8.2 Rise of Organized Labor

Labor Day's violent beginnings CNNMoney Uploaded on Sep 3, 2010 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPhLKARAve4

Labor Force Distribution

1870-1900

The Changing American

Labor Force

New Workplace

– Before: small factories,

family owned, very

personal, good wages

– By 1802:

• Large, crowded factories

• No personal

relationships

• Low wages (skills easily

replaced by machines)

The Workplace

• Boss-worker relationship changed

• Worker easily replaced

• Sweatshop

• Women, children; 12 hour days, 6 days a week

• Maiming and death

Sweatshops: workplace where people labor long hours in poor

conditions for low pay begin to crop up. Most workers were

young women & children

Hazards

Lung damaging dust

Cave-ins

Gas explosions

Molten metal spills

Health problems &

injuries

195 die in Pittsburgh

in one year alone

Internat’l Workers of the World

International Workers of the World

(“Wobblies”)

“Big Bill” Haywood of the IWW

Violence was justified to

overthrow capitalism.

The Hand That Will Rule the

World One Big Union

IWW

Big Bill Haywood, founder of the

Wobblies

Pullman Strike

A “Company

Town”:

Pullman, Illinois

Pullman Cars

The Pullman Strike of 1894

Student-created video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y55iBLs6eY Username: D Pyka Published on Jan 1, 2014 Title: “Chey and Ali's Us History project”

ILGWU

ILGWU: International

Ladies Garment Workers Union

Child Labor

Child Labor in the Industrial Revolution moosesarepurple's channel Uploaded on Jun 8, 2010 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2M9i1Wy6IU

Child Labor

Bobbin Boys

Boy Miners

Knights of Labor

• Worker tools: slow down; strike

• 1869 – skilled workers form Knights of Labor

• Meeting in secret…

Goals of the Knights of Labor

• Abolition of child and prison labor.

• Abolition of the National Bank.

• Eight-hour workday.

• Equal pay for men and women.

• Increased circulation of greenbacks.

• Prohibition of contract foreign

labor.

• Safety codes in the workplace.

• Worker-owned factories.

• Workers’ cooperatives.

Knights of Labor

• Terence Powderly, 1879

– Opened to unskilled, immigrants, African Americans, women

• Avoid strikes – plan was to win popularity with public

Knights of Labor

Want: shorter work

day, end child labor,

equal pay men-

women

Knights of Labor

1885 – successful

strike against

Missouri pacific RR

to roll back wage

cut (members of,

but not officially K

of L action) – more

join up across

nation

Haymarket Square

• 1886, Haymarket Square, Chicago.

– Strike (members of, but not officially K of L)

– Strikebreakers

– Police

– Day 2 – bomb – anarchists – “Haymarket Riot”

– effect on K of L… Haymarket Martyrs--Origins of International Workers Day Pt 2

atulocal689

Uploaded on Apr 11, 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w-z8ud_9QU

American Federation of Labor

• Samuel Gompers, 1886, Columbus, OH = new union “AFL”

• Umbrella union connecting little unions

• Wanted: higher wages, shorter hours, better working conditions; collective bargaining

• Most powerful 1886-1910 – still exists

• Limited to skilled, male, white workers

Triangle Tragedy

1911: fire breaks out in Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

(sweatshop in NY city)

– Exits are locked (lockouts for union employees)

– No doors push out (body blocks)

– Fire truck ladders can’t reach windows

– Fire hoses not long enough

– Elevators didn’t work (no one knew)

– Poor/ overwhelmed communications don’t transfer

– Windows on lower floors have bars on them

– Only option….jump!

150 people die

– Result: new safety laws

The Tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Brian Ham Published on Mar 12, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpIWMiT4r6c

“As I looked up there at a window, a young man was

helping girls to leap out. Suddenly one of them put her

arms around him and kissed him. Then he held her out

into space and dropped her. He jumped next.

Thud…dead. Thud…dead” – NY Times March 26th 1911

• Biggest travesty to hit NY until 9/1/2001

Hard Times for Labor

• Economic booms and busts – why??

– Overproduction = layoffs

– 1870-1900 2 major depressions and 2

recessions

– Many violent strikes, esp miners and RR

workers

Labor Unrest: 1870-1900

The Corporate “Bully-Boys”:

Pinkerton Agents

Hard Times for Labor

– Gov’t sides with owners

– Used Sherman Antitrust Act against

strikers!

– Few Americans supported strikes

– Slow going for organized labor

Management vs. Labor

“Tools” of

Management

“Tools” of

Labor

“scabs”

Pinkertons

lockout

blacklisting

yellow-dog contracts

Collective

Bargaining

informational

picketing

organized

strikes

When Workers Go On

Strike…

• Gov’t usually sided with owners

– Political reasons

– Bribery

– They are the people who are “responsible” for creating economic

booms which the country needs

» Who is actually responsible for turning out production???

• Presidents send in troops/ military/ police to intimidate strikers

• Courts rule against strikers too

To cover losses, owners fired workers

• same cycle repeats…

• Business cycle hurts!

• 1870-1900: 2 major depressions & 3 smaller recessions rock country

Organized Labor Meets Hardship

Over

production

Factories &

Faster Work

Price Drops Layoffs

After Economy

Has a Short Time

to Re-boost…

• Eugene V. Debs

• Founder of the American Railway Union

• 5 time Socialist Party candidate for President of the United States

• imprisoned during World War I for speaking out against the war

Women

• Mother Jones – esp eliminate child labor

• Garment workers unite

• Tragedy at Triangle Shirtwaste factory 1911

Mother Jones 1830-1930

“The Miner’s Angel”

• Mary Harris

Jones.

• Organizer for the

United Mine

Workers.

• Founded the

Social

Democratic Party

in 1898.

• One of the

founding

members of the

I. W. W. in

1905.

The Rise & Decline of

Organized Labor

Workers Benefits Today