What conditions in the early 19th century (our time period) do you think might have encouraged unionization?

Answer 1

Many machines in factories caused severe injuries to both adults and children working in them which led to some of the unionization.

Answer 2

Unionization in any time period is driven by bad management. People can put up with only so much for only so long, then they say "enough is enough."

In the case of the early 19th century, hours were a primary issue. The eight hour day was the major fight for labor in the 1880s through the Wilson administration. Labor Day is on May 1 in most countries to commemorate the "Eight Hour Day" strikes which took place in the US.

Safety was also a huge issue, especially in industries such as mining and meatpacking. Actually, it's still a major issue in both those industries.

Read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. It provides you with examples galore of why workers would want to organize at the turn of the century. Right on-line, for free.

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Sinclair/TheJungle/
http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Upton_Sinclair/The_Jungle/

Answer 3

The early 19th century was the early 1800's.

Do you mean the early 20th century (the early 1900's)?

Answer 4

During the depression ,if a man had a job making a dime an hour and someone came along and offed to do it for eight cents ,he got the job.Unions were created to ensure a man of his job.