Margins To Mainstream: Analyzing The Rise of American Labor Unions (1929-1945)

On October 24, 1929, a stock market crash put an end to a decade of economic prosperity that doubled the United States’ total wealth (1). The crash destroyed banking systems. Factories went bankrupt and shut down. Workers went hungry and stood in breadlines that stretched for blocks. The unemployment rate rose to 25%, leaving millions of Americans homeless. This paper illustrates how labor unions took advantage of different opportunities amidst the Great Depression, New Deal, and World War II to end their previously marginalized status, rising to become major political and institutional forces. The impact of these changes on American workers is also analyzed. Poor humanitarian conditions accelerated calls for improved worker protection measures. This caused union membership to surge. A combination of political advocacy and collective bargaining with social safety net measures allowed labor unions to become powerful political forces. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s revolutionary New Deal policies made this possible through the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. The act granted unions government permission to help workers collectively bargain.