VA -- Richmond -- Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC) -- Exhibit: Organized Labor:
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- Description of Pictures: About this exhibition
This exhibition looks at a history that is perhaps longer than most people realize. Since the organized labor movement began, Virginia workers have seen major improvements in their conditions and pay. Unions were not the only reason for these gains, but they played an essential part as the most direct advocates for workers. The workplace in Virginia today reflects the benefits of more than a century of negotiation and struggle.
The Knights of Labor:
The 1880s in Virginia saw big growth in industry, but most workers experienced little improvement. Given the competitive politics of the period, the conditions were opportune for organizing labor unions. In 1884, locally formed unions began to affiliate with the first national union, the Knights of Labor. Membership grew rapidly after Knights leader Terence Powderly visited Richmond in January 1885.
The Trade union:
After the decline of the Knights of Labor, a new model for labor organization arose. In the Knights, local assemblies were built from local craft unions like the typographers and the coopers. In the new model, local craft unions joined with similar unions from other places to form a larger union. The big craft unions joined together at the national level in 1890 and formed the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
Unions in Society:
For thousands of Virginians in the early twentieth century, union activities were a part of their daily lives. Local unions held monthly and sometimes weekly meetings. Big gatherings and parades took place on Labor Day, and the Virginia Federation of Labor held an annual convention.
Social Reform:
The Progressive Movement of the early twentieth century sought to correct the less happy consequences of industrialization. Published exposés and organized campaigns helped push governmental oversight, even in Virginia, into areas previously unregulated.
The Industrial Union:
The craft union and the industrial union are organized in different ways. The craft union brings together people with the same skill, like carpenters, who work for different companies. The industrial union brings the employees of a plant together in one unit that represents all the individual crafts and includes unskilled workers.
Right to Work:
The "closed" versus "open" shop has always been an important issue for labor. In a closed shop, all employees must join the union. In an open shop, employees are not required to join. Unions often view nonmembers as benefiting from collective bargaining. The open shop makes union organizing more difficult. "Right to work" describes state laws that require open shops.
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- Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- VHSLAB_101222_07.JPG: A Seal of the Petersburg Benevolent Mechanic Association
The Petersburg Benevolent Mechanic Association, founded in 1825, was a fraternal group with some of the attributes of a union. The PBMA was open to all skilled and unskilled white men who worked with their hands in a wide range of crafts and open to proprietors and employees. Many in the PBMA were upwardly mobile -- there were committees for a library and for a school -- and a number became employers themselves.
- VHSLAB_101222_27.JPG: Bigger Than the Government:
Fred O. Seibel, Cartoon, May 8, 1943
Controversy arose over strikes during wartime, especially in vital industries. Many in the press openly criticized the coal strikes led by United Mine Workers chief John L. Lewis. With the advance of Communism making times uncertain, labor contention became grouped with things that made many Americans uneasy.
- VHSLAB_101222_44.JPG: Agitators:
David Silvette, 1933.
For the figures on the right, the artist posed a North Carolina labor organizer and his wife and child> Agitators captures its period's sense of activism. As a 1933 newspaper described it, "the 'poor white' of the South is shown rebelling against the social and economic burden which oppresses him; beside him is the Negro, who shares the burden."
- VHSLAB_101222_51.JPG: Coal Miner's Flame Safety Lamp: c 1910-20
A flame safety lamp was used to check for methane gas and oxygen deficiency in a coal mine, performing the function that canaries once did. Safety rules and equipment gradually improved, but to be effective, worker protection depended upon enforcement.
- VHSLAB_101222_67.JPG: Charter, Knights of Labor, Local Assembly No. 15002
1895
After the late 1880s, black workers remained strong supporters for the Knights of Labor but white involvement fell and the organization went into decline. John Taylor Chappell attempted a Knights of Labor revival in April 1895, forming a new Altrurian Assembly No 15002, for which this is the charter. The local did not flourish, however, and within several years evolved into a socialist book club.
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