Industrial relations in the United States: A way from confrontation to cooperation

Résumé du document

The industrial relations characterize the employee-employers relation in a company. In the United States, the term "industrial relation" really appeared with the creation of the Commission on Industrial relations in 1912 after two leaders of the Structural Ironworkers Union killed twenty persons in the dynamite bombing of the L.A Times in 1910. Nevertheless, the issue of industrial relations in the US has always been part of the story of the country, with the consequences it has on the welfare of workers as well as employers that is to say on the whole nation. The United States have experienced one of the bloodiest employment relations, with a strong tradition of violent labour movements and harsh repression until the mid 1950, but then succeeded in changing the pattern of industrial relations to turn to more dialogue and cooperation.
From confrontation...
1 The origins of the employer-employee conflicts (1770-1800)
At the time of the 1776 revolution, most American workers were self-employed: they were farmers, artisan or labourers. The tiny part which worked for a boss did so as were immigrants who wanted to learn a trade or just raise money for a time. Nevertheless, in 1776 was organized the first strike against a boss America ever recorded, with the walk of the journeyman tailors in New York city who complained about reduction pays. They had no funds but set up their own cooperative the "house of call". The same year was published the Tomas Paine's pamphlet "common sense" which aimed at uniting the working force to struggle for equity. Workers, who felt dominated by the local landed and merchant-capitalist in an elitist society, started fighting to better their working conditions.

Extraits

[...] The unions were legalized by Commonwealth v. Hunt in 1842 whose final conclusion was that the act of unionization and recognition of that union through strike was legal. But American workers didn't wait for this decision to be pronounced to band together to fight for higher wages and better working conditions. From 1792, several small trade unions began to form in the coastal cities, in nearly every trade. They were formed by the carpenters and shoemakers of Philadelphia, the tailors of Baltimore, Maryland, the printers of New York City, and groups of crafts workers in big cities. [...]

[...] Pullis judged by the Philidelphia Mayor Court in 1806 found them guilty of"a combination to raise their wages” and declared unions were illegal conspiracies 3.The violent era (1870-1900) Over the 1870's the labour unions became more violent. The disastrous crisis of 1873 led to a deep worker distress. Moreover, employers started to oppose seriously to union movements which resulted in several confrontations. They establish their own structure to destroy labour movements. They started including in the contract a “iron-clad oaths” workers had to sign to ensure they would not join unions without being dismissed. [...]

[...] The economical measures set by Roosevelt, the New Deal, aimed at increasing the purchasing power to boost the economy. Thus, other legislations about labour regulation were passed : the National Industrial recovery Act. The act establishes collective bargaining states union representation process, outlawing Unfair Labour Practices by employers and authorizing the National Labour Relations Board created the In 1930 The Supreme Court upheld the Railway Labour Act's prohibition of employer interference or coercion in the choice of bargaining representative (Texas & N.O.R. [...]

[...] In New-York, Baltimore, Saint Louis and other cities the workers rose and in Chicago and St Louis, the railway strike extended to be a general one. For the first time, the federal police had to crush the insurgence. Over 1000 strikers were jailed, over 500 wounded, over 100 killed. Armories were built in big cities to protect against insurrection and anti-union laws were set in several states. This movement had been mainly organized by the “Knights of Labour”, a trade union created in 1876 which quickly gained popularity from 1880. [...]

[...] At that time, the United States had to wait 1834 to have its first nation wide union founded, the National Trades Union which was however, dissolved with the 1837 crisis. The late 1820's also saw the formation of the first separated workers parties. In 1828, in Philadelphia, the worker's Party won twenty local offices and the Workingmen's Party of New York formed the next year had his candidate elected assemblyman. But these independent parties soon merged and disappeared into the Democratic Party letting the workers with the only choice to turn to unions to defend their interests. [...]