive to hire undocumented workers rather than U.S. workers. It calls for five

steps to address the issue.

Most textbooks cover significant social legislation but never mention the key role the

labor movement played in its advocacy and adoption. Unemployment insurance, workers‟ injury

compensation, social security retirement benefits, the legal protection of a minimum hourly wage

and limits on working hours, the Civil Rights Acts (discussed further in the next section), the

Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, Medicare, Medicaid all

became law because of the support of the organized labor movement thus giving trade unions

and the labor movement the title of “The People‟s Lobby.”

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One example is the treatment of the “Ten Hour Movement,”, an early effort by working

women to improve the terms and conditions of work in New England cotton mills in the 1840s.

This fight for reasonable working hours was carried on for decades. One textbook noted the

inhumane conditions of the early industrial age under a section entitled “terms and conditions of

employment”, which focused on the sweatshop laborer during the 1880s and 1890s. The

publishers stress the profit maximization imperative to explain employer behavior. The facts are

that abusive and inhumane conditions of work prompted decades of on and off protests. When

the textbook notes that success on this issue finally came during the 1900‟s, it is due to

employer action and federal legislation. The critical importance of union advocacy gets scant

mention when, in fact, but for union action, these reforms would not have been approved when

they were. Another example is the treatment of the iconic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911.

The Fire brings to the forefront the need to protect employees from employer abuses because the

American people show support, Progressives call for reform, and individual states thus enact

injury compensation laws. Unrelenting union advocacy and union membership in the Progressive

Party is understated.

In their treatment of labor history, the textbooks emphasize union decisions to protest,

confront, strike, bomb and kill, while ignoring union advocacy for the improvement of working

conditions. Unions by implication appear to threaten American democracy, not to strengthen it.

Workers die due to unsafe working conditions yet human rights violations in the workplace, for

which employers must be held accountable, are de-emphasized. Employers are not held

accountable for their abuses, which caused many, many more deaths than any union action, nor

are they assigned any responsibility for the violence that marks labor history.

The textbook treatment of the regulation of wages and hours in the Fair Labor Standards

Act of 1938 is another example of puzzling omissions that amount to bias. No mention is made

35

of union activism in persuading legislators of the need for wage and hour legislation. When

textbooks do mention union advocacy of social protection legislation, it is described in typical

negative language, like “union clout”. Another subtle bias in word selection is found in one text

as it describes explains the National Labor Relations Board‟s job as “looking into” worker

complaints rather that acting to “resolve” worker complaints. Likewise, no mention is made of

continual union advocacy efforts to lobby for the Social Security Act of 1935, a key social

reform of the second New Deal establishing old age pensions, unemployment insurance and

disability relief. These acts are described essentially as acts of benevolence and enlightenment

by President Roosevelt, not the result of diligent grassroots mobilization of labor unions and

workers that unfolded nationwide.

Likewise, Presidents Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson are credited with establishing the

Medicare and Medicaid health insurance program for retirees and those in poverty. There is no

mention of the essential role played by unions. In contrast when labor battles efforts to reduce or

privatize social security or other benefits, unions are cast as “critics”.

The relationship between unions and environmentalists has been at times strained, and

the record of unions can appear contradictory. For example, employers who face penalties for

pollution or who are fighting regulations designed to reduce smokestack emissions or other

environmental hazards often claim that the costs of remediation and clean up will cost jobs. Such

claims have usually been found to be overblown or false. But faced with such threats, and

reluctant to support regulation that will cost even a few jobs, unions have frequently lined up

with their employers against environmental regulation.

At the same time, unions historically have been the acknowledged leaders in pushing for

workplace environmental health and safety protection for their members and other workers. The

collective bargaining process is the primary tool in this fight. Examples of the use of collective

36

bargaining for workplace environmental protection can be found as far back as the 1960s. One

high-profile labor dispute involved the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union which

demanded “the right of workers to control, at least as decisively as their employer, the health

and safety conditions in the factories and shops” during prolonged confrontation for

environmental health and safety committees in their 1972 negotiations with the nation‟s leading

oil producers. (Gordon 1998) Employees of the Shell Oil Company walked off the job and

began a national boycott of the company in 1973 in what newspapers called “the first time in

American labor history a major strike has started over the potential health hazards of an

industry.” (Examiner 1973) By the end of the first week of the strike, every major environmental

group supported the strike, including the Sierra Club, and environmentalists took a new interest

in labor law, beginning to identify points of cooperation with unions. Environmental leaders

began to see collective bargaining over workplace safety and health issues as a way to “….help

control environmental pollution at its source”. (Shapely 1973)

The 1973 Shell Oil Company strike was among the most prominent efforts to use labor‟s

power of collective bargaining for environmental protection, but many other unions brought

forward workplace environmental claims in negotiations and contributed to this movement. The

United Farm Workers negotiated contracts restricting the most dangerous of agricultural

pesticides, and Cesar Chavez in 1969 argued “We have come to realize…that the issue of

pesticide poisoning is more important today than even wages.” (Gordon 1999) Collective

bargaining was used by the United Steelworkers of America to give workers voice on

environmental policy. The union also held a U.S. legislative conference on air pollution in 1969,

reportedly the first in the nation. Other unions, representing workers in a highly diverse set of

industries, occupations and professions, have taken leadership roles in their sectors. Unions such

as the Communications Workers, Glass Bottle Blowers, American Federation of Teachers,

37

Newspaper Guild, Air Line Pilots Association, International Ladies‟ Garment Workers‟ Union,

and Pulp and Paper Mill Workers, early on took very public stands on environmental issues. The

goal of these efforts were in the words of one union leader, to bargaining to make “unfair

environmental practice” as frequently and easily roll off the workers‟ tongues as does “unfair

labor practice”. The collective bargaining histories of many unions through the 1960s and 1970s

reveals a theme of environmental concern that manifests itself in a way that for many was

inseparably intertwined with the idea of workplace health and safety hazards. This labor history

is nowhere within our U.S. history textbooks.

