Haywood Labor Unions

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These Joe Hill lyrics describe the typical mentality of labor unions. In order to accomplish equality in the workforce they believed binding together was their best option. Labor Unions struggled to fight low wages, long hours, and unhealthy environments. They also wanted to establish women/child labor laws. In the arena of labor unions comes The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies). They took the views of labor unions one step farther, which made them one of the most “revered” and “reviled” unions prior to World War I. In order to understand the importance of this labor union it is vital to look at some of the major events in their history. William Haywood was a former hard-rock miner who gave the keynote speech at the meeting …show more content…

This can be a fierce combination. Passion can be a good thing because it encourages people to fight for what they believe in. The trouble is that often individuals do not know the fine line between being civil or violent when they are trying to make a big impact. I believe the wobblies were revered by people who worked hard for a living, but could not take a stand without losing their jobs. Many of those people could not afford to lose their jobs because they would not be able to feed their families, but they had a high level of respect for the wobblies taking a stand. I also believe these workers respected the fact that the wobblies had the opportunity to actually make change happen for workers everywhere. I think they were reviled by the government and businesses owners because the radical actions the anarchists …show more content…

Today the I.W.W. members continue to advocate workers rights and free speech. The I.W.W. consists of writers, playwrights, historians, and filmmakers who still retain a vigorous press. (www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/golman/peopleevents/e_iww.html) I have a great respect for people who are brave enough to stand up to their opposition without knowing if they can truly win or not. On the contrary, I could not imagine carrying out the violent acts some of the IWW members did. In my opinion people expect violence in order to solve problems. Therefore, sometimes peoples minds can be far greater tops in the art of war. Unions could be useful today, but not any that carry out high levels of violence. I think that violence will only start a vicious cycle instead of resulting in

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