Labor Unions and Industrialization

1. Chapter 5 – “Industrialization” Labor Unions and Industrialization

2. The BIG Picture! • Low wages, long hours and difficult workingconditions caused resentment among workers and led to efforts to organize unions… • Workers began to form unions to fight for better wages and working conditions but had few successes… • The Knights of Labor, AFL, IWW and ARU fought for both skilled and unskilled workers!

4. Total Membership: 444,000 Total Membership: 2,647,000

5. Working in the U.S. • Machines were replacing skilled labor… • Skilled Laborers – higher wages • Un-skilled Laborers – few skills, lower wages • Working conditions unhealthy & dangerous • By 1900… • $.22 per hour, 60 hours per week • 675 deaths PER WEEK *** To improve working conditions – workers attempted to organize into Unions! ***

6. Early Unions in the United States • Trade Unions protected craft workers… • Machinists, stonecutters, shoemakers, printers; “skilled workers” • By 1873, 32 national trade unions in the U.S… • Industrial Unions begin to unite workers across an entire industry (1860s and on…) • Example: American Railway Union, Eugene Debs

7. Industry’s Opposition to Unions • Employees would use anti-union methods to prevent “organizers” from being hired… • “Yellow-Dog Contracts” • “Blacklists” • “Lockouts” • “Strikebreakers” or “Scabs”

8. Political and Social Opposition to Unions • “Laissez-faire” approach extended to ALL aspects of industry… • No laws protected workers or their right to “organize” • U.S. courts ruled that “strikes were conspiracies in restraint of trade” • Americans were suspicious of Labor Unions… • Associated them with immigrants, revolution, anarchy and MARXISM

9. Marxism, Socialism and the IWW • Karl Marx and Marxism spread to the U.S., 1860s • Exploitation of the working class (proletariat), class struggle, revolution! • Some unionists turned to Socialism: • Government control of business and property… • Equal distribution of wealth among all citizens… (socialist society) • The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Wobblies, was one such socialist union!

11. Historical Struggles In “Organizing”

12. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 • United States’ first national labor protest! (wage cuts) • Workers strike – halt service… • 80,000 workers, 11 states • U.S. Federal judge: • “A strike or other unlawful interference with the trains will be a violation of the United States law, and the court will be bound to take notice of it and enforce the penalty” • President Rutherford B. Hayes… • Federal troops to Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philly, Illinois, Missouri

13. West Virginia

14. Baltimore, MD

15. Pittsburgh, PA

16. Effects of the Great Railroad Strike • Anti-Union effects: • Immigrants, Marxists and Anarchists were blamed… • States passed anti-union and anti-conspiracy laws… • Anti-union sentiment grew! • Pro-Union effects: • Unions grew after incident… • Unions became more organized… • Strikes increased!

17. The Knights of Labor • Created in 1869… • First NATIONAL “industrial union” (ALL workers, too!) • Fought for: • 8 hour work day • Equal pay for women • End to child labor • Worker owned factories • Used boycotts and arbitration… NOT strikes!

18. Let’s look at historical struggles in the LABOR MOVEMENT…

19. FIRST, what was the “bread and butter” issue for labor unions?

20. 1.) The Haymarket Riot of 1886 • Labor leaders continued to push for change… • May 4, 1886 – 3,000 people gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest police treatment of striking workers • A bomb exploded near the police line – killing 7 officers and several workers… • Union leaders and radicals were arrested and executed for the crime! • “unions dominated by dangerous radicals”

22. 2.) The Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 • Even Andrew Carnegie could not escape a workers strike! • Henry Clay Frick proposes 20% wage cut… • Workers picket and surround factory • Carnegie hired Pinkerton Detectives to guard the plant and allow scabs to work… • Detectives and strikers clashed – 3 detectives and 9 strikers died! • The National guard restored order – “Scabs” returned to work…

23. 3.) Pullman Railroad Strike of 1894 • Pullman Palace Car Company – Pullman, Illinois (Chicago) • 1893, cut wages – but did not cut rent, food prices, etc. • “Company scrip” • Eugene V. Debs, ARU • ARU workers boycotted Pullman cars… but, railroad managers are tricky! (U.S. Mail) • Grover Cleveland sends in troops! Pullman, Illinois

24. New Unions Emerge in the United States • The Knights of Labor had fallen apart after the Haymarket Riot… • The American Federation of Labor (AFL), 1886 *** • Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 1905 • Labor union with an emphasis on Socialism • American Railway Union (ARU), 1893

25. Samuel Gompers, AFL • Began working as a cigar maker at the age of 10! • 1877, became president of the Cigar Makers Union… • Stayed away from politics, socialism (early on)… • Focused on LABOR issues! • 1886, creates the AFL… • “Show me a country in which there are no strikes and I will show you that country in which there is no liberty!”

26. The Rise of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), 1886 • Longest lasting labor union in the U.S. (still today) • FEDERATION of various trade unions… • Cigar-makers, shoemakers, carpenters, etc. • ONLY skilled workers and NO diversity! (problems? YUP!) • “Bread and Butter” goals: • Higher wages, shorter hours and better working conditions • Stayed away from politics…

27. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 1905 • Founded as opposition to AFL! • Socialists, Anarchists and radicals, Chicago… • “An injury to one is an injury to all” • IWW goal: overthrow the working class! • Organize into one big union – skilled and un-skilled! • Advocated “workplace democracy”

28. Women begin to “Organize” • Although women were barred from most unions, they did organize behind powerful leaders such as Mary Harris Jones… • She organized the United Mine Workers of America, 1890 • Mine workers gave her the nickname, “Mother Jones” • Pauline Newman organized the International Ladies Garment Workers Union at the age of 16!