4. Equality and the freedom from discrimination

The final category of human rights included in this review is equality and freedom from

discrimination. This is a sweeping category that cuts across all human rights. Textbook

companies since the 1960s have made significant, positive changes in their treatment of these

issues. Still, there are significant omissions. Workers can suffer discrimination in retaliation for

organizing a union or advocating for improved safety and health policies at the jobsite, for

example. Slavery and forced labor are the cruelest forms of discrimination. The textbooks we

reviewed make the distinction between de jure discrimination (in law) and de facto

discrimination (in society and real world practice). No review of workers‟ human rights in the

U.S. is complete without some review of the specific category of equality and discrimination.

Key Observations:

Many of the textbooks we reviewed omit the existence of an organized working

women‟s labor movement in the United States, instead focusing text on the more

middle class, affluent Seneca Falls Convention and the suffrage movement.

The role of organized labor and labor activists as a participant in the civil rights

movement is missing from the historical discussion on civil rights; this important

role is ignored even where organized labor played a critical role in key events.

38

The early women‟s labor movement is given some coverage, including mention of the

1830s women‟s labor unions and the Lowell mill girls. No mention is made of the role of

women‟s labor in the Civil War or the first all female labor union in 1864. Typically, throughout

the history textbooks, the women‟s movement coverage is focused on the efforts of middle class

women, rather than working class women‟s advocacy, such as the efforts of the female labor

reform association in Lowell. The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention receives good treatment in

these textbooks and is one example of this discrepancy of coverage in curriculum.

Textbooks do acknowledge the early efforts of labor to fight discrimination and improve

the treatment of women and minorities. The textbooks do give credit to the Knights of Labor

for their advocacy of social reform. For example, the 1880s leadership of Terence V. Powderly

and the policy of the Knights of Labor are noted for being inclusive of workers of every gender,

race and ethnicity. This same level of acknowledgement does not extend across all textbooks

and does not extend to the role of labor in the civil right movement of the 1960s. The failure of

the textbooks in this regard is described shortly.

Major labor protests leading to major legislative changes are not covered, and major

organized labor initiatives to combat discrimination and improve working conditions for women

and minorities are not recognized. One example is the absence of events like the “Uprising of

20,000,” a 14-week strike by the International Ladies Garment Workers‟ Union (ILGWU) in

New York City that was sparked by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory walkout by some 20 percent

of the Factory‟s workforce. This strike led to improved working conditions. Similarly, there is

little to no mention of the historical impact of unions like the ILGWU, despite significant

activism on behalf of equality and anti-discrimination that extended to defending the rights of

European Jewry against the oppression of Hitler in Germany, at a time when many U.S. voices

39

were silent. The ILGWU worked with the Jewish Labor Committee, and started an adoption

program for orphaned Jewish children as well as speaking out again and again on Nazi terror.

We turn now to a glaring deficit in U.S. history textbooks‟ coverage of organized labor;

the failure to recognize the critical role played by labor unions and key union activists in the

emergence and success of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. The textbook

coverage of the civil rights movement appears fine in many respects, but the omission of

organized labor‟s contribution is problematic. The failure to recognize how segments of the

organized labor movement, despite its own history of racial discrimination, provided critical,

significant, support to the civil rights movement, distorts the history of that era, and especially

undermines a full understanding of figures such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Philip

Randolph and Bayard Rustin.

Some texts had no mention of key figures like E.D. Nixon, a leader in the Sleeping Car

Porters union and an associate of A. Philip Randolph. Nixon was a NAACP Alabama leader

and the initial organizer of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Montgomery Improvement

Association, which managed the boycott. There was no mention of the role of union support for

this public demonstration. When the Woolworth Store sit-ins began in the South, the New York

Central Labor Council organized picketing at the NYC Woolworth stores. Unions like the

International Ladies Garment Workers Union contributed upwards of 800 picketers per day.

Historical connections like these are omitted.

There are many, many more examples of union participation in this effort. In 1963, AFL-

CIO President George Meany paid $160,000 bail to release Martin Luther King Jr. and the 2000

protesters at Birmingham. Bayard Rustin, a civil rights leader and close ally of the labor

movement, was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Dr. King worked out of

the national headquarters of the United Auto Workers (UAW) when he was planning the march.

40

The preceding July, some 200,000 protestors marched in Detroit with UAW President Walter

Reuther and Dr. King. UAW members bussed in large numbers of marchers.

Finally, it seems very strange that textbooks omit labor‟s role in civil rights, when Rev.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis in 1968, while supporting a unionization

drive of black Memphis garbage workers under the American Federation of State, County, and

Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and calling for a general strike to support the workers. The

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made the Memphis struggle a focal point of

their southern cities organization effort. King believed that unionization was a key part of the

struggle for civil rights. Without the labor movement, the major civil rights laws would not have

been passed when they were. Major unions were willing to organize African-American

workers into integrated, non-segregated unions beginning in the 1930s.

In the years leading up to the civil rights movement era, the treatment in the textbooks is

more accurate. The textbooks do mention the role of A. Philip Randolph in 1941, when he had

proposed a march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the military industries and to

propose the desegregation of the American Armed Forces. The march was cancelled after FDR

issued Executive Order 8802, the Fair Employment Act, which was an early success for civil

rights.

Dr. King, in a 1961 speech to the AFL-CIO, spoke on the issue of the shared values

between the organized labor movement and the U.S. civil rights movement. This speech could

be included in U.S. history textbooks, but it was not found in any of the textbooks.

