Pt. 3: Labor Unions

What is a Labor Union?

•An organization of wage earners formed for the purpose of serving the members' interests with respect to wages and working conditions.

People refuse to buy a company's product until the company meets

demands. Boycott

Labor StrikeOne method for having demands met.

Workers stop working until the conditions are met. It is a very effective form of

attack.

Labor Union Workers who organize against their employers to seek better wages and working conditions for wage earners.

New immigrants who would replace strikers and work for less pay. Often

violence would erupt between strikers and scabs who were trying to cross picket

lines to work.

Scab Worker

A working establishment where only people belonging to the union are hired. It was done by the unions to protect their workers from

cheap labor.

Black ListList of people disliked by business

owners because they were leaders in the Union. Often would lose their jobs,

beaten up or even killed.Type of negotiation between an employer and labor union where they sit down face to face and

discuss better wages, etc.

Collective Bargaining

Closed Shop

Yellow Dog Contracts

A written contract between employers and employees in which the employees

sign an agreement that they will not join a union while working for the

company

Lock OutOwner of industry would “lock

out” workers who were trying to form a union and replace them

with “scabs”.

CooperativesIndustry or business organization

owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services

—non-profit

Labor Unites• Industrialization • Urbanization• Immigration

Large disenfranchised

population

Populist Movement: First attempt of the people to reform capital and labor relationship.

Leads to…

Unionization in 20th Century America

► An organized association of workers formed to protect and further their

rights and interests. ► In 1900, 1 in 12 workers unionized.

Bricklayers Union, PA, 1900

National Labor Union

• William Sylvis, 1866• Skilled, unskilled, farmers but excluded

Chinese…• Cooperatives, 8 hr.

work day, against labor strikes

• Founded a political party in 1872

• Involved in the Chinese Exclusion Act.• Lost election, faded

away• Replaced by Knights

of Labor.

Knights of Labor• Terrence Powderly• All workers except

Chinese• 8 hr. day, cooperatives,

prohibition, end child labor

• Several strikes won some wage gains 1885

to 1886• Unrealistic and vague

goals •Loss of important strikes

and failure of cooperatives

• Haymarket Riot—1886

American Federation of Labor or AFL

• Samuel Gompers, 1881

• Skilled workers in separate unions.

• Work within political system for change.• Closed shop and collective bargaining

•Over 1 million workers joined and won several

strikes• Small part of work force eligible to join.

• Knights of Labor• Labor union, sought to organize workers• Goals were:

• end of land grants to the railroads• prohibition of child laborers under 14• gender equality in pay

American Federation of Labor (AFL)• Founded by Samuel

Gompers• Organized skilled

workers in a specific trade

The Growth of Unions

• American Federation of Labor (AFL)• Samuel Gompers

► Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Advocated socialism: government control of business and

equal distribution of wealth.

In 1882, on average, 675 laborers were killed in work-related accidents each WEEK!

Pt. 4: Major Labor Conflicts of the 1880s & 1890s

-Founder of the Socialist Party in the U.S.

-Overthrow the existing laissez faire system

-Believes in government ownership of business and

capital (money, natural resources)

-Government controls production, sets wages, prices and distributes the goods. No

profit or competition. -Runs for the presidency

several times & loses. (won 6% of popular vote at one

point)

Railroad Workers OrganizeThe Great Railroad

Strike of 1877• Railway workers protested unfair wage cuts and unsafe

working conditions.• The strike was violent and

unorganized.• President Hayes sent federal

troops to put down the strikes.

−From then on, employers relied on federal and state troops to repress labor unrest.

Debs and the American Railway

Union–At the time of the 1877 strike, railroad workers mainly organized into

various “brotherhoods,” which were basically craft

unions.–Eugene V. Debs proposed a

new industrial union for all railway workers called the American Railway Union

(A.R.U.).–The A.R.U. would replace all of the brotherhoods and unite all railroad workers,

skilled and unskilled.

