United States 1918-1925

Synopsis

During World War I, Progressive Era labor reforms reached a peak with the establishment of the War Labor Board (WLB) and President Woodrow Wilson's support for collective bargaining. At war's end, however, employers reasserted their power to dismantle the WLB and begin a new round of attacks on organized labor. Using the Red Scare and Palmer Raids as evidence that labor unions were radical and un-American, employers declared that a workplace free from unions—the "open shop"—was the best way to ensure the country's stability and prosperity. To keep an open shop in the 1920s, employers undertook a series of measures that came to be known as the American Plan. In various combinations the American Plan incorporated scientific and personnel management, welfare measures, and outright repression to control the work place, increase productivity, and prevent unionization.

Timeline

• 1908: Ford Motor Company introduces...