Transcript Choices - Widener University

Outline
1.
2.
3.
4.

Capitalism and Class
Organizing Labor Power
Video Clip
Rise and Fall of the Knights of
Labor
Mandatory assignments, review
questions and extra credit
good

Will return at the end of class

One point per question

I write like a man who once had
his hand crushed…if you can’t
read my comments, let me know
Monopoly or Democracy


$5…$4…$3…$2

Competition between workers
in a free market for labor
sets the price




Each individual is pursuing
his/her own self interest
Employers cut individual
deals with each worker

$5….Unionize
Cooperate with other workers
to limit competition)
Collectively demand that
wages, hours and working
conditions be subject of
negotiation
Replace Individual Bargaining
with Collective Bargaining
Human labor power is a special
commodity


Since it is inseparable from owner it can only be hired
for a certain amount of time

During this time the Buyer acquires the right to make use of
the sellers capacity to work

Seller of labor must deliver labor power to workplace &
must become subordinate to the directives of management.
“The system of wage labor creates relationships of
authority and subordination among people and the
basis for a division into classes.” Korpi, p.16-17
Class


Class

A grouping of individuals with similar
economic positions within a society

Across space and time, different societies will
possess different classes
Unions will emerge in capitalist
economies to craft & advance the
interests of members of the
working class

Different unions will advance different
strategies
Upper Class
Upper Middle Class
Middle Class
Lower Middle Class
Lower Class
Working Class…?

2. The authors note that the American working
class is comprised of many different racial and
ethnic groups. Marx expected that as capitalism
turned people into wage workers their racial and
ethnic identities would become less important.
People would come to identify as members of the
“working class” instead of as Whites and Blacks,
or English and Italian. After reading the section
“Workers” please tell me whether Marx’s
expectations were accurate. Be sure to cite the
text as evidence in your answer.
Capitalism Development and Immigration
American Industry Depended On Foreign Born
Immigrant Labor, 1910
Industry
Iron Mines
Clothing Factories
Slaughter Houses
Auto Shops
Tanneries
Steel Mills
Textile Mills
Road Construction
Pct. Immigrant Labor
67%
76%
46%
46%
53%
51%
49%
46%
Working Conditions

1. In their section “Conditions’ the authors note that
“broad swathes of poverty and bleak prospects
continued to characterize much working class life”
(Zieger and Gall 2002: 9). Briefly describe how
experience of one the following group of workers
(i.e. phosphate workers, turpentine camp workers,
Ford workers, or the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
workers) provide evidence for the authors assertion.
Working Conditions

“Fatal accidents in the steel mills…accounted for 20% of all
male deaths in Pittsburgh in the 1880s. Newspaper lists of men
killed and wounded each year were as long as a casualty list
for a small battle in the American civil war. Carnegie could not
have cared less. When a steel furnace exploded, he worried
about loss of production, not loss of life. The lock-out was his
favorite negotiating tactic and he hired Pinkertons to subjugate
his workers when they resisted his incessant demands for lower
wages for longer hours. By the age of 40, most of his men
were rendered useless through working 12 hours a day, seven
days a week and they were discarded.”

The Economist, February 1, 2003
Hours

In an 1895 study the bureau did in cooperation with the bakers'
union, it found that bakers worked inhumanly long hours,
sometimes over 100 per week and that 11 percent of them had
been ill the previous year. Over a thousand bake shops in New
York City were in basements. Some of them were "cellars of the
worst description .... damp, fetid, and devoid of proper ventilation
and light." Many of them had very low ceilings, forcing workers to
labor in a stooped-over position all day. Two/thirds of the
bakeries inspected were classed as "totally unfit.”


NY State Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1895
“Twin Relics of Barbarism”: Steel Industry: 7 day a week, 12 hour
day requirements
Working Conditions


William Blake described the early factories as “Satanic Mills”
“Among the worst examples were the shops where old rags for
papermaking were sorted. The workers were mostly poor, Eastern
European immigrant women. The shops were "open to every sort
of objection." They were dirty, poorly ventilated, unheated,
usually on the cramped second floor of a dilapidated building
and reached by steep cluttered stairways. An Inspector reported
that "as the door was opened, it was at first impossible to see the
sorters because of the clouds of dust." The investigator found it
"difficult to give an adequate picture ... Without seeming to
overstep the limits of truth.”

