Yellow dog contracts were contracts that prevented workers from joining or organizing unions in return for becoming employed in a job. Throughout the Gilded Age, workers received low wages and often had to work long, hard hours. As a result of the poor working conditions, workers began to go on strikes as a form of protest. One strike in particular, the Pullman Strike in 1894, led to the start of yellow dog contracts. Pullman rehired his employees if they signed contracts that forbid them to go on strikes.
While there was increased sentiment towards better working conditions during the Progressive Era, yellow dog contracts persisted. In 1898, the Erdman Act, which forbid railroad companies to force employees to sign the contracts, was enforced by Congress. However, this legislation was turned down by the Supreme Court in Adair v. United States (1908), as it was ruled that the Erdman Act was unconstitutional.
In the court case, William Adair, a representative from a railroad company and the defendant, fired an employee "who had joined a union," which violated the Erdman Act. The Court ruled in favor of Adair and stated that there was a "balance of freedoms which [existed] between employers and employees." The Erdman Act violated "the liberties of both employers and employees since it compelled them to accept certain conditions in the purchasing and selling of labor."
Throughout the 1920's, yellow dog contracts became increasingly prominent. Thus, there were no longer any large strikes during this decade. However, the Great Depression created a shift in favor of workers. As most people became unemployed, yellow dog contracts seemed to be unnecessary. More people also saw the contracts as an infringement of the rights of workers. The Norris-La Guardia Act in 1932 completely outlawed yellow dog contracts. This legislation was followed by the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933 and the Wagner Act in 1935, which both supported workers rights of organizing unions and bargaining collectively.
Yellow dog contracts can be seen as one of many methods that were enforced to limit the rights of workers. The contracts are quite similar to the ideas of sharecropping and political bosses as there is an agreement between the wealthy and the poor. Sharecropping was an exchange between labor and basic necessities for surviving (food and shelter) and political bosses emerged through an exchange of money for political power. As a result of these arrangements devised by people with more power and money, there became an increasing income gap after the Civil War and leading up to the Great Depression.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/yellow-dog-contract
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/208us161
https://www.britannica.com/event/Norris-La-Guardia-Act
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/law/law/yellow-dog-contracts
Great post Kevin. It was a very informative and brief history on something that we did not learn that much about. It was interesting for you to point out how these contracts helped to create a larger wealth gap, something that I never really would have thought about. I did some quick research into why they are called "yellow dog" contracts, and I found that it was because the contracts would reduce a person down to essentially being a yellow dog because they gave up all their control. A yellow dog was a term often used for useless things because many mongrel dogs had yellow coats.
ReplyDelete