<P> As commentator E. J. Dionne has noted, the union movement has traditionally espoused a set of values--solidarity being the most important, the sense that each should look out for the interests of all . From this followed commitments to mutual assistance, to a rough - and - ready sense of equality, to a disdain for elitism, and to a belief that democracy and individual rights did not stop at the plant gate or the office reception room . Dionne notes that these values are "increasingly foreign to American culture". In most industrial nations the labor movement sponsored its own political parties, with the U.S. as a conspicuous exception . Both major American parties vied for union votes, with the Democrats usually much more successful . Labor unions became a central element of the New Deal Coalition that dominated national politics from the 1930s into the mid-1960s during the Fifth Party System . Liberal Republicans who supported unions in the Northeast lost power after 1964 . </P> <P> The history of organized labor has been a specialty of scholars since the 1890s, and has produced a large amount of scholarly literature focused on the structure of organized unions . In the 1960s, as social history gained popularity, a new emphasis emerged on the history of workers, including unorganized workers, and with special regard to gender and race . This is called "the new labor history". Much scholarship has attempted to bring the social history perspectives into the study of organized labor . </P> <P> The history of labor disputes in America substantially precedes the Revolutionary period . In 1636, for instance, there was a fishermen's strike on an island off the coast of Maine and in 1677 twelve carmen were fined for going on strike in New York City . However, most instances of labor unrest during the colonial period were temporary and isolated, and rarely resulted in the formation of permanent groups of laborers for negotiation purposes . Little legal recourse was available to those injured by the unrest, because strikes were not typically considered illegal . The only known case of criminal prosecution of workers in the colonial era occurred as a result of a carpenters' strike in Savannah, Georgia, in 1746 . </P> <P> By the beginning of the 19th century, after the revolution, little had changed . The career path for most artisans still involved apprenticeship under a master, followed by moving into independent production . However, over the course of the Industrial Revolution, this model rapidly changed, particularly in the major metropolitan areas . For instance, in Boston in 1790, the vast majority of the 1,300 artisans in the city described themselves as "master workman". By 1815, journeymen workers without independent means of production had displaced these "masters" as the majority . By that time journeymen also outnumbered masters in New York City and Philadelphia . This shift occurred as a result of large - scale transatlantic and rural - urban migration . Migration into the coastal cities created a larger population of potential laborers, which in turn allowed controllers of capital to invest in labor - intensive enterprises on a larger scale . Craft workers found that these changes launched them into competition with each other to a degree that they had not experienced previously, which limited their opportunities and created substantial risks of downward mobility that had not existed prior to that time . </P>

When did labor union activity begin in u.s. history
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