1902 WI Bureau of Labor Statistics Report
Video Clip
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PBS Documentary on Early American Labor featuring Professor Melvyn
Dubofsky and Professor Alice Kessler-Harris
1. According to Dubofsky, what effect did the mass immigration of the late 19th
century have on wages?
2. Briefly describe working conditions at this time. How were workers treated?
3. In the 1870s and 1880s, workers begin to organize. Briefly describe what
happened during the 1877 railroad strike. Was there violence? Was the strike
successful? Did this seem like a viable way to solve conflict in the new capitalist
society?
4. What was the Knights of Labor? Who did they try to unite? What were some
of their demands?
Video Clip



5. In a strike, did the authorities tend to side with employers or workers?
Why?
6. Kessler discusses what we she perceives to be an interesting conflict within
American society. She suggests a conflict between the individualism of the
American spirit and the collective instinct of unionized American workers.

“Work and you’ll succeed. Do your best and you’ll make it up in the world. Nothing
prevents you from going anywhere”

“The power of employers and the oppression of employers in fact prevented
workers from living a decent life, earning a decent wage. Only the collective
efforts of workers could counteract that power.”
Is she onto something? Do you think such a conflict exists? Why or why not?
The Knights of Labor

Founded in Philly by a group of tailors in 1869



After 1877 Strike KOL commits to Build Publicly Open National
Organization
Terence C. Powderly Takes Helm in 1879


Due to repression, initially very secretive organization
Irish Catholic Machinist who is Mayor of Scranton
KOL open to all workers, regardless of job


Women and Blacks included
Irish workers “stream into organization” and move to the “center of the
American labor movement”
Chinese Excluded & KOL would work to end immigration …WHY?
(Who Built America 1992: 113)

Outline
Knights of Labor
Injunctions Against Labor
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW)
Strategic Choices…Group Work
1.
2.
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5.
Extra Credit Option…watch a movie
answer 1 question…get 4 points
6.
Matewan http://www.videodetective.com/movies/trailers/matewan-trailer/570
1.
1.
2.
4pm Thursday or 5:15pm Monday
Need 7 to commit for it to happen
Context: Lot’s of different people competing to
sell their labor in America’s labor market

Old Immigrants/Native Born


New Immigrants


(English, Swedes, Dutch, Irish)
(Italians, Russians, Poles, Mexicans,
Japanese, Chinese)
Descendants of slave labor

African Americans

Protestants, Catholics, Jews

Men and women

Skilled and Unskilled
The Knights of Labor

Founded in Philly by a group of tailors in 1869



After 1877 Strike KOL commits to Build Publicly Open National
Organization
Terence C. Powderly Takes Helm in 1879


Due to repression, initially very secretive organization
Irish Catholic Machinist who is Mayor of Scranton
KOL open to all workers, regardless of job


Women and Blacks included
Irish workers “stream into organization” and move to the “center of the
American labor movement”
Chinese Excluded & KOL would work to end immigration …WHY?
(Who Built America 1992: 113)

The way the Knights of Labor saw things…

Business Monopolies, Corruption and Wage Labor were
destroying the nation

“We declare an inevitable and irresistible conflict between the
wage system of labor and republican system of government.”
(Who Built America 1992: 111)

Saw society as consisting of producers and parasites
Producers = farmers and workers and honest manufacturers
 Parasites = bankers, lawyers, speculators

The way the Knights of Labor saw things…



KOL had long term goal of abolishing wage labor, but in
the short term they addressed issues of wages, hours
and working conditions
Success in reversing wage cuts by Railroads in the 1880s
leads to rapid growth
By 1886 they represent 1 million workers and have
15,000 local assemblies

10% of workforce…similar to the percentage of American
workers currently in unions
Knights of Labor

KOL growth is met by employer counter offensive and increased
refusal to recognize unions


Employers were not legally bound to recognize unions
Employers did not see unions as a democratic expression of
collective voice, they saw unions as:

Criminal conspiracies


Sellers of something (labor power) getting together to fix the price
Monopolies

Unions as sole seller of labor, and thus able to distort the market
Knights of Labor

KOL growth is met by employer counter offensive

Increased refusal to recognize unions
 Employers

were not legally bound to
Blacklisting of workers…Blacklisting?
Knights of Labor

KOL growth is met by employer counter offensive

Increased refusal to recognize unions


Blacklisting of workers…Blacklisting?


