United States 1827

Synopsis

The Mechanics Union of Trade Associations (MUTA) was the first city central labor union in United States history. Begun when a strike for a 10-hour day by journeyman carpenters united with a wider movement led by a socialist shoemaker, MUTA came to represent at least 19 trade unions with more than 2,000 members. MUTA supported a library, sponsored the nation's first labor-run newspaper, regulated strikes, paid relief wages for striking workers, established work standards and pay-scales for journeymen in many different professions, and took an interest in local and federal political elections to help ensure that legislators were sympathetic to labor. Though MUTA lasted only two years, its influence in the politicization and empowerment of laborers was far-reaching: within a decade of its formation, similar unions were formed in every major city on the eastern seaboard, newspapers...