Railroad Workers Organize

THE GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1877

The great Railroad Strike of 1877 began on July 16, when railroad workers for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad staged a spontaneous strike after yet another wage cut. After President Rutherford Hayes sent federal troops to West Virginia to save the nation from “insurrection,” the strike spread across the nation. A picture of burned railroad cars during

the mass strike

Haymarket Square: Chicago 1886= workers from McCormick Harvesting Machine Company struck

for an 8 hour day (They wanted a reduction in the amount of hours they worked in a given day). However, the Knights of Labor (union) did not support their actions.

= police came - four strikers killed and several wounded.= next day at a rally in Haymarket Square- anarchists spoke up

against police & treatment of workers.= Thousands protest the killings and during the rally the police

break up the meeting - someone threw a bomb at police - 7 police die. In response the police spray the crowd with bullets and 10 more workers die with another 50 injured.

Result: Anti-Labor feelings sweep the nation and membership in the Knights of Labor Union fell drastically!

• Haymarket Riot• 1886: Chicago, Illinois• Workers went on strike

for an 8-hour workday

• Action of Industry?Tried to break the strikes, fights eventually broke out between strikers & strikebreakers

• Action of government?• Police intervention, some tried for murder• Effect?• Americans become wary of labor unions• Knights of Labor blamed

Homestead Steel Strike: Workers went on strike for higher wages. Management refused to negotiate and locked out the workers, however the workers broke in and took control of the mill. Management hired the Pinkerton Police, which is a private security force, to take control back. 300 Pinkertons arrived by barge and were greeted by the workers. For 12 hours a battle ensued. The end result was the Pinkertons surrendered.

Carnegie then requested help from the Pennsylvania National Guard to restore control over the strikers after the Pinkertons had failed. Carnegie replaced 1700 strikers with new workers called strike breakers (scabs).

• Homestead Strike• 1892, in Pennsylvania• Wages of steelworkers

cut• Action of Labor

Union?• Calls for a strike

• Action of Industry?Police force called the “Pinkertons” brought in to break up the strike

• Action of Government?• Troops & local militia sent in to calm the

situation

• Effect?• Steelworkers lose

power after calling off the strike

•Carnegie successfully broke up the attempt to organize a union.•No labor unions in steel industry

until the 1920’s.•Carnegie would be remembered

for events at Homestead.•His public image suffered

• Pullman Strike• 1893, in Chicago

• Wages of employees cut without a decrease in living costs in the company town

• Action of Labor Union?• Called Eugene V. Debs & the American

Railway Union (ARU)• Nationwide strike, halting railroad traffic

Strikes Rock the Nation

Pullman, 1893• Eugene Debs instructed strikers not to interfere with

the nation’s mail.• Railway owners turned to the government for help.

The judge cited the Sherman Antitrust Act and won a court order forbidding all union activity that halted railroad traffic.

• Court orders against unions continued, limiting union gains for the next 30 years.

• Actions of Industry?• Argued that the labor union was destroying

free trade• Actions of Government?• President Grover Cleveland sends in federal

troops; Eugene V. Debs is arrested• Effect?• Use of court system and military to limit power of labor unions

The Supreme Court Upholds Laissez-faire

• New York state passed the “Bakeshop Act” limiting the hours a bakery employee could work in one week to 60.

• Lochner, a bakery owner, was fined for allowing employees to exceed limitation.

• He sued protesting the constitutionality of the law under the 14th Amendment and his liberty of contract.

• Supreme Court overturned his conviction stating:• …this law interfered "with the right of contract between the

employer and employees.“ To the Court, the right to buy and sell labor through contract was a "liberty of the individual" protected under the 14th amendment .

► Lochner v. New York – 1905

Reaction of EmployersEmployers hated & feared unions. Why?-European influences of socialism-Labor strikes always tended to be violent.

Some took steps to stop unions, such as:-forbidding union meetings-firing union organizers-forcing new employees to sign “yellow dog” contracts, making them promise never to join a union or participate in a strike-refusing to bargain collectively when strikes did occur-refusing to recognize unions as their workers’ legitimate representatives