Employers were not legally bound to
List of workers circulated among employers containing
names of “undesirable” employees…
Lockouts used more frequently…Lockouts?
Knights of Labor

KOL growth is met by employer counter offensive

Increased refusal to recognize unions


Blacklisting of workers…Blacklisting?


Employers were not legally bound to
List of workers circulated among employers containing names
of “undesirable” employees…
Lockouts used more frequently…Lockouts?

Employer may withhold employment during a labor
dispute…equivalent of a strike by management
Employer Actions Aided by Court
Injunctions and Antitrust Rulings



Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 declared “every contract,
combination, or conspiracy” that restrained trade illegal
Business monopolies were the target of the law, but
courts applied Sherman to the unions viewing their
actions as combinations or conspiracies to restrain trade

20 guys agree to not work for less than $5… is a restraint of trade

A truck driver refuses to cross a picket line to deliver to a store that is on
strike…restraint of trade
Katz and Kochan 2004
Anti Trust Rulings and Unions

Danbury Hatters Case of 1908




United Hatters of America called for consumer boycott of D.E. Loewe Co. in order to
gain union recognition
Union also called a successful
“secondary boycott” directed at firms
doing business with Loewe: i.e. stores that sold their hats
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that unions were covered by Sherman,
and ordered the union to pay $250,000 in treble damages.
Katz and Kochan 2004
Injunctions


If unions were violating the law, then injunctions
could be issued
6. When it came to the question of labor
relations your authors argue that the courts and
legal system favored employers. Please
explain what an injunction is and comment on
how injunctions would weaken unions?
Injunctions

Injunctions


Court orders issued by judges that prohibited any activity that might
cause irreparable harm
Injunctions were regularly used to block union activities


“Typically these writs also prohibited union leaders from encouraging or
advising any form of collective action”(Zieger and Gall 2002: 29)

Limit union organizing, boycotts, sympathy strikes and picketing during a strike

Basis for bringing in militia and army
One judge described an injunction as “Gatling gun on paper” note next slide
(Who Built America 1992: 125)
Injunctions Severely Limit Unions


1880-1930 courts estimated to have issued 4,300 injunctions
against unions
Very, very interesting exercise of power that severely limits
efforts to build unions

No pickets…hard to keep replacement workers from taking your job

No boycotts…limits ability to have others demonstrate support for
strike

No sympathy strike

A strike by workers not directly involved in a labor dispute; an attempt to
demonstrate labor solidarity (Herman 1998: 532)
Decline of the Knights…

Knights could not withstand the pressure and
challenges…

1886 at 1million…

1887 down to 500,000…

1890 100,000…

Into the dustbin of history…
Choices emerge…


With demise of the KOL…new organizations will
develop strategies to organize labor…
Sam Gompers (AFL) Big Bill Haywood (IWW)
John Lewis (CIO
The AFL…

2. What was the American Federation of Labor?
Who was its leader? The AFL’s strategy is often
described as “pure and simple” unionism. What
does this term refer to?
The AFL…

American Federation of Labor (AFL) organization
founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers and
other labor leaders to facilitate cooperation between
different craft unions and to encourage the
organization of more craft unions
 Craft
unions?
AFL…

Craft Union


Often a very Narrow Jurisdiction


jurisdiction refers to the group of workers represented by a given union
Instead of organizing one union for all construction workers, construction
workers are SEPARATED into many different unions with narrow
jurisdiction defined by craft


a union that limits its membership to workers in a particular craft – usually one
which requires extensive training and a high degree of skill.
Carpenters, Electricians, Ironworkers, Plumbers, Tin-knockers, Glazers, Steamfitters,
Operating Engineers, Elevator Operators, Sheet metal workers, Laborers, etc.
This choice has ramifications right through 2011

Pros and cons of this model? Anyone?
Initially Craft Unions Seek Closed Shops


Closed Shop

A contractual clause providing that individuals must be a member of the
union in order to be eligible for hire into the bargaining unit (Kochan 453)

Requirement that an employer hire non but union men (Zieger 2005: 2)

Often predicated on union training workers and supplying workers
Acme Home Builders needs workers

Needs 50 carpenters, contacts Carpenters Local 1 hiring hall to get
carpenters…carpenters work job, finish it, and then get back on list…

Contact Electricians Hiring Hall to get electricians…
Visions collide…

How do these two ideas mesh?

