LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Labor Unions: Workers
built 220 days ago
Labor unions have been a part of Nigerian industry since 1912, when government employees formed a civil service union. In 1914 this organization became the Nigerian Union of Civil Servants after the merger of the protectorates of Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria. In 1931 two other major unions were founded--the Nigerian Railway Workers Union and the Nigerian Union of Teachers (which included private-school teachers). Legalization of unions in 1938 was followed by rapid labor organization during World War II as a result of passage by the British government of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940, which encouraged the establishment of unions in the colonies. The defense regulation of October 1942 made strikes and lockouts illegal for the duration of the war and denied African workers the cost-of-living allowances that European civil servants received. In addition, the colonial government increased wages only modestly, although the cost of living rose 74 percent from September 1939 to October 1943.
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The American Federation of Labor (AFL), founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers was a national federation of skilled workers' unions that set the organizational model that has lasted to the 21st century. The AFL affiliates made steady progress. Total membership rose from 200,000 in 1886 to 1,750,000 in 1904. Gompers, as president, vigorously acted as organizer, conciliator, and peace-maker within labor's ranks. Jurisdictional conflicts between member unions were resolved, and in the 1890s the electrical workers, teamsters, musicians, and building laborers were formed into national unions. With rapid industrialization utilizing unskilled immigrant labor, the AFL ignored most factories and concentrated its attention on the skilled crafts.
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Labor unions are almost as old as America itself. Although primitive unions of carpenters and other tradespeople made an appearance in various cities in colonial America, the first national labor unions gained strength in the 1820s. During this time, workers banded together to reduce the working day from a grueling 12 hours to a more manageable 10 hours. In 1866, the Nation Labor Union persuaded Congress to cut the workday down to today’s eight hour standard.
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Labor unions have spurned activism for several generations. Under George Meany and Lane Kirkland, the AFL-CIO supported U.S. foreign policy to the letter. They were militantly anti-communist, friends of the CIA. During the Vietnam War, union members in the construction trades beat up long-haired anti-war demonstrators. Now they're wearing ponytails themselves and shaking their fists at the World Trade Organization, which they think is on the side of the corporations, not the workers of the world.
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Labor unions that succeed in achieving their values are not doing something morally wrong. The workers are free to make their demands in any way they chose, including collectively. They are free to chose to express their demands as a group and with the condition that negotiations include all members. The employer is not forced to give in to these demands if he considers them unreasonable. Thus this "achievement of values" is not by pull because it is a not an achievement tainted by illegal or illegitimate means. It is a "value" that has been obtained with no use (or threat of use) of force on either side.
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The AFL was founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers as a successor to the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU, 1881–1886); like the NLU the AFL was a federation of unions. The AFL was a union of skilled workers only (expect for the unskilled coal miners.) There was no role for unskilled workers, women or African Americans. From 1890 to 1917 the unionized wages rose steadily and the average work week fell. Gompers hired organizers like John L. Lewis to talk up unions and start new locals, while negotiating among affiliated unionsto head off jurisdictional disputes. Most of the strikes sponsored by AFL unions were to gain jursidiction and bargaining rights from employers, rather than raise wages or install safety equipment.[4]
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