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claude-henderson
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The Gilded Age
The Rise of Big Labor
Sources of Labor
Former Self-employed
Siblings in farming families
Immigrants (largest category)Between 1870 and 1920 24 million immigrants arrived
from:Southern and Eastern Europe – 60%
Northern Europe – 25%
Other (Asia, Mexico, etc.) – 15%
By 1910 53% of all wage earners were of foreign birth
Effect of Mechanization on Labor
Changed employer-employee relationsGradually reduced customary autonomyDecision making became centralized in managementWorkers generally lost control of production processPace of production set by managersIncreasingly impersonal
Created new categories of workersSkilled artisans generally replaced by unskilled “machine tenders”Supervisors, managers
Women in the Workforce
The “Boom” & “Bust” Business Cycle
Terence Powderly,Leader of
the Knights of Labor
Knights of Labor
Rejected “wage slavery”
Open to all laborers, skilled and unskilled
Maintained an adversarial relationship with business
Advocated broad social and economic reformsProducer’s cooperatives
End to Child labor
Graduated income tax
Monetary reform
The Haymarket Square Riot
Samuel Gomper
sof the AFL
The American Federation of Labor
Restricted to skilled laborers
Accepted wage system
Wanted to work with business owners
Promised amenable labor relations
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
First nationwide strikeBegan in Martinsburg, WV
Strike spread quickly along the rail routesStrikers halted all train trafficUnemployed and workers in other industries joined the protest
Mobs defied militia sent to disperse themRioting persisted for about a week
Fearing a national insurrection President Hayes called out the army to suppress the strike
Federal troops fired into a crowd in Pittsburg, killing 20By the end of the strike over 100 were dead
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Homestead Steel StrikeCarnegie determined to gain control over every facet of production
Want to break the Amalgamated Iron, Steel and Tin Workers Union
Workers went on strike in JuneGovernor refused to use National Guard to disperse themSteel Company used a private armyAfter day-long gun battle, governor sent in troops to restore orderFactory reopened with strikebreakersAfter four months the union was forced to admit defeat
Carnegie reduced workforce by 25%Lengthened work dayCut wages 25%Affected all steel workers
Within a decade, every major steel company operated without union interference
Troops Guard the Trains during the Pullman Strike
Eugene V. Debs
Head of the American
Railway Union and founder of the American Socialist Party