Closed Shop

A contractual clause providing that individuals must be a
member of the union in order to be eligible for hire into the
bargaining unit
(Kochan 453)

“…Workers and employers should counter each other in
the marketplace as free individuals, the employer at
liberty to define the worker’s duties as he saw fit, the
worker at liberty to accept or reject these terms.”
Tomlin, p.46
Visions collide…

How do these two ideas mesh?

Closed Shop

A contractual clause providing that individuals must be a
member of the union in order to be eligible for hire into the
bargaining unit
(Kochan 453)

Open Shop

A business establishment in which there is no union or where union
membership is not a condition of employment
(Herman 1998: 53)
AFL…
3. There were many, many workers in the United States
who might have been organized into unions. Did the
AFL favor skilled or unskilled workers?
Where there workers that AFL unions discriminated
against? Why do you think the unions favored some
workers over others?
AFL…

Focus on craft workers…


Overwhelmingly white
men…High skilled; High dues
Initially many affiliate unions
would not permit women or
Blacks



Later most accept women; Blacks
in segregated locals…but neither
are the key constituency


If Asian…total rejection


Ignored a large segment of
the working class…

Cigar Makers bylaws: “unless said
person is a white practical cigar
maker” he could not be in the union.
Brotherhood of Railway Carmen
Qualifications for membership: “Any
white person between the ages of 16
and 65…”
Clerks & Freight Handlers: “All white
persons, male or female, of good more
character.”
Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen: “He
shall be white born…”
Wire Weavers: “Christian, white, male
of the full age 21…”
AFL
AFL position on capitalism and wage labor?


KOL had long term goal of abolishing wage labor,
but in the short term they addressed issues of
wages, hours and working conditions
AFL???
AFL position on capitalism and wage labor?



Not interested in abolishing capitalism or creating
a new and different society…
Pursued “Business Unionism” or “Pure and Simple
Unionism”…
Any ideas what these term refer to?
AFL = Business Unionism

Business unionism
 using
collective bargaining to improve the wages, hours
and working conditions of members who belong to a
particular union. Focus on bread-and-butter issues
 “pure
and simple” agenda of improving wages and
working conditions (Zieger 2002: 25)
AFL = Business Unionism

Business unionism

using collective bargaining to improve the wages, hours and
working conditions of members who belong to a particular
union. Focus on bread-and-butter issues

“pure and simple” agenda of improving wages and working
conditions (Zieger 2002: 25)

Limited political activity and no vision of large scale social
transformation

Early AFL ascribed to something called Voluntarism

opposition to government relief and welfare legislation and stressing the
need for workers to depend on their own economic strength (Zieger
2002:62)
AFL = Business Unionism

Business unionism

using collective bargaining to improve the wages, hours and working
conditions of members who belong to a particular union. Focus on breadand-butter issues

“pure and simple” agenda of improving wages and working conditions (Zieger
2002: 25)

Limited political activity and no vision of large scale social transformation

Early AFL ascribed to something called Voluntarism


opposition to government relief and welfare legislation and stressing the need for
workers to depend on their own economic strength (Zieger 2002:62)
Often little inter-union solidarity

“craft unions routinely crossed one another’s pickets and endlessly disputed
jurisdictions”
(Folks, 145)
The IWW…

4. The authors introduce the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW). How did the IWW strategy
differ from that of the AFL?
One Big Union…to Abolish capitalism
Beyond conflict to exploitation…

For some in the labor movement, including the union that
led the strike where we’re going this afternoon, capitalism
is about more than conflict…it is about exploitation of
workers by capitalists…


Owners get rich by taking what workers produce
Consider my blanket factory
Exploitation
10 workers @ $1 each a day
$10
10 workers produce $500 of goods by lunch
 Paid
$10…made $500…workers say
“Great. See you tomorrow, Boss…” And
the Boss says…?
Uh-uh. Back to work…10 workers produce
another $500 of goods by 8pm
Low Wages for Some…Riches for Others…
$1000 of Wealth Created
After paying $10 for wages, and $100
for the other costs of production there is
$890 left…
WHO GETS THE $890?
In this new game called Capitalism…The
owner gets it…those are the rules

