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Our History
A Union is Born
The Turbulent Years
The Conspiracy Trials
The Beginning of the
Morrin Era
The Depression and a New
Deal For Labor
World War II
Ironworkers Grow in the
1950's Part Two Part Three
John H. Lyons Jr.
Elected President
The Tradition Continues
Pathways to the 21st
Century Under The Leadership of General President Jake West
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Part One There have been "Unions" almost since the beginning of recorded history. The earliest known labor-management agreement dates back to 459 A.D. and is known as the Sardis Building Trades Agreement. An American archeologist W. H. Buckler, while digging at the site of the ancient city of Sardis in what is now modern Turkey, discovered a very large gray marble slab with an inscription on it. When Buckler translated the inscription he was surprised to find it was a collective bargaining agreement between the local Roman pro-consul and the Sardis Building Trades Crafts. It seems that the city of Sardis was experiencing a building boom, and contractors were finding that there was a shortage of labor. This put construction workers in the position of being able to demand higher wages as they moved from one contractor to another. The Roman pro-consul then negotiated a collective bargaining agreement. During the Middle Ages skilled workers formed "Guilds". Their membership consisted of apprentices, journeymen and masters. These guilds performed many of the functions for their members that unions do today. Although there were foundries and blacksmith shops early on, it wasn't until the eighteenth century that bridges and buildings began to be made of iron. By 1786 workers organizations were beginning to spring up in the large cities of the United States. The first all metal bridge
built in America was a modest span of eighty feet consisting of five
tubular arch rings. It was necessary for the bridge to be an
"arch" span because cast iron is brittle and very weak in
tension. In an "arch" bridge the members are continuously
in compression. John A Roebling introduced wire rope to America in 1842. James Bogardus built the first all iron building in America when he designed and erected his factory to produce cast iron buildings in1850. The big change for our industry occurred in 1855 when the Englishman Henry Bessemer patented a process for making steel cheaply and in quantity and William Siemens and Pierre Emile Martin invented the "Open Hearth" process for making steel. The first all Steel bridge was built by General Sooy Smith in 1879 in Glasgow, Missouri for the Chicago and Alton Railroad over the Missouri River. John A Roebling received final
approval for the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1869. He
wouldn't get to finish it though because he died on July 22, 1869 of a
tetanus infection from a freak accident while surveying the bridge. The period after the Civil war was a time of great activity for the Labor movement. The "Noble Order of the Knights of Labor" was formed in December, 1869. The downfall of this organization would begin in 1886. There was a big movement in the country for the eight hour day and the Knights didn't give the kind of support the members wanted. On November 15, 1881 the "Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions" was born and Samuel Gompers was elected it's first President. In 1886 the name was changed to the "American Federation of Labor". THE MOLLY MAGUIRES During the years after the
Civil War there was a strong, concerted effort to destroy union labor by
management and government. THE HAYMARKET AFFAIR Probably no single event has done more to influence the history of labor in the United States and even the world. It all began with a simple rally on May 4th, 1886, but the consequences are still being felt today. To understand what happened in Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 4, 1886 it's necessary to go back to the fall of 1884 when the Federation of Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU), the predecesor to the AF of L met in Chicago and called for May 1, 1886 to be the beginning of a nationwide strike for the eight hour day. This was not a particularly radical idea since the stae of Illinois and Federal employees were supposed to be covered by an eight-hour-day law since 1867. The problem was that the federal government failed to enforce it's own law and, in Illinois, employers forced workers to sign waivers of the law as conditions of employment. With two years to plan, organized labor in Chicago and throughout the nation sent out questionaires to employers to see how they felt about shorter hours, piecework, child labor, and other issues. Although perhaps a simplistic solution to unemployment and low wages, the "Eight-Hour-Day-Movement" caught the imagination of workers across the country. In 1886 the city of Chicago had one of the strongest labor movements in the country. Chicago had a large German population and many of them had been socialists in the old country. Also, many Chicago workers had fled the eastern cities when their unions were broken and they were "black listed." Once in Chicago they were ready to fight rather than move again. On Saturday, May 1, 1886, reportedly 80.000 workers marched up Chicago's Michigan Avenue, arm-in-arm, singing and carrying the banners of their unions. The unions most strongly represented were the building trades, and among themcertainly were the Bridge Builders Mutual Association and various ethnic iron worker unions of that day. This solidarity shocked some employers, who feared a workers revolution, while others quickly signed agreements for shorter hours at the same pay.
While the events of May 1st had been well planned, the events of the evening of May 4th were not. Most of the speakers failed to appear. Instead of starting at 7:30 pm, the meeting was delayed for about an hour. Instead of the expected 20,000 people fewer than 2,500 attended. Although Mayor Harrison who attended the meeting had told the police to leave, the minute he was out of sight, the crowd now numbering only about 200 was attacked by 176 policemen carrying Colt Lightning revolvers. Then someone, unknown to this day, threw the first dynamite bomb ever used in peacetime in the history of the world. The police panicked and in the darkness many shot at their own men. Eventually, seven policemen died, only one accountable to the bomb. At least four workers were killed, but there may have been more since bodies were dragged away in fear of police harassment. Hundreds of labor leaders were arrested and all union newspapers were closed down.
Scroll to the top and click on "Our History Before 1896 - Part Two"
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The bridge was designed by Captain Richard Delafield to carry the National
Road across Dunlap's Creek at Brownsville, Fayette County,
Pennsylvania. It was completed in 1836 and survives until the
present.
The overseeing of construction was taken over by his son Washington A.
Roebling. He was only 32 years old at the time but highly qualified
to carry out his father's work. It was the longest span for a
suspension bridge at the time and was the first one to use all steel
construction including the cables. Previous suspension bridge cables
used iron wire. It was also the first time the cables were made with
galvanized wire. It has been estimated that thirty to forty men lost
their lives building this bridge but no one really knows because no
records were kept at the time. Washington Roebling himself was
crippled for life when he acquired the "Bends" while working in
the caissons. Three men died from the bends and 107 were
hospitalized. Washington Roebling's wife Emily completed the
engineering work after her husband was too disabled to continue. The
bridge was completed in 1883. The official opening day was May 14,
1883. Many of the workers on this job would become charter members
of Local #2 in New York City.
In 1875 trumped up charges were filed against twenty-four members of the
Miners' and Laborers' Benevolent Association. The evidence against
them was totally fabricated. They were branded as the "Molly
Maguires" and fourteen were sent to prison and ten were hanged on
December 18, 1878. One of the men hanged was John Kehoe a leader of
the Workmen's Benevolent Society. In January, 1979 he was pardoned
posthumously by Governor Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania based on new
historical evidence showing that he was framed by the mine owners in order
to stop the growth of the union movement among their workers.
On
Monday, May 3, the peaceful scene turned violent when the Chicago police
Department attacked and killed picketing workers at the McCormack Reaper
Plant on the city's southwest side. It was this attack that provoked
a protest meeting which was planned for Haymarket Square on the evening of
Tuesday, May 4.
Eventually
eight men, representing a cross section of the labor movement, were
selected and brought to trial. Only two of the men were at Haymarket
Square that night. Three of the men were sent to Joliet State Prison
and five were condemned to be hanged. On November 11, 1887 four of
the men were hanged. One had died in jail prior to the execution.