Government Actions
Intended to limit monopolies and restraints of trade. It was sometimes used against labor unions, including in disputes involving boycotts.
Sherman Antitrust Act - 1890
An organization of workers formed to protect workers' interests.
Labor Union
Money paid to workers for their labor.
Wages
A major labor organization led by Samuel Gompers, emphasizing skilled workers, collective bargaining, wages, hours, and working conditions.
AFL - American Federation of Labor
Major AFL leader who emphasized collective bargaining and practical workplace improvements.
Samuel Gompers
Required safety equipment on railroad cars, helping reduce dangerous railroad workplace conditions.
Safety Appliance Act - 1893
When workers stop working to pressure an employer to meet their demands.
Strike
Workers who officially belong to a labor union.
Union Membership
Union representing coal miners, founded in 1890.
United Mine Workers of America - UMWA
Labor organizer who supported miners and opposed child labor.
Mother Jones or Mary Harris Jones
Changed railroad workers' ability to seek compensation for workplace injuries and made railroad employers more responsible for certain injuries.
FELA - Federal Employer's Liability Act
Negotiation between workers, usually represented by a union, and an employer.
Collective Bargaining
The employment of children, often in difficult or dangerous jobs
Child Labor
A broad labor organization that sought to unite skilled and unskilled workers.
Knights of Labor
President who intervened in the 1902 Coal Strike and helped establish a more active federal role in labor disputes.
Theodore Roosevelt
Supreme Court case involving a New York maximum-hours law for bakery workers. The Court struck down the law, illustrating the limits courts could place on state workplace regulations during this period.
Lochner v. New York - 1905
Workers supporting one another because they share common interests.
Worker Solidarity
The growth of factories, machinery, mass production, and large-scale industry.
Industrialization
Union associated with Eugene V. Debs and the Pullman Strike.
American Railway Union - ARU
Leader of the United Mine Workers during major coal strikes.
John Mitchell
States increasingly investigated and adopted workers' compensation systems; Wisconsin enacted the first state system in 1911
State Worker's Compensation Reforms - 1909-1910
A factory, mine, railroad, mill, or similar workplace associated with industrial production.
Industrial Workplace
Having a neutral person or group help settle a dispute
Arbitration
Union representing many garment workers, including immigrant women. ILGWU
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Carnegie Steel manager involved in the Homestead Strike.
Henry Clay Frick