Late 19th Century Unions

Typical Labor Demands

• 8-Hour Workday• Equal pay for women• Child labor laws• Workers’ Injury

insurance• Abolish prison labor

Children Coal Miners

Knights of Labor

• Founded 1869• Key: welcomed all wage

earners, skilled or unskilled• Led by Mother Jones and

Terence Powderly• Union appeared to attack the

capitalist system, not just improve conditions

• Membership soared, but then fell when its later strikes failed

American Federation of Labor

• Key: admitted only skilled workers: AFL

• Led by Samuel Gompers• Concept: Force employers to

listen, because craft workers could not be replaced easily

• Demands: 8-hour workday, employers’ liability for workers’ health

• To gain public favor: resisted appearance of attacking capitalism in general; instead, worked toward attainable goals

• Exists today as AFL-CIO, one of largest unions in US

1877: Railroad Strike

• 1881-1905: 37,000 strikes

• 1877: Railroad strike

• Wage reduction on B&O railroad led to national railroad strikes

• 100 people died, 2/3 of railroads stood idle

• Stunned public: fear and dislike of unions

1886: Haymarket Strike

• Chicago’s McCormick Harvester plant protest

• Police killed 4 strikers; ensuing riot killed 7 policemen

• Middle class lashed out at labor unions, lowering public support of union movement

1892: Homestead Strike• Homestead, PA: small town

dedicated to steel mill owned by Carnegie

• Union consistently won rights and concessions

• 1892: Carnegie, previously a union supporter, decided to break the union because other plants produced more than Homestead

• 300 Pinkerton’s security personnel tried to land from boats on river; fought by workers; 7 workers died, 3 security workers died

• National guard called to put down strike

• Union broke, workers returned to factory

1893: Pullman Strike• Pullman: luxury train coaches,

made in factory-planned city of Pullman

• Depression of 1893: Pullman lowered wages, but kept rent costs high for workers

• Strike, led by Eugene Debs• RR owners called on government

to intervene: troops attacked workers

• Workers burned 700 RR cars. Fighting killed 13, wounded wounded

• Debs jailed; set precedent of using government against unions

Results By early 1930s• Reform was slow to take

place nationally• Child labor finally ended,

but not until 1930s• 8-hour day became law

gradually around country by 1930s

• Workers insurance became federal law in 1930s

Bobbin Girl in 1910