Congress passes the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Landrum-Griffin Act) in response to publicized corruption in the Teamsters, International Longshoremen’s Association, and United Mine Workers, imposing extensive federal oversight of union internal operations including …
U.S. CongressDepartment of LaborLabor unionsPhil LandrumLeo Griffinlabor-suppressionunion-restrictionslandrum-griffinregulatory-burdenlabor-law
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency operates throughout the Gilded Age as a private corporate army deployed against labor organizing, providing armed guards, infiltration agents, and strikebreaking services to employers seeking to crush unions through surveillance, espionage, and violence. …
Pinkerton National Detective AgencyAllan PinkertonCorporate employersState governmentsLabor unionsgilded-agelabor-suppressionprivate-securitycorporate-violenceunion-busting+1 more
President Chester A. Arthur signs the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first significant federal law restricting immigration into the United States based on race and nationality. The law prohibits all immigration of Chinese laborers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese …
Chester A. ArthurU.S. CongressChinese immigrant workersLabor unionsWest Coast employersimmigration-policyracismlabor-suppressiongilded-agescapegoating+1 more
American courts systematically suppress labor organizing throughout the early 19th century by prosecuting unions and strikes as criminal conspiracies under common law doctrine inherited from England. From the 1806 Philadelphia Shoemakers’ case through 1836, labor unions face conspiracy charges …
State courtsLabor unionsEmployersProsecutorslabor-suppressionworkers-rightscriminal-conspiracyjudicial-hostilitylabor-organizing