I read over and over,
"The unions served thier purpose at one time..."
"We needed the unions during the industrial revolution..."
I have heard this all my life. This is accepted wisdom. I heard it in school, public and private. I hear it from colleagues, liberal and conservative. Everyone knows this to be fact.
But...
I have never, in my life, ever seen one shred of evidence. Nothing. Its just stated like fact, and we all accept it.
Well, just for starters:
Ludlow, CO massacre:
http://archaeology.about.com/cs/military/bb/ludlow.htmIn the decades before World War I, industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller had become millionaires; by the early years of the 20th century labor unrest blossomed in the United States, particularly in the coal mine industry. Strikes grew into riots occurring throughout the US, and then into full scale battles, the most famous of which was in 1914, the Ludlow Coal Massacre, when Colorado National Guard opened fire on a tent city of striking miners and their families in Ludlow Colorado.
Basic Facts
On April 20, 1914, Colorado National Guardsmen attacked a tent colony of 1,200 striking miners at Ludlow, Colorado, looting and burning the colony. Twenty-five people were killed. This was the worst of many such skirmishes between the government and the miners in Coal Field War of 1914, which lasted for seven months.
Battle Statistics
The battle lasted 14 hours and included a machine gun and 200 armed militia; the tent city was destroyed. Of the 25 people killed, three were militia men, twelve were children, and one was an uninvolved passerby. The strikers were mostly Greek, Italian, Slav, and Mexican workers; the militia were sent by the Governor of Colorado and ultimately by John D. Rockefeller, owner of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.
Recent Research and Findings
Dean Saitta and Randall MacGuire have been conducting archaeological investigations at Ludlow for the past several years, using innovative techniques combining remote sensing and historic photographs. Several professional articles have been published, and are listed on the Colorado Coal Field War Project Site.
* Colorado Coal Field War Project
* Bibliography
Site Photographs
The Santa Fe Trails site has a collection of photographs, including some historic shots, of the site monument and ruins. The Colorado Coal Field War Project has several historic photographs of the miners' strike and the events that led up to the massacre as well as the ruins of the tent city immediately after the massacre. Archaeologist Mark Walker has a Flickr page with several photographs of the archaeological site and artifacts.
* Colorado Coal Field War Project
* Santa Fe Trail
* Mark Walker's Flickr page
United Mine Workers History
The UMWA lost the Coal Field War. The strike ended in December 1914, and 408 miners were arrested, some for murder, including their leader John Lawson. However, none of the arrests ever resulted in findings of guilt. Ten officers and 12 enlisted men were court-martialed and exonerated for the events at Ludlow. However, because of the public outcry, the UMWA grew strong and eventually the miners' situation improved.
* The Ludlow Massacre
There's a timeline here, with links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_civil_unrest_in_the_United_States