"Negroes in the United States read the history of labor and find it mirrors their own

experience. We are confronted by powerful forces telling us to rely on the goodwill and

understanding of those who profit by exploiting us. They deplore our discontent, they

resent our will to organize, so that we may guarantee that humanity will prevail and

equality will be exacted. They are shocked that action organizations, sit-ins, civil

disobedience and protests are becoming our everyday tools, just as strikes,

demonstrations and union organization became yours to insure that bargaining power

41

genuinely existed on both sides of the table…. We want to rely upon the goodwill of

those who oppose us. Indeed, we have brought forward the method of nonviolence to

give an example of unilateral goodwill in an effort to evoke it in those who have not yet

felt it in their hearts. But we know that if we are not simultaneously organizing our

strength we will have no means to move forward. If we do not advance, the crushing

burden of centuries of neglect and economic deprivation will destroy our will, our spirits

and our hope. In this way, labor's historic tradition of moving forward to create vital

people as consumers and citizens has become our own tradition, and for the same

reasons." — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking to the AFL-CIO on Dec. 11, 1961

There are also few mentions of other labor and civil rights pioneers. Martin Luther King, Jr. is

given considerable coverage but there is little if any mention of the relationship between unions

and the advancement of both civil rights and economic and social justice such as support of the

striking Memphis sanitation workers, labor‟s support of the 1963 March on Washington for

“Jobs and Freedom,” or labor‟s role in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights

Act of 1965. The picture painted by U.S. history textbooks marginalizes labor on this point and

in the process provides an ahistorical and incomplete picture of the dynamics behind the civil

rights movement. It is among the most serious and distorting omissions that we found.

VII. RECOMMENDATIONS

This section contains our most important recommendations for the textbook industry,

based on the findings of this review. These recommendations conform to the National Social

Studies Curriculum Standards. We want to restate our earlier recommendation that textbook

publishers and history teachers should seek out new and emerging online resources of

information that can fill gaps in the curricula. One excellent source of information is the

American Labor Studies Center online website which provides high school teachers across the

country ready access to labor relations and labor history materials, including materials from the

human rights viewpoint.

42

In the meantime, the textbook publishing industry must should correct the historical inaccuracies

and distortions that currently exist, in order to fulfill its responsibility to provide accurate and

complete information on unions, as well as worker and human rights.

Recommendations

1. Textbooks should recognize that there is a history of working people and the labor

movement in the United States that is intelligible and coherent. It is an important

component of American history. This should include the historic and ongoing

international aspect of union work, in the field of democracy and human rights, as well as

bread-and-butter workplace issues. Accordingly, publishers should provide students with

a comprehensive and complete story of the contributions organized labor has made and is

making to economic, political, social and cultural life.

2. Textbooks should analyze labor and workplace issues in the context of internationally-

recognized human rights, as well as the role of unions as a pillar of healthy democracy.

The most important of these rights is workers‟ freedom of association. The right to

organize a union and bargain collectively is a fundamental human right as cited in

numerous international declarations and labor conventions, the First Amendment, and

federal labor and employment laws.

3. Depictions of conflict between labor and management (and occasionally government)

should be fair and balanced. It should include the human rights context. Textbooks

should not present union organizing as an intrinsically and exclusively violent action.

The social setting and background in labor disputes usually tells a much more

complicated and nuanced story. The positive consequences and achievements of major

strikes and labor demonstrations should be highlighted.

4. The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, specifically the First Amendment, should be

analyzed from the perspective of internationally recognized human rights and labor

standards. Freedom of assembly should not be characterized as inferior to freedom of

speech, of the press, or the freedom of religion. Labor history should be discussed in the

context of freedom of assembly as well as freedom of association.

5. History textbooks should spotlight the legal obstacles to workers‟ freedom of association

created by legislation and the judiciary throughout U.S. labor history. The exceptional

anti-union animus of the U.S. business community should be recognized as an important

factor in the history of unions and workers‟ rights in the U.S. and discussed as a human

rights issue.

6. The individual achievements and contributions of more labor leaders should be noted, so

that students understand that our nation was shaped by their vision and work. Today‟s

textbooks focus exclusively on political, business and military leaders.

43

7. Textbooks need to note the significant role that organized labor movement has played

throughout U.S. history in advancing state and federal legislation to promote economic,

political and social equality. They should stress that unions routinely focus on social and

economic issues that affect the broader society and go well beyond their members‟

workplace concerns. Unions sometimes take stands on issues – such as on civil rights –

that are very controversial among the rank-and-file.

8. Collective bargaining should be presented both as a legally-protected process and an

exercise in workplace democracy, in which workers and employers seek to mutually

agree on the terms and conditions of employment that should prevail as well as the steps

to resolve differences. Collective bargaining simulations are useful tools that will help

students gain a better appreciation of the process.

9. The role of, and rationale for, strikes should be explained. It should be noted that they are

employed in very rare but highly-publicized cases and that the right to strike is an

internationally recognized worker right.

10. Textbooks should review and analyze the history of labor legislation and the procedures

it establishes for workers, employers and the government to conduct representation

elections. Classroom simulations on this process should be encouraged.

11. Textbooks should include examples of the many cultural resources relating to the labor

movement such as art, music, poetry literature and film. Resources are available online

from such websites as LaborArts.org and through the Berkeley Labor Guides.

12. Textbooks should include references to labor history resources such as the American

Labor Studies Center, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Smithsonian

Institute, the U.S. Department of Labor, and various university libraries such as the

Catherwood Library at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

VIII. Resources and Research

Of necessity, this study has been limited to an examination of secondary U.S. history

textbooks. The study raises broader questions that teachers and others may wish to pursue. Two

excellent books on the topic of labor and human rights are Workers‟ Rights as Human Rights

edited by James A. Gross, and the more recent Human Rights in Labor and Employment

Relations: International and Domestic Perspectives edited by James A. Gross and Lance Compa.

