LABOR UNIONS AND INDUSTRIALIZATION

Chapter 5 – “Industrialization”

The BIG Picture! Low wages, long hours and

difficult working conditions caused resentment among workers and led to efforts to organize unions…

Workers began to form unions to fight for better wages and working conditions but had few successes…

The Knights of Labor, AFL, IWW and ARU fought for both skilled and unskilled workers!

Labor Union Membership - 1867

American Federation of LaborVarious Independent Labor Unions

Total Membership: 444,000

Labor Union Membership - 1914

American Federation of LaborVarious Independent Labor Unions

Total Membership: 2,647,000

Working in the U.S. Machines were replacing skilled labor…

Skilled Laborers – higher wages Un-skilled Laborers – few skills, lower wages

Working conditions unhealthy & dangerous By 1900…

$.22 per hour, 60 hours per week 675 deaths PER WEEK

*** To improve working conditions – workers attempted to organize into Unions! ***

Early Unions in the United States Trade Unions protected craft

workers… Machinists, stonecutters,

shoemakers, printers; “skilled workers”

By 1873, 32 national trade unions in the U.S…

Industrial Unions begin to unite workers across an entire industry (1860s and on…)Example: American Railway Union,

Eugene Debs

Industry’s Opposition to Unions Employees would use anti-

union methods to prevent “organizers” from being hired… “Yellow-Dog Contracts” “Blacklists” “Lockouts” “Strikebreakers” or “Scabs”

Political and Social Opposition to Unions “Laissez-faire” approach

extended to ALL aspects of industry…No laws protected workers or

their right to “organize”

U.S. courts ruled that “strikes were conspiracies in restraint of trade”

Americans were suspicious of Labor Unions…Associated them with

immigrants, revolution, anarchy and MARXISM

Marxism, Socialism and the IWW

Karl Marx and Marxism spread to the U.S., 1860s Exploitation of the working class

(proletariat), class struggle, revolution!

Some unionists turned to Socialism: Government control of business and

property… Equal distribution of wealth among all

citizens… (socialist society)

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Wobblies, was one such socialist union!

Labor problems in

the U.S.Immigration from Europe

Marxism, Anarchism

Anti-Union, Immigration

Historical Struggles In “Organizing”

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 United States’ first national

labor protest! (wage cuts)○ Workers strike – halt service… ○ 80,000 workers, 11 states

U.S. Federal judge: “A strike or other unlawful

interference with the trains will be a violation of the United States law, and the court will be bound to take notice of it and enforce the penalty”

President Rutherford B. Hayes… Federal troops to Baltimore,

Pittsburgh, Philly, Illinois, Missouri

West Virginia

Baltimore, MD

Pittsburgh, PA

Effects of the Great Railroad Strike Anti-Union effects:

Immigrants, Marxists and Anarchists were blamed…

States passed anti-union and anti-conspiracy laws…

Anti-union sentiment grew!

Pro-Union effects: Unions grew after

incident…

Unions became more organized…

Strikes increased!

The Knights of Labor Created in 1869…

First NATIONAL “industrial union” (ALL workers, too!)

Fought for: 1. 8 hour work day2. Equal pay for women3. End to child labor4. Worker owned factories

Used boycotts and arbitration… NOT strikes!

Let’s look at historical struggles

in the LABOR MOVEMENT…

FIRST, what was the “bread and butter”

issue for labor unions?

1.) The Haymarket Riot of 1886

Labor leaders continued to push for change… May 4, 1886 – 3,000 people

gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest police treatment of striking workers

A bomb exploded near the police line – killing 7 officers and several workers…

Union leaders and radicals were arrested and executed for the crime! “unions dominated by dangerous

radicals”

2.) The Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 Even Andrew Carnegie could

not escape a workers strike!

Henry Clay Frick proposes 20% wage cut… Workers picket and surround

factory Carnegie hired Pinkerton

Detectives to guard the plant and allow scabs to work…

Detectives and strikers clashed – 3 detectives and 9 strikers died!

The National guard restored order – “Scabs” returned to work…

3.) Pullman Railroad Strike of 1894

Pullman Palace Car Company – Pullman, Illinois (Chicago)

1893, cut wages – but did not cut rent, food prices, etc. “Company scrip”

Eugene V. Debs, ARU

ARU workers boycotted Pullman cars… but, railroad managers are tricky! (U.S. Mail) Grover Cleveland sends in

troops!

Pullman, Illinois

New Unions Emerge in the United States The Knights of Labor

had fallen apart after the Haymarket Riot…

The American Federation of Labor (AFL), 1886 ***

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 1905 Labor union with an

emphasis on Socialism

American Railway Union (ARU), 1893

Samuel Gompers, AFL Began working as a cigar

maker at the age of 10!

1877, became president of the Cigar Makers Union…

Stayed away from politics, socialism (early on)… Focused on LABOR issues!

1886, creates the AFL…

“Show me a country in which there are no strikes and I will show you that country in which there is no liberty!”

The Rise of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), 1886

Longest lasting labor union in the U.S. (still today)

FEDERATION of various trade unions… Cigar-makers, shoemakers,

carpenters, etc. ONLY skilled workers and NO

diversity! (problems? YUP!)

“Bread and Butter” goals: Higher wages, shorter hours and

better working conditions Stayed away from politics…

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 1905

Founded as opposition to AFL!

Socialists, Anarchists and radicals, Chicago…

“An injury to one is an injury to all” IWW goal: overthrow the working

class!

Organize into one big union – skilled and un-skilled!

Advocated “workplace democracy”

Women begin to “Organize”

Although women were barred from most unions, they did organize behind powerful leaders such as Mary Harris Jones…

She organized the United Mine Workers of America, 1890 Mine workers gave her the

nickname, “Mother Jones”

Pauline Newman organized the International Ladies Garment Workers Union at the age of 16!