United States Labor Movement Essay Example for Free

United States Labor Movement Essay The Labor Movement in the United States of America started in the formative years of our nation. Its purpose being to organize workers to strive for better working conditions, reasonable pay and better treatment in the workplace. From it’s beginnings in the early to mid nineteenth century during the Industrial Revolution to the modern era of today, the labor movement has fought hard forming labor parties and labor laws to give the American worker the rights they deserve. One of the earliest and more influential of labor organizations came to be in 1860; The Knights of Labor. The Knights of Labor mission was to â€Å"inform, and support working families, and to organize them to better represent their rights† (The Knights of Labor, 2011,  ¶1) By the end of the 1800s the Knights had become a national fixture and included all workers into the group such as lawyers, doctors, gamblers and bankers. The main focus of the Knights of Labor were to push for an eight-hour work day; to rid child labor from existence, to do away with convict contract labor as they opposed the source of cheap labor taking jobs away from workers who needed a job; and equal pay for all their workers. In the early goings, they were opposed to the use of strikes however that trend changed and work stoppages had become a very good tool to use. The Knights of Labor had reached its apex in 1886 with over 700,000 members however their organizational structure was not up to the task and the movement was all but abandoned. They remained a fixture in the labor movement until 1949 when t he remaining members dropped their affiliation (The Knights of Labor, 2011). The Labor Movement in the late 1800s experienced a number of incidents that escalated into violence. In 1877; railroad workers in West Virginia protested a ten percent wage cut leveled by Baltimore Ohio Railroad. The strike occurred during a time of economic depression and spread westward across the country. Attempts to control unruly crowds just made the worker protest stronger and ignited violence. To add to the walkouts and protests by the rail workers, sympathetic actions by other wage workers brought Chicago close to a state of general strike. As the tensions continued and the violence started to escalate between the workers and police, the mayor relied on the assistance of six companies from the U.S. Army infantry to quell the protests. Quiet was restored but only after eighteen people had died from the protest violence. (Foner, 1977) The Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 resulted in violence as well. This particular strike came about during a time of conflict between labor and m anagement throughout the entire country. Workers belonging to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers went on strike to protest a wage cut implemented by Andrew Carnegie’s Steel Company in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Henry Frick, the plants General Manager, was given unwavering support by Carnegie to do what he deemed fit, which was to cut wages and try to break the Amalgamated Association union. Of the 3,800 workers at the plant, only 750 belonged to the union; but 3,000 employees voted together for a workers strike. Henry Frick got word of the vote and built a fence around the steelworks plant with holes in the fence to fit rifles through and topped it with barbed wire and Frick had hired 300 Pinkerton detectives for protection of the plant. When workers got word of the newly hired police force, they mobilized and a fire fight between the two groups erupted. 3 detectives and 9 workers were laid to rest from the fighting. After the fighting stopped, the Governor ordered a state militia into Homestead. Four months after the strike started, the workers resources were severely depleted and they all returned to work. When the dust settled, the strike leaders were charged with murder while hundreds of others were charged with lesser crimes. Sympathetic jurors didn’t convict any of the men; however this incident allowed Carnegie to sweep unions out of Homestead dealing a major blow to the labor movement and weakened unionism in the steel industry up until the 1930’s. (The Homestead Strike, 1999) The last significant labor movement incident in the 1800s occurred in 1894 with the first national strike in the United States. The Pullman Strike wreaked havoc on the nation’s railway system as an entire labor force walked from their jobs with the notion that workers were to receive several pay cuts and the increase rent of company owned homes in Pullman. President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops to fire on and kill United States citizens against the wishes of the states. The federal courts outlawed striking by passing the Omnibus indictment which was a massive blow to unionized labor. During the strike, national guardsmen fired into a crowd of protesters; killing four and wounding twenty. The strike showed the power of unified national unions but also showed the willingness of the government to intervene and support the capitalists against unified labor. The results of the strike were disastrous as the union workers never did get their rents lowered (The Pullman Strike, 1998) As the 20th Century came