Labor-Focused Research Questions

Below each question is an example of how that question could be narrowed to a researchable topic.

1. How did [new technology or work process] impact the daily life of [specific group of workers]?

• Example: How did the use of steamships to replace sailing vessels impact the daily life of seamen?
• Example: How did the invention of the “type-writer” impact office work in the late 19^th century?

2. In what ways did [change in work process or business organization] lead [specific group of workers] to innovate [new strategies or forms of labor organization] to change their working conditions?
   • Example: In what ways did landowners’ use of the Agricultural Adjustment Act lead Black and White farmworkers to create the Southern Tenant Farmers Union in 1934?
   • Example: In what ways did the growth of the tire industry in Akron, Ohio lead local rubber workers to innovate the strategy of the sit-down strike in 1936?
   • Example: In what ways did the rise of mass production lead workers in [the printing or garment industry; or in Oregon or Michigan] to innovate the “union label”?

3. How did [changes in working conditions or business organization] lead [specific group of workers] to innovate [new political organizations or political demands]?
   • Example: How did enslaved people in the United States react to news of the Haitian Revolution of 1793?
   • Example: How did health problems lead the United Farm Workers to demand a ban on DDT in food production?

Narrow the question to a researchable project by inserting a specific time period, event &/or group of workers and employers in the brackets. 

• A time period might be a week(s), month(s), or year(s)
• An event might be a strike, a labor contract negotiation, a court case, a campaign to pass a law
• A group of workers might be defined by one or more of the following
  • a particular city or workplace
  • a particular skill or occupation
  • personal characteristics (gender, age, free or unfree labor, race or ethnicity, ability)

• Search newspapers and labor presses, history books, articles or exhibits, or ask local union leaders to identify a nearby or lesser-known labor dispute, law, workplace, or worker(s) or employer(s)