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For a while worker rights weren't all that intimidating to large [Man protesting at Ginormo Mart]

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business owners for one workers tended to be kind of disorganized they had lots

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of different demands didn't all believe that striking was the way to go and

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didn't have the coordination and money to suddenly quit working all at once so [Man striking and falls over]

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big business owners could say hey cool guys let us know when you're done with

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this whole strike thing so we can hire you back at exactly the same wages you [Man in office with smoothie]

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know eventually workers try to get organized by forming unions but the

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trouble was that unions tried to do too much we're big on examples around these [Man discussing with trade unions]

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parts so let's check out the national labor union formed by william silvus in

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1866 no doubt silvus had reasonable goals it workers shorter hours and

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better pay the NLU supported legislation that would benefit farmers too and Phil [Man and woman picking plants on farm]

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this was known for inviting everyone to his union everyone but black ah the

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1860s never failed - totally not a surprise us even a tiny little bit while

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the NLU wasn't racially all-inclusive it did unites skilled workers unskilled [Construction workers in hard hats]

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workers and farmers it was most of us know from family holiday gatherings

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getting together too many people with different ideas leads to conflict [Men fighting over teddy bear]

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seriously check your Adel opinions at the door we're still not talking to

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orient searchers she's overrated unfortunately all these people were [Woman jumps on another man]

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focused on different things until this union went down in flames mostly because

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it had too many workers of too many trades with too many interests to [Sylvis standing in the fire]

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represent we hope Silva's sobbed along to someone wants you as his Union

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dispersed anyway like the NLU the Knights of Labor admitted all kinds of [Knight of labor in armor appears]

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workers to them labor unions were all about poor versus rich they figured if

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they were going to make an impact they needed all the people they could get

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well at 750,000 members strong the Knights of Labor had a fat roster they

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took on all of the issues of the NLU and stirred up some controversy about the [Man discussing matters with NLU crowd]

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government owning telephone lines and railways still like the NLU the Knights

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wide focus made them not as effective as they could have been and when the hay

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market bombing became associated with the Knights well they went kaput [Bomb explodes and knight shrugs]

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eventually a cigar roller named sang Gompers came and simplified things with

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his American Federation of Labor he realized that workers could all agree

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on higher wages and better working conditions

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period Gompers started bringing smaller unions together into the AFL around the [Man bringing unions into a barrel]

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time the Knights imploded Gompers wanted to get results unskilled laborers

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naturally had less leverage than skilled workers because they were easily

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replaced it's much easier to replace a ditch bigger than a skilled carpenter [Man appears from a ditch with a spade]

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pretty much anybody can perform an unskilled job that's why they call it

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unskilled so management just didn't care of 30 people quit Gompers didn't have a

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grand scheme to uplift every American worker so he kept his focus small

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previous labour unions frequently took dramatic action and called for radical

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change in the government well Gompers didn't get involved with politics on a

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large scale but he did stick to supporting skilled members engaged in

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stripes he wanted to win battles with management one at a time rather than [Gompers appears in office with a man]

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seek sweeping legislative changes so hey sometimes it pays to be an underachiever

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Gompers methods started working unions grew and their demand started to be met

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strikes now worked about half of the times which was still way better than [Man striking for more snacks]

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before when management would simply arrest and/or fire everybody it might

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not sound like much but something that works half a times better than something [Hammer crushes an alarm clock]

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that doesn't work at all that's unless it's something we're talking about as a

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pacemaker then well half the time I won't get us very far yeah whoa boy [Grandpa has a heart attack]

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