about, the labor movement sought to gain strength with new unions and tactics. The International Workers of the World was formed in an attempt to overthrow capitalism and replace it with the socialist system. The United States government helped out the movement with the implementation of the Department of Labor, which protected the rights of workers. The Clayton Antitrust Act legalized nonviolent strikes and boycotts. One of the more important Acts to come about in the early 1900s was that of the Wagner Act. The Wagner Act, also called National Labor Relations Act, of 1935 was created to protect workers’ right to unionization. The Act guarantees un-supervised employees the right to self-organize, choose their own representatives, and bargain collectively (National Labor Relations Act, n.d.). The NLRA and the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) are still going strong today in 2012 as my employment, the IUE-CWA GE Aerospace Conference Board, have asked for their assistance when organizing a new Local union shop on numerous occasions. In 1938 an act was passed that benefited the labor movement in monumental ways. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was enacted in 1938 and thus protected the rights of workers and supported economic fair play between management and labor. The Act also proposed a national minimum wage. An amendment to the FLSA in 1948 outlawed child labor in the United States. As the nation moved from industrial production to information management, many aspects of the FLSA became ineffective and outdated (Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) History, 2006). The Fair Labor Standards Act is still relevant in today’s world, just not in the scope it was when it was created. The establishment of the minimum wage rate and the outlawing of child labor was a huge success for the labor movement and its affects can be felt in today’s modern age. In 1955 the largest United States labor organization, the AFL (American Federation of Labor) merged with the CIO (Committee for Industrial Organization). The AFL was a federation that organized only unions of skilled workers while the CIO carried on the effort for industrial unionism, which are unions that organize an entire industry regardless of their sill set. With the merger of the AFL and the CIO, it brought about eliminating jurisdictional disputes between unions which would now help the labor movement like never before. They placed a new priority on organizing workers in areas, industries and plants where there was no system of labor representation. (The Labor Union Movement in America, 2012) The AFL-CIO saw many decades of prosperity for unions and workers but was tested in 2005 when the Service Employees (SEIU), Teamsters (IBT), and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) departed ways from the AFL-CIO. Chris Kutalik states that the split has generated a great deal of focus, attention, and talk about the depth of the crisis of U.S. unions ( ¶3) and asks important questions regarding the split in the AFL-CIO such as if the union leaders will be open to local members’ efforts to democratize and revitalize their unions? Will new programs build enough power and leverage to fight concessions and how serious are leaders about pushing the pace and scale of change? ( ¶10). It’s no surprise to anyone working within a union, such as myself, the challenges we face to stay relevant, to expand, to win the hearts and minds of the American people when so many see the unions as a problem rather than a solution. More and more businesses are trying to keep it a union-free workplace, and while it’s promising to see President Obama working towards getting more manufacturing plants back in the states, these plants are mostly set up as a right-to-work plant and will stop at nothing to keep outside forces from organizing the workers at these plants. When I started working for the IUE-CWA ten years ago, we represented over 90 locals from General Electric, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace Engineering, Momentive Performances, and Bechtel. Ten years later we are down to around 50 locals due to plant shutdowns and outsourcing of the plants. The labor movement must stay strong and work harder than ever just to keep its head above the water, but from the experiences I’ve had in the decade of being employed within a union, I feel this is a battle that may not be won in the end. REFERENCES: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) History, (2006) Retrieved from: http://www.resource4flsalaw.com/historyoffairlaborstandardsact.html Foner, Phillip S. (1977) The Great Labor Uprising of 1877. New York, New York: Pathfinder Books The Homestead Strike (1999) Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/pande04.html The Knights of Labor (2011) Retrieved from: http://www.knightsoflabor.com Kutalik, Chris (2005) What Does the AFL-CIO Split Mean? Retrieved from: http://labornotes.org/node/776 The Labor Union Movement in America (2012) Retrieved from: http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/eco_unionization.htm The National Labor Relations Act (n.d.) Retrieved from: https://www.nlrb.gov/national-labor-relations-act The Pullman Strike: Chicago, 1894 (1998) Retrieved from: http://www.kansasheritage.org/pullman/index.html

