Date of Award

1-1967

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Economics

First Reader

Dr. Finley M. Chu

Abstract

In order to discuss the effect o unions, I feel we should first discuss the growth of unions; for at first they had very little power. Although there were unions of some sort or another existing in America since colonial days, it was late in the eighteenth century when they really began to have an influence. This influence began with the rise of the American Federation of Labor. "Led by Samuel Gompers and Adolph Strasser of the Cigarmaker's International Union, this group was composed primarily of representatives of the skilled trades.... These trades unionists felt that the mass movement of the Knights of Labor was doomed to defeat, that trade unionism could best succeed if confined to those who were able to organize themselves, in other words, skilled or strategically located groups; and that trade-unionism should confine itself to the immediate issues of improving workers' wages and working conditions rather than to work for a Socialist Utopia, or to get entangled with other political movements or 'uplift' campaigns.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.