Czars in the Courts: Organized Labour in Illinois and the Fight to Pass Anti-Injunction Legislation (1886-1935)

Abstract

This article explores the tumultuous history of injunctions and the role of organized labour in the fight for anti-injunction legislation in the United States during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. It will contend that Illinois, with its long history of labour organization, emerged as a central node in this battle between labour unions and the courts. The beginning of this article explores the early history of labour unions in Illinois stretching back to the formation of some of the nation’s first unions, early instances of striking in the 1850s and 60s, and the first labour injunction in Pullman, Illinois in 1894. It goes on to detail how Gilded-Age judges in courts of equity increasingly issued injunctions with the deliberate intention of hampering workers’ efforts to improve or change their terms of employment. This challenge from the court system proved devastating to the labour movement as a whole, but was not met without resistance. The article goes on to examine efforts of Illinois-based unions, like the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Illinois State Federation of Labor, to lobby the Illinois General Assembly and the United States Congress to pass state and federal injunction limitation bills, culminating in the first effective federal anti-injunction bill, the Norris-LaGuardia Federal Anti-Injunction Act, in 1932. The last section concludes by noting that this piece of legislation was not a permanent solution to the injunction problem, but represented a significant step forwards for organized labour and the protection of workers’ rights after so many decades of struggle against “government by injunction.”

Originally from Ottawa, Ontario, Adeline Fisher is in the final year of her B.A. (Honours) History and German minor concentration at McGill University in Montreal. Her primary areas of academic interest include nineteenth-century economic and industrial history, legal and labour history, and political philosophy. During her time at McGill, Adeline has worked as a news staff writer with The Tribune (formerly The McGill Tribune), a research assistant in the Department of History and Classical Studies, and a mentor and speaker at the McGill Arts Internship Office (AIO). She has also worked as a court clerk in the civil division of the Superior Court of Quebec. In 2023, Adeline was awarded the Undergraduate Experiential Learning Opportunities Support Fund by the McGill AIO in support of her internship at the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) Museum and Archives. In 2024, she received the Madelene Hodgson Prize in History, awarded by the Department of History and endowed by the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (I.O.D.E.), for the most outstanding work in history. This fall, Adeline will be continuing her studies at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where she will pursue a Juris Doctor.

Keywords: labour, labour legislation, United States, Anti-Injunction, strikes, striking