Labor Unions form

Industrialization lowered the prices of consumer goods, but most workers still didn’t make enough to buy them

Their complaints usually fell on deaf ears

Early on, factory workers group themselves together in order to try to persuade management to raise wages—collective bargaining

Strikes

One kind of collective bargaining is a strike in which workers agreed to discontinue work until conditions improved

Some were local, but many spread to include entire industries

Had some success—now only 10 hour work days

Knights of Labor

Uriah Smith Stephens founded the Knights of Labor union It was kind of like a secret society

This union did allow African Americans to join

By the 1890s they had fallen out of favor after a series of failed strikes

Labor Unions

1886 Samuel Gompers formed the American Federation of Labor (AFL)

It was a craft union, unlike the Knight of Labor (which included workers from all trades—skilled or unskilled)

He set high dues for membership

Usually excluded African Americans and did not accept women

Haymarket Riot

thousands met to demand an 8 hour workday, strikes occurred in several cities and fights broke out between strikers and strikebreakers

In Chicago, a protester threw a bomb and killed a police officer and several were killed in the riot that ensued

Homestead Strike

1892, at a Carnegie Steel plant in Penn., workers’ wages were cut and the union called for a strike

Pinkertons were brought in to break up the strike—they killed several strikers and wounded many others

The union called off the strike about four months later

Steelworker unions lost power throughout the country as a result

Pullman Strike

1893, the Pullman Palace Car Company laid off workers and reduced wages by 25%, but the cost of living did not decrease

The owner of the company required his employees to live in the company town—he controlled their rent and prices of the local goods

Pullman Strike continued

Workers turned to the American Railway Union (ARU) and Eugene V. Debs—they called for a nationwide strike Halted railway travel and even mail delivery The president had to send in troops to end the

strike Debs refused and was thrown in jail

Life after Pullman

Labor movements split into different faction, becoming increasingly socialist Debs became a Socialist and formed the ASP in

1897

Why would workers turn to strikes as a tactic to win labor gains?

Robber Barons

There was a belief that monopolies, trusts, and cartels gave businessmen an unfair advantage

Many small businesses were pushed out of competition by larger companies who could sell or produce products cheaper

Called Robber Barons- these American businessmen were viewed as having used questionable practices to gain their wealth

Some notable “Robber Barons”

Andrew Carnegie

John D. Rockefeller

J.P. Morgan

Or Captains of Industry

These same men were hailed by others as Captains of Industry and praised for their contributions to industry and the economy

The businesses run by these men provided thousands of jobs and supported innovation and improvements in technology

Many were important philanthropists who donated large amounts of money to different charities and established public institutions like museums, libraries and universities