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1. Throughout most of American history, the relationship between managers and employees
has been fairly smooth.
2. Historically, managers were less concerned about productivity and more concerned with
friendly relations with coworkers.
3. One of the things that labor is interested in is fair and competent management.
4. A union is an employee organization that has the main goal of representing its members in
employee-management negotiation concerning job-related issues.
5. Even in their infancy, the main goal of most labor unions was to provide members with
increased management power.
6. Labor unions played a major role in establishing minimum wage laws, child-labor laws,
and improvements in job safety.
7. Today labor unions have seen a revitalization of support and union membership has
increased significantly.
8. Most historians view the increase in union membership in the United States as an
outgrowth of the transition from an industrial economy to a service economy during the middle
part of the 20th century.
9. The presence of formal labor organizations in the United States dates back to the late
1700s.
10. Some contend that the main reason membership in labor unions has declined in recent
years has been the passage of anti-labor legislation in the late 1980s that guaranteed all
employees of a firm the same wages and benefits whether they joined a union or not.
11. The Knights of Labor was the first truly national labor organization in the United States.
12. A
craft union
is an organization of skilled specialists in a particular craft or trade.
13. A union that consists of members who are all skilled specialists in a particular trade is
called an industrial guild.
14. The Knights of Labor, the first national labor organization, offered membership to all
working people, including employers.
15. The first national labor organization, the Knights of Labor, sought to gain enough political
power to restructure the entire U.S. economy.
16. Samuel Gompers was the most important leader of the American Federation of Labor
during its early years.
17. The AFL (American Federation of Labor) was initially intended to be a single craft union.
18. During its early years, the AFL tried to expand as rapidly as possible by recruiting both
skilled and unskilled workers.
19. In its early years, the AFL limited its membership to skilled workers.
20. Membership in industrial unions was strictly limited to skilled craftspeople.
21. John L. Lewis broke with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1935 over
membership issues and formed a rival group known as the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO).
22. The initial objective of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was to provide union
membership to workers in all industries.
23. Today, more than 55 national and international labor unions are affiliated with the AFL-
CIO.
24. For 20 years, the CIO was a major rival of the AFL in the contest for leadership of the labor
movement.
25. In 1955, after the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, the AFL and CIO merged to create the
AFL-CIO.
26. Today's labor leaders claim that the tragedy at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company is proof of
why labor unions are crucial to maintain workplace balance in the U.S.
27. Union membership is likely to rise in the coming decade, because the same economic
and political conditions that gave rise to unions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are now
reappearing.
28. A major difference between early labor organizations in the United States and today's
labor unions is that the early labor groups often were temporary organizations that disbanded
after achieving a short-range goal, while today's unions are permanent organizations.
29. The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor were actually very similar in
their aims, tactics, and membership. The only major difference was in the effectiveness of their
leaders.
30. The Industrial Revolution slowed the growth of unions by creating a rapidly rising
standard of living for most workers.
31. Abraham was an unskilled worker who toiled 10 hours a day on an assembly line during
the early and mid-1930s. His hours were long, his wages were low, and his working conditions
were unsafe and unpleasant. Abraham would probably have been more sympathetic to the views
of John L. Lewis than to those of Samuel Gompers.
32. The Zendor Corporation operates a manufacturing plant in Bel Ridge. The work is
arranged in an assembly line and is performed by semiskilled and unskilled workers. These
workers are looking into obtaining union representation. The type of union they would belong to
would be classified as an industrial union.
33. The Norris-LaGuardia Act made it more difficult for unions to legally recruit new
members.
34. A yellow-dog contract required workers to agree not to join a union as a condition of their
employment.
35. The Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibits firms from requiring workers to agree not to join a
union as a condition of their employment.
36. Samuel Gompers believed that collective bargaining was likely to be an ineffective way for
unions to achieve their objectives.
37. The National Labor Relations Act gave labor the legal justification to pursue collective
bargaining and other key labor issues.
38. The process by which a union is recognized by the NLRB as the authorized bargaining
agent for a group of workers is called collective bargaining.
39. Once a union is certified to represent a group of workers, decertification is not a
consideration or future possibility.
40. Collective bargaining is the process whereby union and management representatives
negotiate a labor-management agreement, or contract, for workers.
41. The Wagner Act established the first minimum wage for workers.
42. One goal of the Landrum-Griffin Act was to clean up union corruption.
43. The Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibited courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent
union activities.
44. The National Labor Relations Act gave employees the right to form and join labor
organizations and the right to engage in activities such as strikes and boycotts.
45. The Taft-Hartley Act strengthened unions by giving them the right to engage in
featherbedding and secondary boycotts.
46. The Taft-Hartley Act allowed states to pass laws that prohibited compulsory union
membership.
47. The Taft-Hartley Act gave more power to management.
48. Under the Wagner Act, the National Labor Relations Board can establish a labor union in
an organization if it finds evidence of substantial labor abuse within that organization.
49. The NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) has created procedures that union advocates
must follow in order to organize a union at a place of business. The multi-step procedure
culminates with a secret vote by the employees of the organization.
50. The NLRB oversees the decertification of unions. An employer (the company owners) can
petition and seek the signatures of 30% of the employees in order to decertify the union; in other
words, officially, the union could no longer represent the employees in any bargaining
negotiations.
51. Jenna is a member of a union team that is negotiating with management to obtain a labor
contract for the workers represented by the union. Jenna is involved in contract arbitration.
52. During an interview with Zytex company representative, Hillary was told that Zytex faces
intense competition and management believes that the only way the company can survive is to
have a nonunion workforce. Therefore, all workers Zytex hires must sign an employment contract
stating that they agree not to join a union while they work for Zytex. This requirement by Zytex is
illegal in the United States.
53. The workers at the Kerriton Company are unhappy with the way their union has been
representing them. The Wagner Act allows these workers to take away the union's right to
represent them through a process known as decertification.
54. Jake remembers his grandfather telling him about going to work at 16 years of age in the
coalmines of southern Illinois. In order to get the job, he had to agree to a yellow-dog contract.
Essentially this meant he would only get the job if he agreed not to join a union.
