The Order of the Knights of St. Crispin was an American labor union of shoe workers formed in Wisconsin in 1867. It soon reached a membership of 50,000 or more, largely in the Northeast. However it was poorly organized and faded away by 1874. They fought to prevent innovation, including the introduction of new machinery, and worked to keep immigrant labor out of the workforce. [1]
The first lodge of the Knights of St. Crispin was organized in 1867 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a union of shoemakers, it took its name from the Catholic Saint Crispin, the patron saint of cobblers. The founding members were Newell Daniels, Samuel Wilson, W. C. Haynes, Albert Jenkins, Thomas Houren, F. W. Wallace and Henry Palmer. [2] [3] The Order spread throughout Wisconsin and the Northeast and even into Canada. By 1871 it claimed about 400 lodges with 50,000 to 60,000 members. Dues paying members were far fewer. In Milwaukee the Knights owned and operated three cooperative shops. In 1872 some eastern lodges went on strike and suffered a crushing defeat, after which the organization rapidly declined. [4] The order was revived in 1875 in Lynn, Massachusetts and defeated an attempt by the manufacturers to force their workers to sign a pledge not to join a union. [5] In its heyday the Knights fought against employment of Chinese workers and tried to stop the training of new workers so as to keep wages high. The Panic of 1873 caused heavy layoffs in the factories and the Knights lost members rapidly. [6]
One provision in its constitution explicitly sought to limit the entry of "green hands" into the trade. That effort failed because the new machines could be operated by semi-skilled workers and produce more shoes than hand sewing.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States founded in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor union. Samuel Gompers was elected the full-time president at its founding convention and reelected every year, except one, until his death in 1924. He became the major spokesperson for the union movement.
The One Big Union was an idea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries amongst trade unionists to unite the interests of workers and offer solutions to all labour problems.
The labor history of the United States describes the history of organized labor, US labor law, and more general history of working people, in the United States. Beginning in the 1930s, unions became important allies of the Democratic Party.
Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work. It contrasts with industrial unionism, in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of differences in skill.
A cordwainer is a shoemaker who makes new shoes from new leather. The cordwainer's trade can be contrasted with the cobbler's trade, according to a tradition in Britain that restricted cobblers to repairing shoes. This usage distinction is not universally observed, as the word cobbler is widely used for tradespersons who make or repair shoes.
John Rogers Commons was an American institutional economist, Georgist, progressive and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Labor aristocracy or labour aristocracy has at least four meanings: (1) as a term with Marxist theoretical underpinnings; (2) as a specific type of trade unionism; (3) as a shorthand description by revolutionary industrial unions for the bureaucracy of craft-based business unionism; and (4) in the 19th and early 20th centuries was also a phrase used to define better-off members of the working class.
The Trades and Labor Congress of Canada was a Canada-wide central federation of trade unions from 1886 to 1956. It was founded at the initiative of the Toronto Trades and Labour Council and the Knights of Labor. It was the third attempt at a national labour federation to be formed in Canada: it succeeded the Canadian Labour Union which existed from 1873 to 1877 and the Canadian Labour Congress which held only one conference in 1881.
Social movement unionism (SMU) is a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism. Strongly associated with the labour movements of developing countries, social movement unionism is distinct from many other models of trade unionism because it concerns itself with more than organizing workers around workplace issues, pay and terms and conditions. It engages in wider political struggles for human rights, social justice and democracy. Social movement unionism grew out of political struggles in developing countries and was theorized as a distinct industrial relations model in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Community unionism, also known as reciprocal unionism, refers to the formation of alliances between unions and non-labour groups in order to achieve common goals. These unions seek to organize the employed, unemployed, and underemployed. They press for change in the workplace and beyond, organizing around issues such as welfare reform, health care, jobs, housing, and immigration. Individual issues at work are seen as being a part of broader societal problems which they seek to address. Unlike trade unions, community union membership is not based on the workplace- it is based on common identities and issues. Alliances forged between unions and other groups may have a primary identity based on affiliations of religion, ethnic group, gender, disability, environmentalism, neighborhood residence, or sexuality.
The Bay View massacre was the result of a strike held on May 4, 1886, by 7,000 building-trades workers and 5,000 Polish laborers who had organized at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to strike against their employers, demanding the enforcement of an eight-hour work day. A few days earlier, on May 1, a peaceful demonstration had been held in nearby Chicago, with similar demands.
Selig Perlman was an economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) was an industrial union umbrella organization under the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) between 1929 and 1935. The group was an American affiliate of the Red International of Labor Unions. The formation of the TUUL was the result of the Communist International's Third Period policy, which ordered affiliated Communist Parties to pursue a strategy of dual unionism and thus abandon attempts at "bore from within" existing trade unions. TUUL unions aimed to organize semi-skilled and unskilled workers, many whom had been expelled from the American Federation of Labor (AFL). According to the TUUL, the AFL was "an instrument of the capitalists for the exploitation of the workers." Thus, the TUUL was formed as an organization in opposition to the AFL."
Labor federation competition in the United States is a history of the labor movement, considering U.S. labor organizations and federations that have been regional, national, or international in scope, and that have united organizations of disparate groups of workers. Union philosophy and ideology changed from one period to another, conflicting at times. Government actions have controlled, or legislated against particular industrial actions or labor entities, resulting in the diminishing of one labor federation entity or the advance of another.
A business union is a type of trade union that is opposed to class or revolutionary unionism and has the principle that unions should be run like businesses.
Henry J. Ohl Jr. was a Wisconsin typographer and trade union leader, president for many years of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor (WSFL). He also served one term as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from Milwaukee.
The Daughters of St. Crispin was an American labor union of women shoemakers, founded in Lynn, Massachusetts on July 28, 1869, and was the first national women's labor union in the United States.
The New England Shoemakers Strike of 1860 began on February 22, 1860 with 3,000 shoemakers walking off their jobs in Lynn, Massachusetts. It ended in April with modest gains for shoemakers, including pay increases and owner recognition of some labor unions. Approximately 20,000 workers went on strike across New England which made it the largest mass walkout in American history prior to the Civil War.
The Amalgamated Society of Boot and Shoe Makers (AABS) was a trade union representing workers involved in shoemaking in the United Kingdom.
The International Federation of Boot and Shoe Operatives and Leather Workers was a global union federation representing unions of shoemakers and leather workers, principally in Europe.
