Unit 2: The Making of Modern America“It’s a Hard Knock Life”

Day 8: Labor Unions

Agenda• Collect any overdue homework/MYP Projects• Focus Sheet• Pullman Strike PowerPoint• Pullman Strike Document Analysis• Jigsaw with Graphic Organizer • 10 – 15 minutes/document• Each group presents

• Before/During/After• Modern Unions

Focus Sheet• Outcome: Analyze unions from primary sources in

order to understand their historical influence1. Briefly describe the difference between push

and pull factors regarding immigrants and their reasons for leaving their home country. Provide examples for each.

2. Briefly analyze this political cartoon. Be sure to identify symbols, names, features, etc. and infer what is being represented using your knowledge of industrialism and labor reform in the late 19th century

The Pullman Strike Chicago, 1894

Interior of a Pullman Sleeper Car

Major Strikes• http://www.hippocampus.org/History &

Government?loadLeftClass=CourseCombination&loadLeftId=10&loadTopicId=1613

Pullman Palace Car Company• Railway car company owned by George

Pullman• Over 6,000 workers • Workers had lived in “company town”• Rent was 25% higher than other areas

Pullman, Illinois

Origins of the Strike

• Historical Context: Depression of 1893

• Pullman cuts workers’ wages

• But doesn’t cut rent for apartments

Strike Begins• May 10, 1894- Workers walk out

ARU Supports Pullman Workers• American Railway Union is a NATIONAL

union of railway workers

• Eugene Debs, ARU leader, decides to support Pullman strikers

• Across the nation, railway workers refused to run trains that had Pullman cars attached to them

• The country is paralyzed

Eugene Debs

• President Grover Cleveland sends in troops

Violence Erupts • Presence of Federal troops sets off riots • Rioters burn buildings, troops kill 4 and

wound 20

End of Strike• By August, strike fall apart

• 1000 union workers fired

• New workers have to sign contracts promising not to join a union

• Debs arrested and jailed for 6 months

Pullman Strike: Document Analysis• What can newspapers tell us?

• By the time of the Pullman Strike, urban newspapers had become a vital part of American public life

• Newspapers offer a basis for common knowledge and a means by which city dwellers could identify with (or against) strangers across town

• In Chicago in 1890, there were twenty-six daily newspapers (9 in English

• Using The Source: Newspaper Articles• Think about how difficult it would be to reconstruct an event in the past

without the benefit of newspapers.• Daily newspapers are immediate.• In Chicago, 8 of the city’s 9 English newspapers opposed the ARU’s use

of the railway boycott; the Chicago Times was the only newspaper to support the ARU

• Advantages of newspapers: providing local details, reflecting the immediate climate, appealing to a particular readership

• What is tone?Note the ways in which each reporter's language, as well as his choice of content, served to shape each story:

Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1894

“Law is Trampled On”With the coming of darkness last night Dictator Debs’ strikers threw off the mask of law and order and began the commission of acts of lawlessness and violence. A Pan Handle train carrying seven sleeper cars was flagged at Riverdale, and the engineer and fireman, under threat of being killed if they moved, were forced to hold the train while a mob of 800 men detached the Pullmans… The mob grew in numbers and resisted efforts of the train men to recouple the Pullmans.

Chicago Times, June 30, 1894

“Mail Trains Must Move”At noon today United States Marshall Byington received telegraphic music instructions… to move all mail trains that were being detained in this city on account of the Pullman boycott. He… notified the… American Railway Union… giving them until 2 p.m. to decide whether or not they would offer any interference. A committee of strikers called on [Byington] an hour later and informed him that the trains would be allowed to proceed… Passenger trains on the Ohio & Mobile roads were allowed to go out this morning without sleepers.

Group Activity• 8 groups total• Groups 1 and 2: May 12, 1894• Groups 3 and 4: June 26, 1894• Groups 5 and 6: July 7, 1894• Groups 7 and 8: July 15, 1894

“Union Simulation”• NFLRA (Referees) • http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/

id/8427652/locked-nfl-referees-return-early-week-sources• http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000067678/

article/green-bay-packers-fans-still-coping-with-replacement-ref-rage

• Chicago Teacher’s Union• http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/18/13938248-

chicago-teachers-agree-to-end-strike-classes-to-resume-wednesday?lite

• Apple • http://www.france24.com/en/20120920-french-apple-

store-workers-threaten-strike-iphone-5-launch-paris-employment-huffington-post-

Before/During/After• Complete on the back of the Focus Sheet

Objective

• Analyze unions from primary sources in order to understand their historical influence•Did we achieve our objective?