Leadership: Lord Of The Flies Essays -- essays research papers fc

Comparison of Leaders Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding is able to touch on the many aspects of our civilization through the various characters he creates. Leadership plays a very important role in the novel as it does in real life because the characters need to feel some sense of security in order for them to survive. The two main leaders in the story, through their similar and different leadership characteristics and objectives fight back and forth to gain the discipline of the other boys on the island and generally the power to make the decisions that they feel should be made. Both leaders, Jack and Ralph, experience leading the group in their own style, which is similar in their desire for control yet different pertaining to their leadership qualities and their objectives while on the island.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ralph was amongst the first few characters mentioned in the story and he quickly takes to the role of gathering the surviving boys by calling out to all that are in the area. He believes in leading with a democratic style, which gives people freedom of opinion, as well as equality to all group members. This is seen as Ralph uses Piggy’s idea for the conch to gathers the boys together in order to Dean 2 express ones ideas or opinions (Golding 12). However, Ralph is not the only boy on the island who is looking to lead the boys, and he finds that out when Jack marches his band members in a militant style to the platform where Ralph is deciding what needs to be done for their survival (Golding 15-16). Jack quickly became a cruel and dominating person who tries to impose fear onto the boys in order to gain his own control. This is evident when he begins opposing Ralph’s ideas about building a fire and picking fruit, to make himself look bigger and somewhat tough (Golding 22). However, a vote is thought up by one of the boys and Ralph’s democratic and orderly style of leadership is elected and he becomes the leader of the group (Golding 19). Ralph begins by organizing the boys to branch off in-groups and work for their benefit, such as keeping the fire going, building huts and scanning the island for anything worthwhile (Golding 38). He believes that if everyone contribute s by taking on one of the roles for survival, the entire group will benefit and hopefully be saved. Again, Jack opposes to the ideas of Ralph. He h... ...ectives by hunting down Ralph, and nearly catch him, until they come across the Navy ship which is there to rescue them (Golding 223-225). Both Ralph and Jack have objectives, which are completely opposite to each other’s which cause for much of the conflict throughout the story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the story, Ralph and Jack are two of the characters who probably have the least in common mainly because they are trying to outdo each other by making the others ideas and beliefs seem obscure. They are similar in their desire for control over the group, however they are completely opposite pertaining to their leadership qualities and their objectives. Author William Golding creates these characters as opposites so he could have a general conflict, which is based on man against man to contribute to his other conflicts of man against environment and man against himself. Personal reflections of this author conclude that the bizarre setting and plot are difficult to comprehend upon the first reading yet further readings would create a more enjoyable story to understand. Dean 7 Works Cited Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Boston, Mass: Faber and Faber Limited, 1958

