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Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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1) What conditions and events led to the establishment of the labor movement and the subsequent laws establishing environmental and safety standards in the workplace?
Child labor, unsafe working conditions, low pay, chemical poisoning, and explosions all contributed to the need for a labor movement. Upton Sinclair’s book, “The Jungle,” made people more aware of the unsafe working conditions and motivated them to bring about change through protests and unions.
In the 1980 OSHA video, the narrator keeps mentioning that it was unfortunate that it took tragedies for certain laws and safety standards to be implemented. For example, 316 men died when a mine collapsed, afterward, the Bureau of Mines was created and safety feature was set in place to prevent similar accidents. …show more content…
While it didn’t directly affect safety and health regulations it raised the governments level of concern for working conditions.
In 1936 the Walsh-Healey act was passed. It became the first government imposed standard for health and safety and mandated the use of respirators. The respirators were meant to keep poisonous dust and fumes out of employee’s lungs, but they were poorly designed and didn’t fit properly.
In the 1930s the National Labor Relations Act made it a legal right to unionize. Industrial unions organized and fought for the rights of all workers
United Auto Workers won the right to collection bargaining in the 1930s.
Under the Johnson administration, the Workers Safety Bill was created. The bill enforced health and safety regulations in the work force.
In 1983 OSHA enacted the Right to Know act. The act allowed employees to be informed of the different effects chemicals had on their body when handling them.

3) In your lifetime which, if any, of the "workers rights" won by the labor movement benefit you or your family? Which would you keep? Which would you abolish if you

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