Labor

Labor Higher wages! Shorter workdays! Better working conditions! These famous words echoed throughout the United States beginning in “1790 with the skilled craftsmen” (Dessler, 1997, p. 544). For the last two-hundred years, workers of all trades have been fighting for their rights and “seeking methods of improving their living standards, working conditions, and job security” (Boone, 1996,p.287). As time went by, these individuals came to the conclusion that if they work together collectively, they would grow stronger to get responses to their demands. This inspired into what we know today as labor unions. “A labor union is an organized group of workers whose purpose is to increase wages and influence other job conditions for its members” (Parkin, 1998,p.344). These labor unions can be divided into two types: craft unions and industrial unions (World, 1998). A craft union is “a union whose membership is restricted to workers who possess an identifiable skill” (Robinson, 1985,p. 69). These members tend to be better educated and trained, and more unified because of common interests (World, 1998). An example of a craft union is the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (World, 1998). On union, labor, workers, united, unions, robinson, craft, afl, conditions, 1998, 1996, 1985, world, working, wages, membership, members, knights, job, first, boone, 1886, work, whose, types, trades, strikes, steel, states, significant, period, parkin, organized, organization, national