Getting to California deflation – a rise in the value of money trade union – protected the rights of workers, but limited to people with specific skills

• deflation – a rise in the value of money

• trade union – protected the rights of workers, but limited to people with specific skills

• industrial union – united craft workers and common laborers in a particular industry

• blacklist – a list of “troublemakers” that were prevented from getting jobs with other companies

• Marxism – belief that workers would one day revolt and seize control of the factories and government

• Knights of Labor – first nationwide industrial union

• Arbitration – a third party intervenes to arrive at a solution of two competing groups (business v. labor)

• closed shop – a company that could only hire union members

Ch 9 Sec 4: Unions

Intro 5

Objective: List the barriers to labor union growth. Describe industrial working conditions in the United States in the late 1800s. Objective: List the barriers to labor union growth. Describe industrial working conditions in the United States in the late 1800s.

Chapter ObjectivesSection 4: Unions

• Describe industrial working conditions in the United States in the late 1800s.

• List the barriers to labor union growth.

Guide to Reading (cont.)

Section Theme

Individual Action People like Samuel Gompers and Mother Jones strove to balance the power of corporations with the needs of workers.


(pages 326–327)(pages 326–327)

Working in the United States• Between 1865 and 1897, the United States

experienced deflation, or a rise in the value of money.

•What cost $1 in 1865 would cost $0.53 in 1897 (deflation)

•What cost $1 in 1975 would cost $3.95 in 2007 (inflation)

• Relations between

workers and

employers were made

more difficult by

deflation.


• Deflation caused prices to fall and companies to cut wages.

• To the workers, it seemed their company wanted to pay them less for the same work.

• Workers felt the only way to improve their working environment was to organize unions.

Working in the United States (cont.)

(pages 326–327)(pages 326–327)


You Don’t Say 4-1

Hard Work Strict rules were enforced in the workplace in the late 1800s. Many bosses forbade singing, drinking, joking, smoking, or conversation on the job. They also denied immigrant workers time to celebrate their national holidays and holy days, and they did not accommodate workers who did not want to work on the Sabbath.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)

Early Unions• Two types of workers were a part of industrial

America, craft and common.• Craft workers had special (learned) skills and were

generally paid more.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)

Early Unions• Common laborers had few skills and as a result

received lower wages.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)

Early Unions• In the 1830s, craft workers formed trade unions,

which were unions limited to people with specific skills.

• By the early 1870s, there were over 30 national trade unions in the United States.


• Employers opposed industrial unions, which united all craft workers and common laborers in a particular industry.

• Companies went to great lengths to prevent unions from forming.

Early Unions (cont.)

(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)


• Companies would have workers take oaths or sign contracts promising not to join a union.

• They would also hire detectives to identify union organizers.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)


• Workers who organized a union or strike were fired and put on a blacklist–a list of troublemakers.

• Once blacklisted, a worker could get a job only by changing trade, residence, or his or her name.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)


• If a union was formed, companies used a lockout to break it.

• Workers went without pay and were locked out of the property.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)


• If the union did strike, employers would hire replacement workers called strikebreakers.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)


• There were no laws that gave workers the right to organize.

• Marxism, the ideas of Karl Marx, was popular in Europe.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)


• Marx felt it was the class struggle between the workers and the owners that shaped society.

• He believed the workers would revolt and gain control.

• After the revolution, Marx believed a socialist society would be created in which the wealth was evenly divided, and classes would no longer exist.

• Many labor supporters agreed with Marxism, and some supported the idea of anarchism.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)


• Anarchists believed society did not need government and that a few acts of violence would cause the government to collapse.

• As ideas of Marxism and anarchism spread in Europe, tens of thousands of immigrants arrived in the United States.

• People began to associate Marxism and anarchism with immigrants.

• They became suspicious of unions as well.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)

The Struggle to Organize• Workers

attempted to create large unions, but rarely succeeded.

• Many times confrontations between owners and government ended in violence.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)

The Struggle to Organize• The Great Railroad strike of 1877 occurred after a

severe recession in 1873 forced many companies to cut wages.

• The result was the first nationwide labor protest in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as workers walked off their jobs and blocked tracks.


• The strike spread until 80,000 railroad workers in 11 states stopped working and violence erupted.

• President Hayes ordered the army to stop the strike.

• In the end, 100 people died and millions of dollars in property were lost.

• The failure of the great railroad strike led to a need for better organized laborers.

The Struggle to Organize (cont.)

(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


• By the late 1870s, the first nationwide industrial union called the Knights of Labor was formed.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


• They demanded an eight-hour workday, a government bureau of labor statistics, equal pay for women, an end to child labor, and worker-owned factories.

• They supported arbitration, a process where an impartial third party helps mediate between workers and management.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


• The Haymarket Riot caused the popularity of the Knights of Labor to decline.

• A nationwide strike was called to show support of an eight-hour workday.

• A clash in Chicago left one striker dead.

• The next evening, a meeting at Haymarket Square was scheduled to protest the killing.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


• Someone threw a bomb.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


• In the end, seven police and four more workers were killed.

• Although no one ever knew who threw the bomb, one man arrested was a member of the Knights of Labor.

