Labor Unions
With many workers being faced with too long hours, too low wages, and dangerous working conditions, they decided it might be to their advantage to join forces in order to improve the working conditions. Two types of labor unions became most apparent, craft unionism and industrial unionism. Craft unionism consisted of workers who were skilled in one or more trade. Industrial unionism was an organization that contained skilled and unskilled workers. The labor unions took most of their action by going on strikes and protesting the companies they worked for; however, many of the strikes ended in failure, violence, and/or caving into major companies. It became harder for labor unions to carry on with the Sherman Antitrust Act, which is talked about in the next section.