3 Majors Eras in Labor History

There have been many years throughout American labor history that have changed the ways that the affected communities live. Many movements have shifted styles of working, changed the nature of the working-class life, and have brought about such things as unions that we still possess today. In particular there are three major eras that have brought about such changes and one that is of the most importance. The progressive era brought us many changes in the workforce along with changes in technology. Also the roaring twenties was a period that started with great wealth extravagance and ended in the great depression that changed the entire country. Then there was the 1930's where FDR proposed the New Deal and had great ideas of where to take the country. Each of these eras created significant differences in the way the people worked and lived and will be further discussed in detail. The progressive era began in the late 1890's with a depression that led to one of the greatest movements of the era, the Pullman strike. The Pullman strike was started because of the depression and because of the fact that George Pullman, the man who owned Pullman Palace Car Company, fired a third of his employees and then cut the wages of the rest by 25 to 40%. The worked were left with hardly anything to bring home and they met to organize this strike. It became a national strike because nearly every railroad had Pullmans and there was no other way to transport the goods across country. The strike eventually became so large that it was halted by the government and ultimately ended in great violence. However, the Pullman strike was a success; it created organization amongst workers and gave workers a voice for the first time. Another large movement during this era was the influx of new immigrants and the emergence of nativism. Segregation was still a large part of the American life however now immigrants began moving to the country and they faced a greater prejudice than