Business Law: Research Project
Business Law: Research Project
Bryant Stratton College
Mr. Coleman
Kamisha Carter
December 17, 2012
Introduction
“The Public Employee Union is organized to improve Public Service. Advance and improve the interests of its members in the matter of their wages, hours, working conditions, and general welfare”. (Clark, 1968-present)
Today, the United States is the richest country on earth. By most standards, U.S. earnings permit the vast majority of us to enjoy the highest standards of living. Most families have cars, sometimes two or three, televisions, refrigerators and their children have access to boom boxes, CDs, computers and cell phones. How did it happen that Wisconsin workers in May two thousand ten earned an average of nineteen dollars and seventeen cents an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics? The collective actions of workers that are usually through their unions have forced employers to pay fair wages. This factor tells us how workers were able get a fairer share of the nation’s wealth. Early on, workers learned they could not rely upon employers to pay them fairly. The prominent philosophy among the politicians and newspaper editors of the day was that workers were “property,” that is, they were resources for an employer to use to produce a profit.
The Early Labor Times
As early as eighteen-five, shoemakers, formed a union in New York, but with no laws to protect them, such unions were short-lived. In eighteen-six, for instance, shoemakers in Philadelphia were forced to disband after being charged with conspiracy for organizing in an attempt to get higher wages, causing “injury” to their employer. For the next fifty years, any efforts at organizing largely faced such adverse decisions in the courts, making it impossible for unions to be developed, or to last very long.
Bryant Stratton College
Mr. Coleman
Kamisha Carter
December 17, 2012
Introduction
“The Public Employee Union is organized to improve Public Service. Advance and improve the interests of its members in the matter of their wages, hours, working conditions, and general welfare”. (Clark, 1968-present)
Today, the United States is the richest country on earth. By most standards, U.S. earnings permit the vast majority of us to enjoy the highest standards of living. Most families have cars, sometimes two or three, televisions, refrigerators and their children have access to boom boxes, CDs, computers and cell phones. How did it happen that Wisconsin workers in May two thousand ten earned an average of nineteen dollars and seventeen cents an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics? The collective actions of workers that are usually through their unions have forced employers to pay fair wages. This factor tells us how workers were able get a fairer share of the nation’s wealth. Early on, workers learned they could not rely upon employers to pay them fairly. The prominent philosophy among the politicians and newspaper editors of the day was that workers were “property,” that is, they were resources for an employer to use to produce a profit.
The Early Labor Times
As early as eighteen-five, shoemakers, formed a union in New York, but with no laws to protect them, such unions were short-lived. In eighteen-six, for instance, shoemakers in Philadelphia were forced to disband after being charged with conspiracy for organizing in an attempt to get higher wages, causing “injury” to their employer. For the next fifty years, any efforts at organizing largely faced such adverse decisions in the courts, making it impossible for unions to be developed, or to last very long.