Extraction Industries:The Need For Labor Unions?

The Need For Unions?

Many individuals made great fortunes during this time era.

They increased their profits by making money off their employees, not paying them well, or a combination of both.

The Pullman Strike was triggered when the Pullman Company cut wages but did not lower the rent in Company housing or lower prices at the Company Store.

The Need for Unions

Not only were many workers poorly paid, the working conditions were often highly dangerous.

While railroading on common carrier railroads had become safer, the many industrial railroads were still quite dangerous.

Trackwork was often steep, temporary, and dangerous.

Derailments Were Frequent

And Often Fatal

The Physical Plants Were Often Unsafe

The Very Nature Of The Work Is Often Highly Dangerous

Lumberyard Workers

In the previous slide the stacking crew of the Sewell Lumber Company is pictured.

The men stacked the lumber to dry before shipment and sale.

They climbed these unstable stacks and tossed the lumber down to be loaded on flatcars for shipment.

A Typical Stacking Crew

A Dry Lumber Crew

The man holding the mule was responsible for moving the flatcar that was being loaded.

The two men with leather gloves tossed the lumber down from the stacks.

The two men with the strange looking leather aprons “caught” the lumber with their aprons and “expertly” allowed it to slide into a neat stack on the flatcar.

Special Tools

This woods tool was known as a spud and was used to peel the bark from logs in the springtime when the sap was running.

It was also used to load logs by some logging companies.

The Woods Crews

Just going to work could be dangerous.

Loading Logs Was Dangerous

Mining Operations

Often a highly dangerous operation. Much of the mines work was

conducted in pitch black darkness. Coal mining was an especially

dangerous operation. Eastern coal mines were low paying,

dangerous jobs.

“Drift” Mines Were Common In Eastern Coal Mines

Drift mines were horizontal mines dug directly into a coal seam.

A main entry was driven (dug) directly into the coal seam.

A second parallel entry was driven alongside 20 to 30 feet to the left and served as the air course (air entry).

These were called two-entry, or double-entry, mines.

Ventilating The Mines

Once a the main entry was about 300 feet into the coal seem, a brick furnace was installed in the mouth of the airway with a tall chimney extending outside.

The chimney was completely sealed, preventing any air from entering around the chimney.

Ventilating The Mines

A roaring fire was built and maintained in the chimney.

The fire sent up blasts of hot air through the tall chimney.

As the air rose, it sucked the air out of the mine, creating a draft in the mine.

This method could ventilate up to two miles of tunnels.

Ventilating The Mines

These natural-draft furnaces were replaced eventually with electric fans and motors.

In order to direct air flow, at intervals of about 100 feet, a hole called a “breakthrough” was dug, connecting the main entry with its parallel airway.

Cross Section of a Coal Mine

A Miner’s Room

Each miner had his own “room” to mine. Each “room” was roughly 30 feet wide. Most coal seams ranged from 18” to 4 feet

high. The rooms were not higher than the height of the seam of coal.

Most miners never stood up to do their work.

Rooms were usually 300 feet long.

A Miner’s Room

As the room lengthened, the miner would add to the mine track for the small mining cars that were used to haul coal or “gob” out of the area.

“Gob” was waste slate, dirt, etc. that was not coal.

The width of a miner’s room was 30 feet. The miner was assigned a new room

once he had dug out a room 30 ft. by 300 ft.

A Miner’s Room

Blasting For Coal

A “kerf” or undercut was sawn into the blasting face. This would cause the coal seam to collapse downwards as a result of the blast and break into manageable chunks of loose coal.

A hole was drilled at an upwards slant to be filled with blasting powder.

Blasting In A Coal Mine

Mining By Hand

A great deal of the work that had to be done in coal mines during this era was done by hand.

The “gob” was moved by hand to “gob” piles where it was either left or later carried out in the small mine cars.

The coal was loaded by hand to take out of the mine.

The work of shoring up the tunnels was done by hand.

Early Coal Mining Tools

More Modern Coal Mining Tools

A Chiropractor’s Delight

Lunch Time

Manufacturing Coke

Coke is manufactured from coal and is defined as “the solid product resulting from the destructive distillation of coal in an oven.”

Coke is coal that has been heated to drive out volatile matter and water, leaving behind a product that has a very high percentage of fixed carbon.

Manufacturing Coke

“Volatile matter” in coke is produced by decomposition of coal when heated and consists mainly of combustible gases.

Coke was made by baking it in specially designed ovens.

The process as performed during this era was labor intensive.

The product was used in other manufacturing processes.

Coke Ovens

Beehive Coke Ovens

Beehive Coke Ovens

Loading A Coke Oven

Child Labor

Children were increasingly becoming part of the work force.

For poor families it was often a financial necessity for the children to work.

In 1900 20 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 15 worked in full time or nearly full time jobs.

Child Labor

Labor Begins To Organize

Industrialization in the United States created a demand for millions of new workers.

The demand was met, in large part, by the huge influx of immigrants.

By 1900 one third of the nation’s industrial work force was foreign born.

Rural America Joins The Workforce

Hundreds of thousands of Americans from the rural United States moved to the cities in search of jobs.

Thousands of African-Americans fled the south to find jobs.

While the South was industrializing, African-Americans were barred from these jobs.

The Work Force In The South

The South had new industries in textiles, lumber, tobacco, coal, and iron.

In addition to African-Americans being barred from these jobs, most textile workers in the South were both white and native-born.

In 1891 only 7,400 African Americans held industrial jobs.

The Southern Migration North

Most southerners, like the African Americans, were still tied to the land and poor.

Many southerners, particularly African Americans, moved to the North to find what they hoped would be good jobs.

The best jobs went to native-born whites or immigrants.

The Working Poor

African American women had to compete with immigrant women for low paying jobs as domestics.

Between 1870 and 1890 the number of women in the workforce doubled.

Children were also present in the work force in large numbers.

Working Conditions

Working conditions and pay were poor.

Workers were left exhausted by the end of the day.

Work days were 10 hours long. The work week was six days long. Fatigue made already dangerous

jobs more dangerous.

Employer’s Attitudes

Employers felt almost no remorse over the injuries to their employees.

Employers also had little concern for making a work environment a safe place to work.

The Worker’s Unite

The workers begin to realize that individually they have little chance to change their situation.

They can only force change on their employers if they band together in large groups.