History of Labor Unions Primary Sources

This site makes available transcripts of the trial of those accused in the 1886 Haymarket bombing, along with photographs, diagrams, and other evidence.

Includes letter and other documents by the great labor leader. Gives a flavor of the nitty-gritty of the early labor movement.

This is the text of the law commonly known as the Wagner Act. Passed in 1935, it changed the landscape of labor-management relations, setting off a burst of labor organizing.

Here you can find the text of the Taft Hartley Act. Passed in 1947, it tilted power in the workplace back toward management.

This site contains more than 1,600 documents that detail the 1917 clash in which IWW members and strikers were run out of Bisbee, Arizona.