The Labor Movement

Unions and Strikes

Living Conditions for Workers • Tenement: apartments located in urban slums that lacked light

and ventilation • Settlement Houses: multipurpose buildings in poor

neighborhoods that offered social welfare, educational, and homemaking services to the poor or immigrants, led by middle-class women

Freedom and Liberty of Contract

Laissez-Faire Policies = No Government Regulation

Contract between labor and the company

Government has no place inserting regulation

Bottom Line: Workers get very little support from the federal government

Working Conditions Sweatshop: cramped, poorly ventilated textile factory

Benefits of industrialization are distributed unequally

Problems for Workers:1) Long Hours2) Low Wages3) Unsafe Conditions (35,000 die

each year between 1880 and 1890)

4) No Safety Net

Women and Child Workers • To survive, many families

put their mothers and children to work• By 1900, 1 million women

were in the workforce• 1 in 5 married women

worked outside home • In 1880, 1 in 6 children

<16 years old forced to work• By the early 1900’s most

states had passed laws against child labor.

Social Beliefs in the Gilded Age • Social Darwinism: Inequality is a natural and unavoidable part

of society

• Gospel of Wealth: hard work and perseverance lead to wealth, anyone can become wealthy implying poverty is a character flaw

Liberty of Contract in the Supreme Court

Wabash v. Illinois (1886)• Federal government can regulate RR’s

(but they always find in favor of the company)

United States v. E.C. Knight and Co. (1895)• Manufacturing process cannot be

regulated by federal government

Lochner v. New York (1905)• State law cannot regulate the number of

hours worked

The Rise of Labor Unions

•Before Unions = low pay, long hours, unsafe conditions, fierce competition•New machines meant less people

needed•Millions of workers laid off•Depressions or “panics” meant no

one was buying goods

• The growth of industrialization matched by the rise of labor unions• Laissez-faire resulted in unsafe, unsanitary and

dangerous conditions, low wages and long hours• Workers responded by organizing and fighting

for improved wages, hours and working conditions

1867 1914

Total Membership 444,000

AF of LIND.

Total Membership 2,647,000

AF of LIND

Labor Union Membership in 1867 and 1914

The Knights of Labor

One of the 1st unions

Started in 1870 as an organization of tailors, but then welcomed workers of all industries• Combination of skilled

and unskilled, men and women, black and white laborers

800,000 members in 1886

The Knights of Labor, cont’dGoals of the Knights of Labor:• 8-hour workday• Public employment programs• Currency reform and graduated income

tax• Equal pay for women • Regulate child labor • So…essentially Socialism

Knights of Labor intended to undermine liberty of contract

Knights of Labor wanted economic rights

Believed that capitalists were like slave masters

Haymarket Affair

Advocating for the 8-hour workday

Meeting of workers in Haymarket Square in Chicago

Someone throws a bomb Seven police officers killed Seven activists were arrested and sentenced to death

Knights of Labor loses popularity because people think they are too radical

American Federation of Labor

Concentrated on winning specific and practical goals, collectively bargaining with management for best deal they could get• Different from large reform efforts

like Knights of Labor

Focused on higher wages and safer conditions

Samuel Gompers

1 million members by 1901

Tactics to Fight UnionsOwners resisted unions with violence and government assistance• Lockout: closing a factory before a

strike can be organized• Blacklists: names of pro-union

workers that were passed around employers• Yellow-Dog Contracts: workers must

agree to stay away from unions if they want a job• Using private guards or the United

States military• Court restrictions against strike

Great Railroad Strike of 1877Railroads cut wages of workers Strikes on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Strike spreads across 11 states and shuts down two-thirds of RR track

500,000 workers from other industries join the strike

President Hayes uses military to maintain order 0ver 100 people die

Pullman StrikePullman makes cars for railroads

In 1894, Pullman cuts wages for workers and fires worker leadership

Eugene V. Debs and the American Railroad Union boycott Pullman trains Massive disruption in transportation

Court prohibits the boycott Debs is arrested

Debs turns to socialism to solve problems

Homestead Strike1892

Steelworkers in Pittsburgh strike to protest wages being cut (20%)

Homestead Steel uses the lockout, private guards, and strikebreakers to defeat the strike

3 private guards and 17 strikers are killed

Sets the steel labor movement back

Organizing a Social Movement

Organizing: the process of empowering and educating others to achieve their political, social, and economic goals

Important steps for organizing:1. Identify the problem(s)2. Identify the goals of the movement (what does success

look like?)3. Identify the barriers to change4. Identify strengths of the movement5. Formulate a plan of action

Organizing a Social MovementStages of a Social Movement1. Business as Usual (Problem? What Problem?)2. Existing Institutions Fail (I tried to go through the process…)3. Growing Awareness/Discontent of the Problem4. Take-Off (usually from a “trigger event”)5. Despair and Identity Crisis (What do we do now?)6. Majority Public Support of the Movement (Support of the

people!)7. Success! (Yay)8. Moving On (How can we use this success to achieve more?)

Get into your groups…

Begin working on the Social Movements Plan Worksheet

You will have 15 minutes to complete ALL parts of this plan,.

Be sure to explain the motivations behind your actions and any pitfalls for which you would have to account (Think: barriers)