A two-volume college level textbook, Who Built America? Working People and the

Nation‟s History, a project of the American Social History Project published by Bedford/St

44

Martin‟s, is very comprehensive and includes excellent coverage of working class and labor

history. It can be a valuable resource for secondary social studies teachers seeking a deeper

understanding of American labor history.

Additional research is needed to explore the treatment of labor in textbooks in earlier

grades and other subjects such as economics, government and global studies. Teachers are

increasingly using supplementary materials available in print and from the Internet where there

are a variety of resources available on a wide range of topics and issues on labor issues. The web

site of the American Labor Studies Center (www.labor-studies.org) offers an extensive array of

materials and resources for elementary and secondary teachers for integrating labor studies into

the curricula in social studies, English and other subjects.

National and state academic history standards vary widely in their inclusion of treatment

of the history of labor and reference to contemporary labor related issues. A comprehensive

review of the standards should be undertaken to insure that this integral part of America‟s history

is included.

REFERENCES

Associates, H. R. E. (2009). "UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004)." Retrieved July 10,

2009, from http://www.hrea.org/decade/.

Bekken, J. (1994). The Portrayal of Labor in Reporting Textbooks: Critical Absences, Hostile Voices.

Clark, C. (2008). Who Built America? Working People and the Nation's History: Volume 1. Boston,

Bedford/St. Martin's.

Compa, L and James A. Gross, (Eds.) (2009). Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations:

International and Domestic Perspectives. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

Donnelly, J. (2003). Universal human rights in theory and practice. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

Fones-Wolf, E. A. (1994). Selling free enterprise : the business assault on labor and liberalism, 1945-60.

Urbana, University of Illinois Press.

Gross, J. (2003). Workers Rights as Human Rights. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

45

Gordon, R., Poisons in the Fields: The United Farm Workers, Pesticides, and Environmental

Politics. The Pacific Historical Review, 1999. 68(1): p. 51-77.

Gordon, R., Shell no! OCAW and the Labor Environmental Alliance. Environmental History, 1998. 3(4):

p. 460-487.

ILO (1948). Convention (No. 87) concerning freedom of association and protection of the right to

organise. 68 U.N.T.S. 17 (1950). I. L. Organization.

ILO (1949). Convention (No. 98) concerning the application of the principles of the right to organise and

to bargain collectively. 96 U.N.T.S. 258 (1951). I. L. Organization.

ILO (1951). Convention (No. 100) concerning equal remuneration for men and women workers for work

of equal value. 165 U.N.T.S. 303 (1953). I. L. Organization.

ILO (1952). Convention (No. 102) concerning minimum standards of social security. 210 U.N.T.S. 131

(1955). I. L. Organization.

ILO (1958). Convention (No. 111) concerning discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

362 U.N.T.S. 31 (1960). I. L. Organization.

ILO (1998). Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. 6 I.H.R.R. 285 (1999). I. L.

Organization.

Institute, F. H. a. t. A. S. (2009). "Freedom of Association: Essential Principles." Retrieved July 10,

2009, from http://www.democracyweb.org/association/principles.php.

Loewen, J. (2008). Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong,

Revised and Updated, New Press.

Logan, J. (2006). "The Union Avoidance Industry in the United States." British Journal of Industrial

Relations 44(4): 651-675.

Moreau, J. (2003). Schoolbook nation : conflicts over American history textbooks from the Civil War to

the present. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press.

NCSS (1994). Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Silver Spring,

Maryland, National Council for the Social Studies.

Oldham, J.C., Organized Labor, The Environment, and the Taft-Hartley Act. Environment Law Review,

1974. 1974: p. 936-1026. See selected examples on pages 951-979.

Rosenweig, R. (2008). Who Built America? Working people and the Natio's History: Volume 2.

Boston,Bedford/St. Martin's.

Scoggins, W. and University of California Los Angeles. Center for Labor Research and Education.

(1966). Labor in learning: public school treatment of the world of work. Los Angeles,, Center for

Labor Research and Education, Institute of Industrial Relations.

Sewall, G. (2005). "Textbook Publishing." Retrieved July 10, 2009, from

http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k_v86/k0503sew.htm.

Shaffer, R. (2002). "Where Are the Organized Public Employees? The Absence of Public Employee

Unionism from U.S. History Textbooks, and Why It Matters." Labor HIstory 43(3): 315-334.

Shapely, D., Shell Strike: Ecologists Refine Relations With Labor. Science, 1973. 13 April 1973: p. 166.

The First Strike Over Potential Hazards to Health. San Francisco Examiner March 4 1973. Page 21.

UN (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights, U.N. Department of Public Information: 1 sheet..

UN (1966). International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 999 U.N.T.S. 171. U. Nations.

UN (1966). International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 993 U.N.T.S. 3. U. Nations.

UN (1994). United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education. G. A. r. D. 1994. Geneva.

46

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

Paul F. Cole

Paul F. Cole is the founder and executive director of the American Labor Studies Center

(ALSC), a not-for-profit organization that collects and disseminates labor history and labor

studies curriculum to K-12 teachers nationwide through its web site: www.labor-studies.org. The

ALSC is located at the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in Troy, New York. He taught social

studies at Lewiston-Porter Senior High School in Youngstown, New York for 23 years and

served as a member of the Board of Directors of the New York State United Teachers and a vice

president of the American Federation of Teachers. He served as secretary-treasurer of the New

York State AFL-CIO from 1984 to 2006. He is an emeritus member of the Cornell University

Board of Trustees and a member of the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations

Advisory Committee.