Owner: Gets the $890
created by the workers



Can buy a nice house, a horse, a
fancy Monet painting, bury it in
his yard, reinvest it in the
factory, give workers a
raise…It’s his decision to be
made…
Workers: Get to go home with
their $1 and get ready for
the next day
Owners get rich by taking
what workers produce…
American labor market generates
Widespread Poverty…
AFL sought to
address
widespread
poverty by
bargaining
better
wages…
IWW seeks to
change entire
structure of
economy
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Percent in Poverty
1870 1890 1910 1935
Industrial Workers of the World

IWW provided workers with a radical alternative to
AFL…the “labor fakirs”

Willingly organized those the AFL ignored


Unskilled, minorities, women
Syndicalism

direct action on the job to build industrial unions until they
were strong enough to launch a general strike and take over
business and government.”
(Folks 157)

“The workers of the world have nothing to do but fold their
arms and the world will stop.”
Choices
You are a (skilled White weaver/unskilled woman,
Black,Hispanic or Asian) who works in a Silk factory. You
work constantly, and have trouble making ends meet. You
are approached by different union organizers and
invited to a meeting. You can be fired for just attending
a meeting. If you are unskilled, there are many waiting
to take your job. Every week, the news is full of stories
about workers being killed during strikes.

Organizer 1) Mr. Haywood tells you that the new system of
wage labor is morally wrong & based on exploitation.
People shouldn’t have to sell themselves and toil in degrading,
awful conditions. Mr. Haywood tells you that you should unite
with workers of all races and ethnicities to build a class wide
movement that can create a society without wage labor,
where workers own and control the factories, sharing the
profits for the common good. Join the IWW.
Choices


You are a (skilled White weaver/unskilled woman, Black, Hispanic or
Asian) who works in a Silk factory. You work constantly, and have trouble
making ends meet. You are approached by different union organizers and
invited to a meeting. You can be fired for just attending a meeting. Every
week, the news is full of stories about workers being killed during strikes.
Organizer 2: Mr. Gompers of the AFL tells you that Mr. Haywood is a
dreamer whose goals are not realistic. You should accept the wage system,
and try to force employees to give you a better deal. Throwing your lot in
with all workers will weaken your bargaining position, because unskilled
workers are so easy to replace. He also questions whether you want to be
in a union with women, immigrant riff-raff and Blacks. You should join with
the other skilled weavers, and as a smaller group, you should demand
better wages, hours and working conditions in the short term. To help
strengthen your position, you should work to end the immigration of
undesirable groups like the Chinese who are willing to work for low wages.
Choices
IWW, AFL…forget about it?


If you’re a skilled White Weaver, do you go to a meeting
or stay home? If you go to a meeting, whose meeting do
you go to? Why?
If you’re an unskilled man, a women, Hispanic, Black or
Asian, do you go to a meeting or stay home? Why?
Initially, most White skilled workers who opt
for unions choose the AFL

Ideas that one should find an individual solution to economic
problems rejected


“Yet what force is weaker than the feeble strength of one”- From
the union anthem Solidarity Forever
But so are radical ideas about revolutionary movements to
abolish wage labor & implement collective ownership

“I have come to the conclusion . . . that it is our duty to live our lives as workers in
the society in which we live, and not to work for the downfall or the destruction or
the overthrow of that society, but for the fuller development and evolution of the
society in which we live; to make life the better worth living.- Samuel Gompers (Testimony,
Congress, House Select Committee, 1913)
AFL’s narrow definition of “worker”
leaves many out…

AFL Preferred White Native Born Male Workers

Women


Blacks


ambivalent toward at best, excluded at worst, maybe Jim Crow locals…Not
an organizing focus.
New immigrants (Italians, Jews, Poles, Mexicans)



noble beings, but helpless…not an organizing focus
ambivalent toward at best, ignored at worst…Not an organizing focus…
Founding Document called for a ban on foreign workers
Asians

demonized and excluded…Note next slide…
AFL Growth

Despite the exclusions,
millions of workers opt to
pursue group mobility via
the AFL

1897:

1904: 2,072,000 in unions

447,000 in unions
Union density grows from
basically 0 to around 10%
Next…
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
Videos on the late 19th Century and Ludlow
World I begins to change things…