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Effects of Development on the Worker/Labor and Unions

Effects of Development on the Worker/Labor and Unions. Wage Earners. 1900 – 2/3 of Americans worked for wages (10 hrs a day, six days a week) Supply and Demand David Ricardo “Iron Law of Wages” Most families needed 2-3 incomes

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Effects of Development on the Worker/Labor and Unions

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  1. Effects of Development on the Worker/Labor and Unions

  2. Wage Earners • 1900 – 2/3 of Americans worked for wages (10 hrs a day, six days a week) • Supply and Demand • David Ricardo “Iron Law of Wages” • Most families needed 2-3 incomes • In 1890, 11 million of 12.5 million families in the US averaged $380/year. ($8958.14)

  3. Industrial Warfare • Lockout – closing the factory • Blacklists – names of pro-union workers • Yellow-dog contracts – workers agreed not to join a union • Private guards, state militias, court injunctions

  4. Great Railroad Strike of 1877 • Depression • Wage cuts by many railroads (had been $1.75 per day for 12 hours ($2.90/hour)) • Dangerous working conditions • B&O Railroad workers stop trains in WV • Crowd gathers, police can’t stop

  5. It Intensifies • Governor sends in militia • Strikers and militia exchange fire, one striker dies • 600 trains stopped • Governor applies for federal troops • Troops out west, Congress didn’t give money, but a few wealthy bankers offered to pay only officers. • Trains begin to move again

  6. It Spreads • Baltimore, thousands surround National Guard armory. Throw rocks, soldiers fire. • 10 strikers dead, 1 soldier wounded • 15k people surrounded the depot • 500 soldiers quiet things down

  7. OMG • “Strikes were occurring almost every hour. The great State of Pennsylvania was in an uproar; New Jersey was afflicted by a paralyzing dread; New York was mustering an army of militia; Ohio was shaken from Lake Erie to the Ohio River; Indiana rested in a dreadful suspense. Illinois, and especially its great metropolis, Chicago, apparently hung on the verge of a vortex of confusion and tumult. St. Louis had already felt the effect of the premonitory shocks of the uprising. . . . “ - Joseph Dacus, editor of the St. Louis Republican

  8. New RR, same story • P&P Railroad – required “double headers” • Crew refused to go • Strikers joined by men from mills and factories • 2000 cars idle, Philadelphia militia kills 10 workingmen • Crowd surrounds troops, buildings and cars set on fire • 24 people eventually killed • 79 buildings burned

  9. Locations • Pittsburg, Harrisburg, Pottsville, Reading Pennsylvania • Chicago – police vs. crowds (18 dead by clubs and guns) • St. Louis – Multicultural workingman’s strike • New York

  10. Totals/Result • Hundreds dead • Thousands jailed • 100,000 gone on strike • Half of railroad lines stopped “The railroads made some concessions, withdrew some wage cuts, but also strengthened their "Coal and Iron Police." In a number of large cities, National Guard armories were built, with loopholes for guns” – Howard Zinn

  11. Early Unions • National Labor Union – All workers into 1 union. • 640,000 members by 1868. • 8 hour day • Equal Rights for women and blacks • Lost support after 1877 strike • Knights of Labor • Secret society early • Open to women and African Americans • Worker coops • Abolition of child labor • Abolition of trusts and monopolies

  12. Early Unions, cont’d • American Federation of Labor • Practical economic goals • 1 million strong by 1901 • Little thought to social reform

  13. Strikebreaking • Haymarket Bombing • 1st May Day movement • Anarchists set off a bomb • Police fire at protesters, police and strikers die • Seven sentenced to death, though the prosecution admitted they didn’t throw the bomb • Americans thought unions were violent, membership declined

  14. Strikebreaking, cont’d • Homestead Strike • See video • Pullman Strike • Railroad sleeping cars, company town • General cut in wages, fires negotiators • American Railroad Union / Eugene V. Debs encourages boycott of Pullman cars • Railroad owners link cars to mail trains • President steps in • Debs and others arrested

  15. Summitup • By 1900 only 3% of workers were in unions • Management could rely on police, state, and federal troops • All levels of government seemed to be on the side of management, ignoring the plight of workers.

  16. Today • “Right to Work” states • 12.5% in Unions (1 in 8) • 28 % in 1954 • CEO pay is 263 TIMES that of the average worker

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