Lori Megivern

Lori Megivern teaches classes in law and the Holocaust at Cortland High School in Cortland,

New York. She also teaches SUNY Cortland undergraduate and graduate students and

candidates for National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification (NBPTS). Lori

is a graduate of SUNY Brockport and has taught elementary school in Belmont, New York. She

has been NBPTS certified since 2004. NYSCSS named her the 2006 Distinguished Educator of

the Year. She has also been named American Councils International Teacher of Excellence,

Youth Assistance Program Law Educator of the Year, NYS Excellence in Teaching Holocaust

Yavner Award, and Central New York State High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year.

As an American Council Teacher of Excellence she traveled to Russia, taught in Russian

schools, sponsored student and educator exchanges and published her Russia-US joint classroom

technology experiment in ISTE Magazine. She was awarded advanced study opportunities at

Cambridge University in England, Foreign Policy Research Institute at Bryn Mawr, the Pearl

Harbor Institute in Hawaii, and the Hobart, William and Smith College Educators to China. She

has been named a Fulbright fellow and a Keizai Koho fellow and studied in Japan, an Armonk

fellow and a Goethe Institute International Outreach fellow and studied in Germany, a Leopold

Meyer fellow and studied in France, and a 2009 Korea Society fellow and studied in Korea. In

2009 she was selected to serve on the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education

Board of Examiners. She is the Vice President of NYSCSS, serves on the New York State Social

Studies Subject Area Committee, and has been elected as a local union president since 1994.

Jeff Hilgert

Jeff Hilgert is a Ph.D. candidate in industrial and labor relations at Cornell University in Ithaca,

New York and a Canada-U.S. Fulbright Student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada for

2009-2010. He studies workers‟ rights as human rights, workers‟ freedom of association and

collective bargaining labor policy. His dissertation examines workplace health and safety, the

right of workers to refuse unsafe work and its origins and treatment in United States and

Canadian labor and employment policy and under international ILO labor and human rights

standards. He holds a M.Sc. in labor studies and is a graduate of the Labor Relations and

Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Minnesota.

APPENDIX

Review Notes Matrix

The Early Nation Houghton Mifflin / McDougal

Harcourt / Holt McGraw-Hill / Glencoe Pearson / Prentice Hall

Early National Labor Policy

Does not mention the early slave codes, mentions the practice of indentured servitude, between ½ to two-thirds of white immigrants were indentured.

Does not mention the early slave codes that legalized slavery, presents slavery as the result of the demand for labor. Mentions indentured servitude briefly but does not indicate the extent of its use as labor system.

Discussion of African laborers and growth of slavery, very brief mention of indentured servants

Mentions Columbus plan to export Indian slaves to Spain. Mentions Madison’s assurances that the US Constitution offered three securities for slavery. States % of immigrants arriving as indentured servants and lists 1660 as virtual end of practice.

American Revolution 1776 and the drafting of the Constitution 1787

Good description. Reports African-Americans, Native Americans and women were excluded, the 3/5ths Compromise and 20 year delay in interfering with slavery as an institution.

Fair description. Reports African-Americans, Native Americans and women were excluded, the 3/5ths Compromise.

Fairly good description of 3/5 compromise.

Mentions Manumission and post 1800 Southern laws against freedom. Women gain respect –not rights-1776 letter from Abigail Adams, 3/5 Compromise

The Bill of Rights, 1789, and the freedom of assembly

Downplays the freedom of assembly versus other rights, in some places excluding it as a list of protected rights. Describes the freedom of assembly as exclusively “political activity” applied through the electoral voting process

Does not mention within the main text that the freedom of assembly is part of the Bill of Rights.

Very little discussion of first amendment and only mentions freedom of assembly with no explanation.

Describes the right to assemble or hold public meetings

The anti-labor Conspiracy Doctrine 1792-1805

Poor treatment. Mentions “court decisions declaring strikes illegal” but reports “Court Backs Strikes” in 1842, poor representation.

No treatment. No treatment.

1793 Slater factory family system. 1820 Lowell Girls.

Early labor organizing efforts, working life and working conditions

Good description of the National Trades’ Union as the forerunner of American’s labor unions, working conditions and strikes at textile mills, mentions fierce opposition from bankers and owners.

Good description of life in the tenements, the Ten-Hour Movement, describes fierce opposition from business owners to workers organizing to improve low wages, long hours, and unsafe working conditions.

Lowell system, immigration, public education, women’s movement, basic freedoms including freedom of assembly.

1820’ Workingman’s Party supports right to form labor unions, Lowell Girls, 1850 claim that slavery a positive good and kinder than industry to the worker. 1819, 1837, and 1857 panics cause factory worker unemployment and doubt with market economy theory. 1848 California mine workers degraded.

48

Civil War Era, Reconstruction

Houghton Mifflin / McDougal

Harcourt / Holt McGraw-Hill / Glencoe Pearson / Prentice Hall

Early slave rebellions, the Abolition Movement

Good treatment of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, Dred Scott (1857), the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights Act of 1866, Freedmen’s Bureau Act, 14

th and 15

th Amendments,

Sharecropping, the collapse of reconstruction and the rise of southern Home Rule

Good treatment of the Abolition Movement, anti-slavery efforts in the South, the Underground Railroad, Fugitive Slave Act, Compromise of 1850, Dred Scott, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13

th,

14th

and 15th

Amendments, and Sharecropping.