• This hurt the reputation of the organization, and people began dropping out.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


• In 1893 railroad workers created the American Railway Union (ARU).

• They unionized the Pullman Palace Car Company in Illinois.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


• After a recession caused the company to cut wages, a boycott of Pullman cars occurred across the United States.

• It tied up the railroads and threatened the economy.

• To end the boycott, U.S. mail cars were attached to Pullman cars.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


• Refusing to handle a Pullman car would result in tampering with the mail, a violation of federal law.

• After a federal court ordered the boycott stopped, the strike and the ARU both ended.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


M/C 4-1


• The AFL’s first leader was Samuel Gompers, whose plain and simple approach to labor relations helped unions become accepted.

• Gompers wanted to keep unions out of politics and to fight for small gains such as higher wages and better working conditions.

Section 4-23

(pages 330–331)(pages 330–331)

The American Federation of Labor• In 1886 delegates from over 20 of the nation’s trade

unions organized the American Federation of Labor (AFL).


• Under Gompers’s leadership, the AFL had three goals: to get companies to recognize unions and agree to collective bargaining; to push for closed shops, where companies could only hire union members; and to promote an eight-hour workday.

• By 1900 the AFL had over 500,000 members.

• The majority of workers, however, were still unorganized.

The American Federation of Labor (cont.)

(pages 330–331)(pages 330–331)


(page 331)(page 331)

Working Women• By 1900 women made up more than 18 percent of

the labor force.• Women worked as

domestic servants, teachers, nurses, sales clerks, and secretaries.

• Women were paid less than men.

• It was felt that men needed a higher wage because they needed to support a family.

• Most unions excluded women.


• A separate union for women was created by Mary Kenney O’Sullivan and Leonora O’Reilly.

• The Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) was the first national association dedicated to promoting women’s labor issues.

Working Women (cont.)



Section 4-29

Checking for Understanding

__ 1. an agreement in which a company agrees to hire only union members

__ 2. an organization of common laborers and craft workers in a particular industry

__ 3. settling a dispute by agreeing to accept the decision of an impartial outsider

__ 4. an organization of workers with the same trade or skill

__ 5. a company tool to fight union demands by refusing to allow employees to enter its facilities to work

A. trade union

B. industrial union

C. lockout

D. arbitration

E. closed shop

Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the left.

B

D

E

A

C


Daily Focus Skills Transparency 4


Section 4-7

How did deflation add to poor relations between workers and employers?

Deflation caused prices to fall and increased the buying power of workers’ wages. Companies cut workers’ wages but prices fell even faster, so that wages were really still going up in buying power. Workers were angry, however, because they were being paid less for the same amount of work.

Working in the United States (cont.)

(pages 326–327)(pages 326–327)


Chapter Assessment 15

Directions: Choose the best answer to the following question.

Labor unions were formed in order to

F protect factory owners and improve workers’ wages.

G improve workers’ wages and make factories safer.

H make factories safer and prevent lockouts.

J prevent lockouts and fight deflation.

Test-Taking Tip Read each part of each answer choice carefully. Only one answer choice contains two correct reasons.



Reviewing Key Facts (cont.)

Why did workers try to organize labor unions in the United States in the late 1800s?

Workers tried to change poor working conditions, low pay, and job security.



Reviewing Key Facts (cont.)

What were the two basic types of workers in American industry at this time?

Craft workers and common laborers were the two basic types of workers.


Section 4-14

How did companies try to prevent unions from forming?

Companies would have workers take oaths or sign contracts promising not to join a union. They would also hire detectives to identify union organizers. Workers who tried to organize a union were fired and placed on a blacklist. If workers formed a union, companies used a lockout to break it.


(pages 327–328)(pages 327–328)


Section 4-32

Critical Thinking

Analyzing Why did early labor unions fail?

Early labor unions failed because of confrontations that led to violence and courts that ruled against them. They fought for many things all at the same time, and frequent strikes and blacklisting hurt them.


Section 4-22

What did the railroad managers do to break the union boycott of Pullman cars?

They attached mail cars to the Pullman cars. If the strikers refused to handle the Pullman cars, they would be interfering with the United States mail.


(pages 328–330)(pages 328–330)


Section 4-25

What were some of Samuel Gompers’s beliefs regarding unions?

Gompers believed that unions should stay out of politics. He was against socialist and communist ideas, and he believed that the AFL should fight for small gains like higher wages and better working conditions. Although willing to use the strike, Gompers felt negotiation was better.

The American Federation of Labor (cont.)

(pages 330–331)(pages 330–331)


Section 4-30

Checking for Understanding (cont.)

List the groups of workers represented by the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor.

Industrial workers and trade workers were represented by the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor.


Analyzing VisualsExamining Photographs Examine the photograph at the top of page 331 of your textbook of workers in a watch factory. Most of the people in the picture are women. What do you think the jobs were of the men in the photograph?

The men were probably managers or supervisors.


Section 4-28

Why were women paid less than men were paid?

It was assumed that a woman had a man who was supporting her. It was believed that men needed a higher wage because they had a family to support.

Working Women (cont.)



Close


End of Section 4

Documents

Getting to California deflation – a rise in the value of money trade union – protected the rights of workers, but limited to people with specific skills