Learn about the the events of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike which drew Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis, which is where he was soon to be assassinated. Excellent source of primary sources and first hand accounts of the...

This primary source set uses illustrations, documents, and photographs to tell the story of the Homestead Strike.

1896, A Website of Political Cartoons and Commentary provides the illustrated story of both the Homestead and Pullman strikes with quotes from newspapers of the time and a brief characterization of Andrew Carnegie. The site includes a...

This site from McMaster University has background information on Adam Smith. The article is provided by James Anson Farrer, and the information is very in-depth and lengthy, broken into different chapters. (Published 1881)

This is the official website of the Washington D.C. branch of the AFL-CIO labor union. Read about the current events, programs it offers and other information.

Use this site to learn about this former president of The American Federation of Labor, who was a leader in the labor movement in the early 1900s.

Article from the San Francisco News, July 3, 1934, reports on a union strike which occured in the San Fransico area. May be a bit violent for young students to read.

Read this historical account of the events that led to the infamous labor dispute known as the Haymarket Square Riots on May 4th of 1886.

Short biographical essay on Robert F. Wagner, author of the Social Security Act and the Wagner Labor Act.

This site tells about the process of collective bargaining and how it is used to settle labor disputes.

A message from Linda Chavez-Thompson, Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO, regarding the importance of unionization and being active politically.

Read about the fate of August Spies, union activist and anarchist, who was involved with the demonstration at Haymarket in Chicago.

The Haymarket Square demonstration turned violent in Chicago in 1886. See a wooden police baton used against the union rioters.

Read a brief description of the Clayton Antitrust Act, which Samuel Gompers considered the Magna Carta of labor legislation.

Here's a brief history of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the brainchild of John L. Lewis. Read about why he thought it was important for several unions to join together to press their ideas.

An excerpt from U.S. Strike Commission Report on the Pullman Strike. Site presents questions at the end for study.

Ohio History Central gives a brief summary of the Great Steel Strike of 1919, an attempt by steel workers to get higher pay and a shorter work day. Find out the results of the strike.

A brief look at the steel workers' strike against the steel producers in Ohio. Read how the strike progressed, and how it was eventually resolved.

A very brief description of the Industrial Workers of the World and what they represented.

Read how the Great Railroad Strike started and why federal troops were called in to control the strikers.

Important information and fun facts about the 1947 Taft Hartley Act, a major revision of the 1935 Wagner Act.

Read about the variations between socialist, social democratic and labor parties across 18 countries in the early twentieth century. Taking an inside look at case studies, there was a political emergence of the bourgeoisie and an...

Senator Joseph McCarthy did not create the national obsession with communist subversion. It had arisen in the late 1930s, years before McCarthy had come to public notice. Angry that they had been barred from the corridors of power for 20...

Learn about the Polish Crisis of 1980-1981 that began with a wave of strikes across Poland and the formation of the first independent labor union. The documents are from Russian archives that were writtne in response to the Polish crisis.