Comprehensive treatment of slavery and Civil War, Black codes, little discussion of workers in growth of southern industry

200 slave revolts btw 1800-1850. 1820 Missouri Compromise leads to 35 Vessey slave revolt plotters arrested and hanged. Election of 1828 Jackson promises not to interfere with slavery. 1831 Nat Turner slave revolt and execution. South passes more pro-slavery laws. 1780 to 1840 North frees but discriminates against Blacks. 1830 ACS migration to Liberia. 1831 Abolitionist Garrison founds The Liberator. (Weld, Grimke sisters, Frederick Douglas). 1836 Gag Rule renewed 8 times. 1846 Wilmot Proviso. Compromise of 1850…et.al. 1865 Reconstruction Black Codes

The early women’s rights movement, women’s working conditions

Good treatment of the Seneca Falls Convention, Lowell textile mill girls

Good treatment of the Seneca Falls Convention, women reformers.

Role of women and economy.

1800’s Native American, African American, and Mexican American women had rights denied to American women. Second Great Awakening. 1830 women’s labor unions form. Women compare themselves to slaves and start Women’s Movement 1800. Mott, Stanton, Bloomer. 1848 Seneca Falls Convention adopts Declaration of Sentiments. 1848 Married Women’s property Act. Lowell Girls. Women become teacher’s business owners and march into battle.

Craft Labor Organizations in the Civil War, Iron molders Early unions in Troy, NY 1864

No treatment No treatment. Focus on Drummer boys, no mention of role of workers, e.g. iron molders

No treatment

49

The New Industrial Revolution

Houghton Mifflin / McDougal

Harcourt / Holt McGraw-Hill / Glencoe Pearson / Prentice Hall

Early labor union federations, the Knights of Labor, the National Labor Union, the founding of the American Federation of Labor in 1886

Mentions mining working conditions, struggles of Chinese laborers, the Colored National Labor Union of 1868, Legalization of the 8 hour day and the emergence of labor unions.

Discusses the formation of the Knights of Labor, Terence Powderly, the American Federation of Labor and Sam Gompers in 1886, Eugene V. Debs and the American Railway Union.

Knights of Labor, Powderly, AFL, Gompers, Debs, Mother Jones

Labor Unions shape relations among workers, labor, and gov’t. Sweatshops. Family workforces. Company Towns. 1820’s collective bargaining. Strikes defined as cease work. 1834 National Trades Union first Union. 10 hour work day.1869 Knights of Labor devoted to social reform. Powderly includes women and all races. Gompers and AFL specific issues, banned women, open to African Am.

Industrialization and labor activism in union organizing

Represents labor strikes in the context of violence, has the heading “Strikes Turn Violent” in describing the National Railroad Strike of 1877, the Haymarket Affair of 1887, and the Pullman Company Strike on 1893. Describes Eugene V. Debs and Mother Jones activism. Describes the divergence of craft union versus industrial union organizing strategies.

Provides a good representation of the relationship between poor working conditions and the demand for union organizing. Describes the Great Railroad Strike, Haymarket, The Pullman Strike, and Homestead in a way that does not depict labor disputes as inherently violent. Explains “How different classes lived” and life in the tenements.

Extensive coverage, highlights 8 strikes, violence and “labor unrest” between 1877 & 1914, Haymarket, labor skill questions, “workers’ rights” summary, compare Homestead & Pullman, labor terms, labor rights, working conditions, growth of labor unions, government response to unions, immigrants and sweatshops, Pauline Newman quote, “Ad” for labor meeting.

“Strikes rock the nation” tempers the resulting violence with the conflict causing the strike and the resulting public image of unions. Railroad, Haymarket, Homestead, Pullman are seen as a three part problem of union, industry, and gov’t. All with the power to avoid violence. Pullman worker described life in company town as “slavery worse than South”.

Labor policy and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

Only briefly alludes to the anti-trust legislation being used by employers and judges against labor unions.

Mentions the Sherman Antitrust Act but does not explain its impact on workers and labor organizing.

Sherman Act used against unions

Antitrust Act began as federal limit on corp. but used on Unions as “restraining trade”

Child labor and the working conditions of industrialization

Describes long hours and the dangers faced in steel mills and other factory work, sweatshops, some children as young as 5 years old holding full time jobs.

Describes how many industrial workers were children, working 12 to 16 hours per day, six days a week, in dangerous conditions, which led to workers trying to organize.

Lewis Hine and National Child Labor Committee

Children barefoot, ragged clothing, and denied formal education Stunted physical and mental growth. Social workers prompt legislation to stop child labor. 1902 Nat’l Child Labor Committee, 1912, US Children’s Bureau. 1916 Keating-Owens Act bans child labor.

50

The Progressive Era, WWI and the 1920’s

Houghton Mifflin / McDougal

Harcourt / Holt McGraw-Hill / Glencoe Pearson / Prentice Hall

Government involvement in labor mediation, conciliation and arbitration of disputes

Good description of the government’s involvement in the 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike in Pennsylvania, the first government arbitration of a labor union dispute.

Good description of the 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike and describes how it was the first time government had intervened in a strike to protect the interests of workers.

Good discussion of TR and 1902 miners strike.

Roosevelt sympathized with overworked miners, but when mine owners would not negotiate he threatened to send in federal troops to run the mines. This federal action ended in labor wage increase and shorter work day. First time gov’t supported labor. 1913 Colorado National Guard opened fire and kills 6 men, women, and children. Wilson sent Federal troops to break the strike.

Legislation regulating working conditions

Describes the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, efforts to improve child labor and hours worked. Describes meatpacking inspection and regulation.

Describes “How the Other Half Lives” and the plight of the urban poor, gives a detailed description of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Discusses the Brandeis Brief, the Lochner, Muller v. Oregon, and Bunting v. Oregon labor legislation cases. Discusses Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 which supported workers by making strikes, boycotts and picketing legal for the first time.

