A Craft Unionist Rewrites the Ten Commandments

Abstract: The moral code of craft unionism was part of a larger system of late nineteenth-century working-class values that went well beyond behavior on the job. Moreover, those values drew upon other deeply held moral beliefs, particularly those growing out of religion. In "Labor's Decalogue," G. Edmonston, the first president of the United Brotherhood ofCarpenters and Joiners, offered a new twist on the biblical Ten Commandments. Edmonston's novel set of "rules" for workers found its way into a variety of labor publications, including an issue of the Florida Labor Journal on May 13, 1903. While this document revealed the indebtedness of craft culture to universalist religious ideas, it also reflected the exclusive nature of craft work (members of craft unions in this era were overwhelmingly white and male).

Details