The Labor Movement+AFL-CIO

Part 1:
LABOR MOVMENT: TIME LINE

1786 Philadelphia printers conduct first successful strike for increased wages. This is the beginning leading to founding the AFL (American Federation of labor)
1847 New Hampshire enacts first state 10-hour-day law (this helps so that workers don’t have to work there butts off for 16 hours everyday)
1877 National uprising of railroad workers (they keep protesting for increase wages.)
1885 Successful strike by Knights of Labor on the Southwest (or Gould) System: the Missouri Pacific; the Missouri, Kansas and Texas; and the Wabash. (The knights of labor are one of the most earliest and successful labor unions to help labors around America.
1890 Carpenters President P.J. McGuire and the union strike and win the eight-hour day for some 28,000 members (another successful strike that helps ease pain for the hard working workers)
1898 Erdman Act prohibits discrimination against railroad workers because of union membership and provides for mediation of railway labor disputes (another leap forward for the labor unions)
1909 Unorganized immigrant steel workers strike in McKees Rocks, Pa. And win all demand.
1919 One of every five workers walked out in great strike wave, including national clothing coal and steel strikes; a general strike in Seattle; and a police strike in Boston International Labor Organization founded in France
1935 The National Labor Relations Act, signed by President Roosevelt in 1935, protected the right of American workers to organize and bargain collectively.
1970 Thousands of Americans were out of work in the 1970s, as industries increasingly shifted production to low-wage countries.

Part 2.
AFL-CIO background info:

The AFL-CIO union movement represents 11 million members, including 2.5 million members in Working America their new communities affiliate. The AFL-CIO organized protests and strikes for rights of working families and people. Today they are one of Americas biggest cooperate unions. Founded in 1955 the AFL-CIO always founded one way or another to organize strikes and petitions to help America. They are one of the biggest key factors to why America is such a rich a prosperous country and why poverty has been slowly declining the past few years. They help many pull through the great depression and the crash a few years ago. From a two big unions to one huge one, AFL-CIO has been the most successful trade union in American history.



The AFL-CIO has a mission, -to improve the lives of working families and to bring economic justice to workplaces and social justice to the U.S.A.
This part is from the web site http://aflcio.com/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/mission/
“We will build a broad movement of American workers by organizing workers into unions. We will recruit and train the next generation of organizers, mass the resources needed to organize and create the strategies to win organizing campaigns and union contracts. We will create a broad understanding of the need to organize among our members, our leadership and among unorganized workers. We will lead the labor movement in these efforts.

We will build a strong political voice for workers in our nation. We will fight for an agenda for working families at all levels of government. We will empower state federations. We will build a broad progressive coalition that speaks out for social and economic justice. We will create a political force within the labor movement that will empower workers and speak forcefully on the public issues that affect our lives.

We will change our unions to provide a new voice to workers in a changing economy. We will speak for working people in the global economy, in the industries in which we are employed, in the firms where we work, and on the job every day. We will transform the role of the union from an organization that focuses on a member's contract to one that gives workers a say in all the decisions that affect our working lives—from capital investments, to the quality of our products and services, to how we organize our work.

We will change our labor movement by creating a new voice for workers in our communities. We will make the voices of working families heard across our nation and in our neighborhoods. We will create vibrant community labor councils that reach out to workers at the local level. We will strengthen the ties of labor to our allies. We will speak out in effective and creative ways on behalf of all working Americans.”

They have managed to accomplish many of their mission but there are still new problems that will appear. And so far ALF-CIO has dealt with it very well and making many American’s dream come true.

Part 3:

Part 4:Everyday I always have my bad times and good times. But I believe that it’s an individual’s action that makes the future good or bad. Most of my peers always say its luck or gods action. At several points in time I was really convince that it was only really luck .

During the spring break I thought to myself about whether it’s my decision or fate that controls my action. So I started research for answers on the net. During the first week, I still believed that fate was controlling my actions. My family supported me and told me the best thing to do was keep on researching. So I did. Only one problem…. There were so many different views and theories about life. So I dump the idea and went on with my normal vacation life thinking all my action was controlled by fate. Then one Sunday, everything just went wrong for me, first I forgot about the present to give for my cousin, and then I was about an hour late for the party and then finally forgetting to buy stuff for the celebration the next day. That night I thought to myself think positive and control my own actions and make wise decisions. And sure enough the next day went perfectly. It’s just like how the workers in America had to stand up for their rights by boycotting and going on strikes. If they had not done that, the working class might be the poorest class in America right now. Many individuals are just like my parents, those who support each other. AN example would be the AFL-CIO. They organized many strikes and helped many also pull through their economical crisis.

From that day on, everyday I would tell myself: "nothing is in control of me, I am in control of myself.” Fate does not contol our future; but action our actions do. This I believe: “nothing is by luck, only by an individual's action will something be done"