Reforms to regulate women and child labor, WTUL, Clayton Act, Keating-Owen Act,

Triangle Shirtwaist, The Jungle, Dragon’s Teeth. How the Other Half Lives Jacob Riis History of Standard Oil, Lochner v. New York, The Octopus, Iola Leroy, Sister Carrie, The Shame of the Cities, McClure’s Magazine, Clayton Antitrust Act protects Unions, Workingman’s Compensation Act 1916

World War I Labor Management Partnerships

Briefly mentions War Industries Board but does not elaborate on labor role.

Discusses the contributions of women workers and the National War Labor Board and explains how it urged business to recognize labor unions, promoted equal pay for women and sought to improve working conditions.

National War Labor Board and results on workers,

WIB regulated all industries and is used as model for Hoover’s agriculture Food Administration.

Discrimination, the treatment of women and minorities

Describes the struggle for civil rights and voting rights

Describes the labor organizing efforts of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, Florence Kelly and the National Child Labor Committee, and the National Association of Colored Women.

labor discrimination against African-Americans, women and immigrants, “difficult” working conditions, workers during the war,

Florence Kelly and National Consumers League urge women to buy products with “safe” labels. Women’s Trade Union League improves working conditions for females, minimum wage, hours, and first worker’s strike fund. 1916 Margaret Sanger and first birth control clinic. Ida

51

Wells, 1896 NACW day-care to protect and educate black children while mother’s work. Carrie Catt and National American Woman Suffrage Association. United States v, Susan Anthony, NAOWS, Maud Yanger organizes first Waitresses Union. 1917 Alice Pau formed the National Woman’s Party which uses public protest marches to win voting rights. 1920, 19

th

Amendment passé, 1908 NAACP and Urban League aid African Americans, 1913 Anti-Defamation League, Partido Liberal Mexicano, 1911 Society of American Indians, 1913 discrimination of Asian Americans.

Post World War I Nationwide Strike Wave of 1919

Describes strikes as “A Time of Labor Unrest” and mentions over 3,000 strikes, profiles Boston Police Strike, Steel Mill Strike, and Coal Miners Strikes, describes losses as “Labor Movement Loses Appeal”

Discusses the 1919 strike wave as among the largest in history, includes the Seattle General Strike, the Boston police strike, the nationwide Steel Strike. Connects the loss of strikes in 1919 to the federal suppression of civil liberties.

“Strikes Sweep Country”

Inflation caused 4 million workers to strike for more buying power and shorter workdays as a reward for patriotism. Boston Police Strike. Pro-management press relates strike violence to union radical leadership as a result of the Red Scare.

Federal government suppression of labor unions, 1919 - 1922

Mentions the rise of nativism as a contributing factor in the attack on civil liberties. Mentions the Palmer Raids as targeting “Communists, socialists, and anarchists” but only briefly says these efforts targeted labor leadership.

Discusses how the government cracked down on the IWW. Discusses Schenck v. United States and the Espionage Act and Sedition Act. Discusses the Palmer Raids and explains how the first Red Scare further weakened labor by damaging its reputation.

Strikes “fueled fear of Communism,” Red Scare, “Labor and Racial Strife,” A. Philip Randolph, drop of union membership in 20s, welfare capitalism, effect of economy on workers, “persecution of unions,” Boston Police strike.

IWW was a radical union of unskilled workers with many Socialists who led a number of violent strikes. Palmer Raids round up radicals and result in formation of ACLU. 1917 Espionage Act bans treasonous newspapers. Seditions Acts bans disloyal comments. Debs goes to prison for antiwar speech. Schenck v. US says times first amendment does not apply.

52

Great Depression and New Deal

Houghton Mifflin / McDougal

Harcourt / Holt McGraw-Hill / Glencoe Pearson / Prentice Hall

National Labor Relations Act and New Deal Labor Policy

Describes New Deal labor policy in two paragraphs and devotes two full pages to the Laughlin Steel case questioning the legality of the NLRA and invites students to question the legal decision of the case.

Discusses the revival of organized labor with the new NLRA labor policy. Discusses the path to constitutionality of the New Deal labor policy.

Generally good treatment of growth of labor in 30s,

Great Depression causes upsurge in union activity. New unions enlist mine and auto workers. Roosevelt believed success of New Deal rested with standard of living increase for industrial workers and recognize their right to join unions (Wagner Act). Right of Collective Bargaining and NLRB to look into worker’s complaints. 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act set minimum wage, max work hours, and outlaws child labor.

Creation of Industrial Unions and the CIO Upsurge

Recalls violence of the 1937 Republic Steel Strike but no mention of nationwide strike waves in 1934, 1937

Discusses the GM Flint sit-down strike and the birth of industrial unionism.

UAW sit-down strike, John L. Lewis, CIO, NLRA, Discussion of increase in entertainment and arts but none of entertainment unions

CIO’s newly formed United Automobile Workers Union stages a sit down strike at GM’s plant in Flint, Michigan. Lasts 44 days until GM recognizes UAW. This success led to others. 1940 membership is twice 1930 rate. Gains made in wages and working conditions.

Enactment of social protection legislation including minimum wages and hours

No mention of organized labor’s role in passage of the Social Security Act of 1935 or the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Outlines passage of “Major New Deal Programs” and highlights which programs continue today alongside organized labor.

No mention of labor role in FLSA, Social Security, role of Frances Perkins,

Social Security credit goes to New Deal and Roosevelt.

Unemployment and the social strife faced in the depression

Provides a good description of the strife faced during the Great Depression and the struggle and hardship of unemployment

Good description of life in a Hooverville and “The Human Impact of the Great Depression” and life in the Great Depression.

Good description of life during the depression, migrant workers

Newspapers are Hoover Blankets. Hoover flags are pockets turned inside out

53

World War II and the Cold War Era

Houghton Mifflin / McDougal

Harcourt / Holt McGraw-Hill / Glencoe Pearson / Prentice Hall

Labor Management and Government Relations in World War II

Mentions “Labor’s Contribution” to the home front during World War II

Describes the National War Labor Board and the 1943 Smith Connally Act giving the president power in the event of strikes.

