That Union Thing

Origins of the Labor Movement…Part 2: Merchant Capitalists

The split between labor and management began in the late 1700's with the rise of merchant capitalism. While in the colonial period, most products were "custom-made," now merchants began working with shop masters to produce goods for wholesale trade on the mass market. With the aid of a transportation system provided by merchants, larger mass-producing factories could force smaller shops to compete by joining the bandwagon and lowering wages and increasing working hours.

Laborers, who produced the goods sold, remarkably could do nothing on their own to combat their employers, the capitalists who owned the factories and raw materials. Employers could always find someone else (often immigrants) to replace them as cheap labor. But eventually workers realized that if they banded together they could accomplish much more...

Union News From AFL-CIO Work in Progress

JOINING UP—In Florida, 102 maintenance and clerical workers for the Hialeah Housing Authority voted for Council 79 of AFSCME.

USING REPLACEMENTS—Six days after members of Teamsters Local 79 went on strike against the Tampa, Fla., company Sypris Electronics, after contract talks broke down over management demands for givebacks, the Raytheon subsidiary began using replacement workers. In an effort to focus attention on the use of replacements, Local 79 set up a picket line Jan. 17 at a nearby Raytheon facility in Largo, Fla., where some of the replacement workers have been assigned.

CELEBRATING KING'S LEGACY—More than 200 civil rights and union activists discussed election reform, voting rights, immigrant workers' rights and political action during the AFL-CIO Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in Miami Jan. 18-21. The activists also performed several community service projects and participated in the city's annual King Day parade. Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson led a Jan. 18 rally supporting immigrant rights. AFM Legislative Director Alfonso Pollard participated, and Local 655 member and pianist Melody Cole performed for the gathering.

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