Stefan’s Diaries: The Craving Chapter 28

The three of us tore out of the chapel. As soon as we left the Richards' estate grounds we were plunging through woods. Saplings stung our legs as we pitched downhill through the wet night, and tall pines blocked whatever moonlight might have slipped between the clouds. If we had been human, our feet would have surely skidded on the forest floor of decaying leaves. Unable to see more than a yard or so in front of us we would have crashed into the giant trunk of a tree. Instead, we moved like predators, coursing through the night like vampires had for hundreds of years: streaking through the wilds to the next village of potential victims, chasing down someone who had foolishly separated from the herd and decided to travel at night by himself. It felt good to be racing this way, with a few ounces of human blood zinging through my veins. I was almost able to lose myself in the flight, forgetting about what it was we were fleeing from. Then there was a noise. It started out like the beginning of a long roll of thunder, climbed into a crescendo of inhuman groaning, and ended in a screech of despair. The noise was everywhere, filling our ears, the valley we were descending into, the sky above us. The three of us stopped, startled by the sound. â€Å"Well, I guess the vampire is free,† Damon huffed. â€Å"Margaret – † I began. â€Å"Trust me, she's fine. Did you see what she did to him?† Damon pointed out. â€Å"What is she, though?† I asked. â€Å"A witch.† â€Å"Like Emily?† I wondered, my theory confirmed. Was the world simply full of witches, vampires, demons, and who knows what else, most of which were invisible to human eyes? â€Å"I had a feeling there was something different about her when I couldn't compel her†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Damon explained. â€Å"So I asked. And she answered. Pretty straightforward, that one.† â€Å"So she†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Cast a protective spell around herself and her family, and was burning his brain meats with some mental ability or other to buy us a little time. Emphasis on the word little,† he added. â€Å"Hope that protective spell is still up.† There was another roar. â€Å"Keep moving,† Lexi ordered, and we began again. The woods grew blacker as if nature herself dreaded his approach, and we could feel the earth tremble with his every footstep. Damon and I leaped over a giant log, and for one fleeting moment our motions were perfectly synchronized. But then the three of us came to skidding halt at the edge of a cliff that looked out over all of upper Manhattan. â€Å"Huh,† my brother said doubtfully, peering over its edge. â€Å"We'll have to find some other way down,† I said, starting to look back the way we came. â€Å"A path, or†¦Ã¢â‚¬  With a cry, Lexi hurled herself over the edge of the cliff. I watched her, wide-eyed with horror. â€Å"Find another way down?† Damon said, shaking his head disappointedly at me. â€Å"Still thinking like a human, brother.† And he dove after her. I swore under my breath, watching him disappear into the branches below. Then I followed. As frightening as that fall was, there was something very freeing about it. I was weightless, swimming through the air. The world whistled through my outstretched fingers and hair. It almost felt as though I were flying. I smashed down through thick leafy canopy and rolled into a ball, eventually coming right side up with a twisted ankle that reset itself almost before I noticed it. Damon and Lexi were standing still. She had her head cocked, listening to the strange quiet we suddenly found ourselves in. â€Å"He lost us,† Damon said, triumphantly. â€Å"He didn't realize we went down the cliff! He's†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"He's in front of us,† Lexi breathed, eyes widening. The silence to the south was in fact complete, as if every living thing had quieted or died. We waited, unsure what to do, though it was hard to say for what. Then came the sound of a single blade of grass bending and breaking. â€Å"RUN!† Lexi screamed. We took off. I made the mistake of looking behind me. What I saw and what I heard didn't match up; on the one hand, it briefly appeared that an older man was following me with surprising swiftness. But the shadow cast by the moonlight was of something far bigger and inhumanly shaped. Bushes and trees fell and crashed out of his way before he even touched them. I doubled my pace. We had no choice but to head south. The woods thinned and civilization began to rear its ugly head: a lonely, last farm, a cluster of abandoned holdings, a large estate, a hotel, dirt roads to paved avenues still crowded with horses and carriages and cabs and people even in the middle of this night. And behind us, gaining power from every shadow through which he passed, was the old one. We turned a corner around a fruit stand, knocking down baskets, and the stench of decay that issued from his raggedy breathing mouth was hot on my neck. We dashed through a slum, avoiding clotheslines and open pits of raw sewage, and he was there, throwing aside things and people to get to us. When we thought we had pulled ahead, twisting through narrow alleys and confusing side streets, we could still feel his Power, his frustration vibrating through the night. Lexi led us, and whether it was her own Power or a familiarity with the city, she managed to find just the right fire escapes to leap to, just the right piles of garbage to roll over. Perhaps this was not the first time she had fled from a demon of this stature. â€Å"The seaport,† she hissed. â€Å"It's our only chance.† Damon nodded, for once having no trouble taking orders from someone else. We made our way to the west, to the avenues bordering the mighty Hudson. Lexi's eyes suddenly narrowed and she pointed. A clipper ship, a pretty shiny blue vessel just pulling away from the dock, filled with all sorts of New York goods to sell overseas. With a mighty leap Lexi cleared the water between the dock and its deck, arms poised in the air like a cat leaping upon its prey. Damon and I followed suit, silently landing on the dark deck. By the time we recovered ourselves she was already compelling a shocked sailor who had seen the manner of our arrival. â€Å"We're on the manifest. My brothers and I have a berth below. We did not just leap aboard†¦.† Damon surveyed the ship with interest, pleased with his new locale. I looked back toward shore. There stood a single, innocuous-seeming man leaning against the rail of the wharf, pale as if he had sucked all the moonlight into himself. He stood casually, like he was just there to watch the ships come and go. But the look in his eyes was deadly and eternal – and unforgiving.

What Is Academic Integrity - 1483 Words

What is Academic Integrity? There are only two kinds of men in this world: Honest men and dishonest men. †¦ Any man who says the world owes him a living is dishonest. The same god that made you and me made this Earth. And He planned it so that it would yield every single that the people on need. But He was careful to plan it so that it would yield every single thing that it would only yield up its wealth in exchange for the labor of man. Any man who tries to share in that wealth without contributing the work of his brain or his hand is dishonest (Ralph Moody) People do dishonest actions that harm the integrity of their work and others for the strangest reasons. Due to these various motivations, they resort to tactics such as cheating, lying, stealing and thievery. In contrast, honest people exemplify academic integrity. Academic integrity is harmed by cheating and plagiarism; they are forms of thievery. Academic integrity involves being honest through doing original work, properly citing information, and n ot copying others. Original work is the creation of an idea stemming from the creative mind. US copyright laws define original work as the following: Original work of authorship refers to any type of expression independently conceived by its creator. As long as a particular expression has been independently created, it need not be original in the sense of new. For example, if a person â€Å"A’ never heard of or read a book named ‘X’, written by ‘B’, but somehow managed toShow MoreRelatedEssay about The Importance of Academic Integrity1278 Words   |  6 Pagesthe resources you â€Å"borrowed† or quoted from the original author?   Will anyone know if you submit a friend’s research paper?   No one can see you taking an online test from your living room – should that change how you take a test?   Who is hurt by academic dishonesty? 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