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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
THE course of the workingman's struggle for higher wages and better
working conditions in New Jersey has followed generally the pattern
of that struggle throughout the country. Periods of prosperity usually
brought militant, stubbornly fought strikes, while depression frequently
retarded the growth of unionism and the advance toward more equitable
social and economic adjustments. The decline in union membership during the boom years 1923-1929 was an exception to this general pattern;
and, in the opposite direction, the less prosperous years 1933-1938 have
brought progressive labor legislation and increase in union membership,
though largely through the action of forces and leadership Nation-wide
in influence. The State has seldom been a leader in trade union activities,
but it has served, in many cases, as something of a proving ground for
trade union theories. On the whole, labor has traveled a rough road, for
local and State governments have been consistently conservative.
The lodging of mass production industries such as steel, textiles, oil,
chemicals, and electrical supplies in the northeastern section of the State
made New Jersey for some time an open-shop stronghold. On the other
hand, the large number of cities with more than 25,000 population provided fertile territory for craft unions. Over the years, the embattled textile workers of Paterson and Passaic have become the State's symbol of
resistance to exploitation.
Throughout the Colonial period rigid stratification of classes in both
agriculture and industry prevailed. Industrially the old guild system of
master, journeyman, and apprentice without actual guild organization was
firmly entrenched, and in agriculture, slaves and indentured servants formed
the main classes of laborers. For every slave imported each settler received
175 acres of land, and in 1737 slaves comprised 8.4 percent of the population. Slave riots were sufficiently violent and frequent to cause a citizen
in 1772 to urge parliament to pass a law "obliging owners of the slaves
to send them all back to Africa at their own expense." The most serious
insurrections occurred probably in connection with other political events,
as at Raritan in 1734, at Hackensack in 1741, and, some years later, at
Elizabethtown. As the Revolution approached, free labor began to displace
slaves and indentured servants.
The industrial revolution, which closely followed the political revolution against England, created a favorable opportunity for labor organization as it replaced home manufacture with the factory system. Despite this
and the growth of many other natural fields for unionism, notably railroad
and canal construction, iron and glass making, and pottery production, organization until 1850 was almost wholly confined to the older individual
crafts. The extremely harsh conditions of the Paterson textile factories
made them an exception. Here, women and children, who formed the
majority of the employees, were required to be at work at 4.30 a.m.; the
whip was frequently used to obtain speedier production, and the work day
lasted up to 16 hours.
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