Transcript Organized Labor 1860-1900

Organized Labor 1860-1900
Ch. 4 Sec. 3
Goals of Labor Unions
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Reduced hours
Increased wages
Safer working conditions
Tools of the Unions
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Strikes
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Sit down
Walk out
Boycotts
Collective bargaining
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Negotiating as a group for higher wages or
better working conditions
Major Unions – Knights of Labor
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Founder – Terence Powderly
Includes women and African Americans
Skilled and Unskilled labor
Specific goals:
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8 hour workday
End to child labor
Haymarket Riot
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May 4, 1886
Eventually ended influence of KoL
The Haymarket Riot May 4,
1886
Major Unions – AFL
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American Federation of Labor
Samuel Gompers
Practical
Skilled Labor
White males only
Tools of the Owners
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Federal Injunctions
Lockouts
Hired security forces (Pinkertons)
Government intervention
Great Strikes – Railroad Strike
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July 1877 – West Virginia, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Illinois
Not organized by any union
Outcome –
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Bloody conflict in many cities
Millions of dollars of property damage
Intervention of federal troops to restore order
"A Steeple-View of the Pittsburgh Conflagation"; engraving showing the burning of Union Depot
and Pennsylvania Railroad yards, Pittsburgh, PA during Great railroad strike of 1877
Great Strikes - Homestead
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June-August, 1892 – Homestead, PA
Organized by Amalgamated Association of
Iron and Steel Workers (part of AFL) in
association with unskilled workers
Steel mill owned by Andrew Carnegie
Outcome
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Lockout
Bloody conflict with Pinkertons
Failure of strike
Reduced public support for unions
Great Strikes – Pullman Strike
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May-July, 1894 – nationwide, centered in
Chicago, Illinois
Organized by American Railway Union
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Eugene V. Debs
Outcome
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Bloody conflict
Millions of dollars of property damage
Intervention by federal troops
Failure of strike
Reduced public support for unions
To what extent were labor unions successful
in achieving their goals in the late 1800s?