America250 — 250 years since 1776. Explore two and a half centuries of American history. Start the tour

#Labor

33 entries

People (5)

Labor organizer who won rights for America's farmworkers

Labor Leader, Socialist Presidential Candidate, and Prisoner of Conscience, 1855–1926

The fearless organizer once called "the most dangerous woman in America"

Founder of the American Federation of Labor and father of the U.S. labor movement

Muckraking Author of The Jungle Who Accidentally Reformed the Food Supply, 1878–1968

Places (3)

The city that built itself from nothing, burned down, rebuilt, and became America's most American city

The Motor City that built America's middle class and paid the price of its collapse

Gateway to Alaska, birthplace of Boeing, and capital of the Pacific Northwest

Events (11)

Haymarket Affair

The 1886 bombing that defined — and distorted — the American labor movement

Homestead Strike

The 1892 labor battle that broke the steel union and defined Gilded Age industrial conflict

The first-Monday-in-September holiday honoring American workers

The 1994 trade pact that bound North America together

The railroad collapse that triggered the Long Depression and ended Reconstruction

The worst depression before the 1930s — and the crisis that made William Jennings Bryan

Rosie the Riveter

The wartime icon of the women who built America's arsenal

The Great Depression

The worst economic catastrophe in American history

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The first nationwide strike — and the violent dawn of the American labor war

The Pullman Strike

The 1894 railroad shutdown that sent a labor leader to prison — and radicalized him

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

The 1911 factory disaster that transformed American labor law

Documents (3)

The Child Labor Amendment

The failed amendment to let Congress regulate child labor

The Fair Labor Standards Act

The 1938 law that set the minimum wage, the 40-hour week, and ended child labor

The 1935 law that gave American workers the right to organize

Concepts (2)

The Industrial Revolution

The transformation of American labor, production, and daily life, 1820–1900

The Labor Movement

The century-long fight by American workers for fair wages, safe conditions, and human dignity

Organizations (8)

The automaker founded in 1908 that overtook Ford, armed democracy in WWII, and ruled the American road

The American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO)

The federation that has spoken for organized American labor since 1886

The Industrial Workers of the World

The radical "Wobblies" who dreamed of One Big Union, founded 1905

The Knights of Labor

The first mass American labor union, which surged in the 1880s — then collapsed almost overnight

The SEIU (Service Employees)

The service-sector union that became labor's fastest-growing giant, 1921

The powerful trucking union dogged by clout and corruption, founded 1903

The United Auto Workers

The union that organized Detroit and helped build the American middle class, founded 1935

The United Mine Workers

The coal miners' union at the storm center of American labor, 1890

Technology (1)

The Ford Model T

The car — and the assembly line — that put America on wheels

All Tags

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