Industrial workers, as industry emerged and grew in the last half of the 19th century, did not profit as the business tycoons did. Read about the very beginnings of attempts to organize as a force to demand higher wages, a shorter work...

Read about the growth of labor unions during the 1930s as the Great Depression continued, due to the passage of the Wagner Act. Find out about the strikes and the conflict between labor and management, as well as conflict within the...

Due to the strife incurred by garment workers at the turn of the century, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was formed. Read about its history and its relevancy in the 21st century.

This site contains a description of the Haymarket Tragedy, and also includes many related topics.

A rich collection of resources, including primary sources, student activities, and lesson plans, to support study of Americans at work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Scroll down through this American Memory's Today in History to the Rock Springs Massacre. Find a brief description of what happened to the Chinese mine workers on that day in Wyoming, and the aftermath. Included are links to photographs...

This site discusses how for much of the latter half of the 1800s, the life of the common laborer was horrendous. Working in a unsanitary factory, for at least 10 hours a day, making far less than needed to survive, the struggles of the...

Passage of the Adamson Act in 1916 was a huge victory for labor unions pushing for an eight-hour day. Read about that victory and find an illustration celebrating that fact.

This article relates the history of African Americans in the union movement during the Great Depression. Read about the importance of black membership in the CIO, the ILA, and the steel industry.

A brief history of the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado in 1914. Read about the thwarted attempts of coal miners to unionize.

The story of Mexican workers and their attempt to unionize due to poor working conditions at a Hyundai plant in Tijuana. Fom a story by David Bacon in the San Francisco Bay Guardian on 06/11/1997.

Female labor activist "Mother Jones" was a self-proclaimed "hell-raiser" in the cause of economic justice.

Read an interview with a former steelworker, who recalls the Great Steel Strike of 1919 when he was a young boy. Find out the ramifications for his family because his father was a union man who supported the strike. An audio of the...

Student will use primary and secondary sources to gain a richer understanding of women's activism and how the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire led to changes in labor and safety regulations in America.

Read the gripping testimony of an immigrant girl who testified before a U.S. Congressional committee detailing the conditons in the textile mill in which she worked. Because of these unsafe working conditions, the textile workers...

The violent strike in Cripple Creek, Colorado, pitted the Western Federation of Miners against the mine owners. Read these statements by the two organizations giving their views of what happened in that conflict.

It's interesting to read about the anti-union sentiment that led to the Taft-Hartley Act after World War II, but even more amazing to see how that sentiment was tied to the anti-communist witch hunts of the time. Read the comments of the...

Read about the Chicago branch of the Women's Trade Union League and its alliance between women workers and upper-class women who supported their cause.

The National Women's Hall of Fame recognizes the important and influential life work of the famous labor organizer and worker's rights activist "Mother" Jones.

Read about the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, a union that represented steel workers, among many other factoy workers. Find out about their tactics used in strikes during the Great Depression.

A description of the Haymarket Square riot and its cause. Find quotes from the Chicago Tribune which called the protesters insurrectionists, and two Illinois governors who doubted the guilt of those rounded up, charged, and convicted of...

This article discusses women's roles in the Knights of Labor.

[Free Registration/Login Required] Learners read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry lesson allows students read parallel accounts of the Pullman Strike of 1894 from...

This practice exercise from Khan Academy covers Period 6: 1865-1898 in American History. The Gilded Age is reviewed in this resource. This resource is designed as a review for the AP US History Test.