Essay --

In the 1800s, American workers had tough working conditions until the workers decided to take a stand. Before factories were developed, the workers worked on small farms which were not as miserable as working in factories. American workers wanted protection and safety in the factories. There were men, women, and even children working in these dangerous factories. American workers felt taking advantaged of so they took a stand and formed labor unions. A labor union is an organization of workers that wants to fight for their protection and rights. In 1834, the first national labor organization is formed. The National Trade Union is the first national labor union that was open for all crafts. The ones who formed the National Trade Union were the journeymen. The journeymen wanted to limit the harsh working conditions. They wanted to higher wages, lower hours, and reduce struggle from unskilled workers. These reasons or ideas to help the unskilled workers are what led to the National Trade Union. By 1837, the panic and depression destroyed the first national union, but it did last for a few years. After the Civil War, there were more strong local unions formed. The strong local unions helped their members by providing for them in bad times. It also â€Å"became the means for expressing workers’ demands to employers.† The demands from the workers are shorter workdays; raise wages, and improving the working conditions. There are also national unions that re-emerged back at this time. In 1866, the National Labor Union was formed again, but by a different group of people. Labor activists from Baltimore decided to resurface this national labor organization that represented 60,000 members. The National Labor Union once again failed because of de... ... the workers, but as more form and come and out in the society the workers started to have fear. They rather have individuals than powerful employees. The workers main fear was â€Å"if they had to pay higher wages and meet the others demands of unions, their costs would go up and they would be less competitive in the marketplace.† So, the employees decided to shut down unions. Employers set up some rules to stop unions which were to ban the union meetings and have no one go to them anymore, to get rid of the union organizers or in other words fire them, to prevent new employees from joining a union or even participate in any more strikes, so they had to sign a â€Å"yellow dog† as a promise, and to refuse the collective bargaining and refuse to see unions as their workers’ legitimate representatives. The employees wanted an end to the unions and that’s what they fought for.