BOYCOTTS AND LOCKOUTS

Boycotts and Lockouts

Boycotts and Lockouts

Although lockout is a primary economic weapon utilized by employers; it is rarely used. According to a class handout, an employer may lock out its employees in order to bring economic pressure on a union. For example, an employer may lockout offensively, i.e., to put economic pressure on the union to accede to its bargaining demands. In other words, a theater could lockout unionized workers in a preemptive maneuver during a slow season to outmaneuver the possibility of the union striking during its busiest season to exert its pressure on the theater. Thus, the theater hopes to resolve the labor issue, to their advantage, before the busy season (e.g. Christmas season). Lockout is consisted of other components, besides the generalized aspect described in the preceding paragraph, such as: replacements; pre-impasse lockouts, and partial lockouts. An employer can hire temporary replacements during a lockout but it is not allowed to hire permanent replacements. Pre-impasse lockouts are lockouts implemented before an impasse (a deadlock in negotiations).

In the late 19th Century, there were significant changes in American industrialization and in attitudes towards work. As improved technologies and machines in the industries took away the need for skilled workers, the new industrial workplace called for workers who had little or no experience, known as wage slaves. Wage slaves had little independence, low wages, and worked long hours in poor working conditions. In order to retrieve lost liberties and to improve the conditions of these workers, organized labor unions formed. Organized labor from 1875 to 1900, however, did not have an immediate impact on the position of workers. The success of organized labor was hindered by the failure of strikes, many advantages that employers had over laborers, and the struggles of many different unions that emerged.

Strikes were common uses of protest by unions in hopes that they were more effective in achieving their goals rather than negotiating. In the late 19th century, however, strikes took a turn for the worse. This time period marked some major strikes against the industrial managements, such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Homestead Strike, and the Pullman Strike. None of these strikes really had a positive outcome. In fact, Thomas Nast's cartoon suggested that the nation was headed towards a war between labor and capital.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was one of the most violent strikes of that time. It was caused by wage cuts in railroad companies that were supposed to reduce costs, especially because there was an economic depression going on. Encouraged by unions, the railroad workers decided to fight for higher wages. However, the end result of the Great Strike of 1877 was violence, fatalities, and destruction of valuable property, and the workers didn't get what they wanted. Nast's cartoons also suggested that the strike proved to be ineffective because the workers were cutting off the capital (by going on strike) that also provided them their wages. The Homestead Strike of 1892, in which workers of the ...