Transcript The Labor Movement

The Labor Movement
Chapter 5
Section 4
Seamstresses
• 12 Hour Days,
6 days a week
Steel Mills
• 7 Day work
week, no sick
leave, no
vacation
Railroads
• 1890: 1
in 300
workers
would
die
Women and Children
• 1890: 4 million
women working
• 1920: 8 million
• Children earned
$.27 per day
($6.47)
• Men made $498
per year ($7,100
today)
• Women made
$269 per year
($6,400 today)
Deflation
• The value of the dollar increases
• One dollar buys more products
• Deflation in late 19th century resulted in
employers cutting wages.
• Workers began to unionize
National Labor Union
• First large scale national
labor union
• Founded by iron worker
William Sylvis
• 300 Locals in 13 states
• Sylvis wanted to admit
women and AfricanAmericans, but Locals
refused
Knights of Labor
Uriah Stevens: 1868
Focused on Industrial
Labor
Membership open to
everyone
Advocated arbitration as
opposed to strikes-3rd
party helps workers
come to agreement
with management
Craft Unionism and Samuel
Gompers
• Craft Unions included
only skilled workers but
often from many
industries
• American Federation of
Labor
– Founded in 1886 by
Samuel Gompers
– Pushed for closed shops
-all workers were in the
union
Industrial Unionism and Eugene
Debs
• Industrial Unionism:
all workers in one
industry, skilled and
unskilled, form a union
• Eugene Debs formed
the American Railway
Union, the first true
industrial union
• They saw minor
successes
Socialism and the IWW
• Socialism: economic
and political system
based on
government control
of business and
property and equal
distribution of wealth
• Industrial Workers of
the World: Wobblies
The Great Strike of 1877
• Baltimore and Ohio RR workers strike in
protest of wage cuts
• The strike eventually spread to a national
level
• 50,000 miles of railroads stopped for a week
• Resulted in nation wide riots
• President Hayes sent troops in to stop the
strike
• RR strike that was very violent and spread
nationwide
The Haymarket Affair
• May 3, 1886:
Police kill a striker
at the McCormick
Harvester factory
• May 4, 1886:
1,200 people
gather in
Haymarket Square
to protest
• At 10 o’clock, the
crowd was leaving
due to rain
The Haymarket Affair Cont’d.
170 Policemen assemble at a nearby train
station and marched into the square
A bomb was thrown at the police and they
opened fire
The Haymarket Aftermath
• 7 Policemen
killed
• Several
strikers killed
(exact number
unknown)
• 3 speakers and
8 radicals
arrested
• 4 hanged, 1
killed himself in
jail
The Homestead Strike
• Carnegie Steel
Plant in
Homestead, PA
• Henry Clay
Frick: company
president
• Announced a
wage cut on July
6, 1892
• A strike ensued
Pinkertons
The Homestead Strike Cont’d.
• 3 detectives and 6
strikers killed
• Strikers closed the
plant until July 12
• The National Guard
was called in and
the violence stopped
• The strike continued
until November
when the union
caved in.
The Pullman Strike
• Built train cars in
Pullman, Illinois
• Workers went on
strike when he
lowered wages
but not rent
The Pullman Strike Cont’d.
• Strike spread
nationwide
• ARU got
involved, shut
down train
service
• Military called in
to break strike
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
• March 25, 1911-huge fire in factory in NYC
• 145 workers died
• New York set up a task force to inspect
factories
• established fire codes, 54 hour workweek
for women and minors
• no Sunday work and no one under 14
could work
Anti-union Actions
• Owners refused to negotiate with strikers
• forbade union meetings, fired members
• Yellow dog contracts-said worker would
not join a union or strike
• Turned Sherman Anti-trust Act against
unions
• Lockout-refused to allow union members
on their property