Role of women and minorities in war effort, no discussion of labor’s role

First woman cabinet member, Sec of Labor, Frances Perkins. No treatment of National War Labor Board or Smith Connolly Act

FDR’s executive order barring discrimination in contracting

Good description of A. Philip Randolph’s role in organizing the 1941 march leading to FDR’s executive order ending discriminatory employment practices in the defense industries.

Brief description of A. Philip Randolph’s role in organizing the 1941 march leading to FDR’s executive order ending discriminatory employment practices in the defense industries.

Brief discussion of role of Randolph and Fair Employment Practices Commission

Randolph’s determination resulted in 1937 Pullman company signs the first contract in history between a major company and an African American labor union (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters). Executive Order 8802 (proclamation from President not law passed by Congress) assured fair hiring practices in any job funded with government money and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee. NAACP and CORE membership increased.

Post World War II Labor Strife in 1946

Describes how Truman moved against strikers but does not mention the scale of the strikes nationwide.

Briefly mentions the number of labor strikes in 1946.

Increase in strikes, Truman’s role in miners strike

Spoke to inflation and labor unrest. Unions demand pay increases to keep up with inflation. Millions of coal, steel, railroad, and automotive workers went on strike. Wave of strikes was largest in American history. This prompts Taft-Hartley Act

Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 Landrum Griffin Act of 1959

Describes Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 under the heading “Had Enough?” and describes the desire for labor law reform change as coming from Americans disgusted with shortages of goods, rising inflation and labor strikes. Does not mention other labor law reforms to the NLRA.

Describes the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 as a law that greatly reduced the power of labor unions and gave the president control to stop strikes when some national interest was at stake.

Description of Taft-Hartley Act and labor’s position, no mention of Landrum-Griffin or labor law reform efforts

Taft-Hartley outlawed the closed shop and rolled back New Deal labor union rights. Truman vetoed, Congress overrode.

Red Scare Impact on Unions

No treatment.

Describes how the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated labor unions.

No treatment.

1938 probes to search for Communism. Union members lost their jobs if they were on the Red List.

The 1955 AFL CIO federations merger

No treatment.

No treatment.

No treatment.

Mid 1930 split reunited in 1955. Political clout with

54

Democratic Party. New white collar workers not joining. Teamsters’ scandal (illegally using member’s funds) tarnishes image.

Kennedy’s executive order for federal workers union rights

No treatment.

No treatment.

No treatment.

No treatment.

Civil Rights and the Vietnam War

Houghton Mifflin / McDougal

Harcourt / Holt McGraw-Hill / Glencoe Pearson / Prentice Hall

1960s Grape Boycott and United Farm Workers

Discusses the movement of migrant workers and the farm workers’ movement and Cesar Chavez.

Discusses the movement of migrant workers and the farm workers’ movement and Cesar Chavez.

Discusses the movement of migrant workers and the farm workers’ movement and Cesar Chavez

Chavez fought for rights for farm laborers. United Farm Workers. Nonviolent. Worker’s strike and consumer boycott of table grape. Delores Huerta reached out to women. 1975 CA passes law requiring growers and union to collective bargaining.

Labor’s contribution to civil rights movement and the passage of civil rights laws

Does not discuss organized labor’s contribution to the civil rights movement

Does not discuss organized labor’s contribution to the civil rights movement

Does not discuss organized labor’s contribution to the civil rights movement

Johnson given credit for Civil Rights Act, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Title VII discrimination basis of sex

Public employees organizing movement and state legislation

Ignores public employee law and the organized public employee movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Ignores public employee law and the organized public employee movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Ignores public employee law and the organized public employee movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

No treatment

Protective legislation, OSHA, and Medicare and Medicaid, environmental protection laws

No mention of OSHA or the role of organized labor in passing social protection programs of the 1960s.

Brief mention of OSHA’s passage, no mention of organized labor’s role in passing protective social legislation.

Brief mention of OSHA’s passage, no mention of organized labor’s role in passing protective social legislation.

OSHA regulates workplace to make it safer for workers. Clean Air Act of 1970 gives EPA power to set air quality standards. Medicare and Medicaid spending grows steadily.

55

The Global Era Houghton Mifflin / McDougal

Harcourt / Holt McGraw-Hill / Glencoe Pearson / Prentice Hall

Reagan Administration’s Anti-Union Labor Policy

No treatment.

Briefly mentions PATCO, states the public approved.

Description of strike and Reagan response, “Ronald Reagan showed the world he would stand firm and use his presidency to carry out policies in which he believed.”

Reagan refuses to negotiate with PATCO. Fired the strikers for violating Federal prohibition. Union looks at Reagan as assault on Labor Movement. Public approval

Globalization, trade policy, NAFTA’s impact on unions

No treatment.

Describes concern that NAFTA and free trade would move U.S. factories to places with lower wages, resulting in a loss of jobs.

Brief discussion of debate over free trade and NAFTA

Labor Unions oppose loss of union jobs.

The changing labor market, the rise of temporary, part time work, the service sector

No treatment.

Describes the global economy and society in a discussion section. Includes a section on “Outsourcing and Trade” and describes how factory workers protected NAFTA.

No treatment.

The decline of union density and the right to organize, and the strong employer opposition to labor unions

No treatment.

No treatment.

No treatment.

Failure of Labor Law Reform and Anti-Union NLRB Policy

No treatment.

No treatment.

No treatment.

Changing demographics of the working class, AFL-CIO policy on immigration reform

No treatment.

Includes a section on immigration trends in the U.S.

No treatment.

Immigration and Control Act of 1986 hoped to stop the flow of illegal immigrants