Transcript Rise of Labor Unions - Mrs. Dover

Rise of Labor Unions
Objective 5.03
Why were they developed?
•Working conditions—unsanitary,
dangerous
•Wages—too low
•Hours—too long, 12 hour days
•Child Labor—no school, cruelty
(low pay, long hours)
Types of Unions
•Trade Union—group of workers
organized principally for the
purpose of increasing wages and
improving conditions
•Craft Union—union that admits
only workers of a particular trade,
skill, or occupation
Knights of Labor
•Founded secretly in 1869 by Uriah
Stephens
•Grouped workers by industry, not
by trade or skill
•Women and African Americans
allowed membership
•Chinese excluded
•Goals
–8 hour workday
–End child labor
–Equal pay for equal work
–Use arbitration instead of strikes
•Labor Day can be traced back to
two of the groups parades in NYC
American Federation of Labor
(AFL)
•Rival of Knights of Labor
•Founded in 1886 by Samuel
Gompers
•Made of coalition of craft labor
unions
•Goals
–Improve conditions
–Increase pay
–Increase job security
–Pursue workers immediate
demands
–Stay out of the politics
Industrial Workers of the
World (IWW)
•International union founded in
1905
•Formed by Socialists, Anarchists,
and radical trade unionists that
opposed the AFL
•Anyone can join regardless of race
and gender
•Goals
–Promote worker solidarity
–Deny contracts—took away right
to strike
–Improve conditions
•Motto—“An injury to one is an
injury to all”
Important People
•Samuel Gompers (1850-1924)
–Began as a cigar maker
–Founded the AFL
–Promoted harmony amongst
craft unions
–Fought against socialism and the
Socialist Party
•Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)
–One of the leaders of the IWW
–5 time Socialist Party candidate
for President of the U.S.
•Socialists believe that the
means of production should be
owned by the workers, not the
rich minority
•Debs believed that workers should
have smaller private ownership of
their own means of production