The tough times that labor had before and while they were forming unions.

Essay by emericaskaterCollege, UndergraduateB, April 2003

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After the Civil War (1861-1865) Americans faced many challenges in dealing with work issues. These challenges provided hardships for their way in life. It prompt the workers of this time to form Unions in order to protect themselves and provide a safety rope. The forming of unions gave the workers a voice in the large companies, who would otherwise, not be heard.

Technology was one of the challenges that workers faced. This new technology was good for the companies but back for the laborers. Their jobs were being taken away from the machines that could do the work but at even a faster rate of production. These machines rapidly took over the labor where men use to be. Most people still had jobs, but it made it a little harder to get one when they were competing against machines who could out produce the workers.

Before the Civil War, many people were self employed.

The majority of these people farmed or were somehow involve with agriculture. They mainly lived in rural areas outside of cities. After the

war, however, many people began moving into the cities to look for jobs

and started urbanization. The people moved from agricultural work to industrial. They started working for companies who gave them orders and told them what to do. They were not use to this because most of these people were used to being self employed. They were able to do things at their own pace and will. Now the workers had to meet every expectation and requirement the companies had or else they would be easily replaced by the many others who were looking for jobs. In working for the large companies they were only a laborer and nothing else.

The workers were separated from the employers in the companies. As...