The Impact of Corporations on Free Competition and Labor Movements in America

1. GET IT DONE! • How could the emergence of corporations & the idea of fewer controlling more stifle free competition? • What would you do if you were the government?

2. Sherman Antitrust Act • Read Section from packet • 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade between states or with other countries. • Why would it be difficult to enforce this? • No clear definition of TRUST • Companies could simply reorganize into a single corporation

3. Southern Industrialization? • Not really, why? • Devastated economy from Civil War • North owned railroad companies • High transportation costs • High tariffs on raw materials & imported goods

4. Why Form Labor Unions? • Why do you think laborers began to form unions? • Worked 12 or more hours a day, 6 days a week • No vacation, sick days reimbursement for injuries on job. • Injuries happened in dangerous factories • 1882 an average of 675 labors were killed each week • Low Wages • Women in workplace doubled from 1890-1910 • Children, some as young as 5, worked full-time jobs • What did these children sacrifice to help provide their family?

5. Labor Unions • Union: Worker organization aimed to improve working conditions & wages • Strike: Laborers refuse to work until their demands are met. • Arbitration: Workers & owners agree that another person/persons hear both sides of the dispute and make impartial decision. • Lockout: Workers are ordered out of a business factory and the business is shut down. • Collective Bargaining: Negotiation between reps from labor & management to reach written agreements on wages, hours, and working conditions.

6. Early Labor Organizations • NLU & CNLU • National Labor Union & Colored National Labor Union • Formed in 1866 by William H. Sylvis • Persuaded government to legalize 8 hour workday • Focused on linking unions • In 1869, Uriah Stephens Organized the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor • “An injury to one is the concern of all” • Accepted workers of all race, gender & degree of skill • “Equal pay for men & women” • Viewed strikes as a last resort, advocated arbitration

7. Types of Unions • Craft Unionism: • Skilled workers from one or more trades • AFL (American Federation of Labor) • 1886 formed by Samuel Gompers • AFL focused on collective bargaining • AFL utilized strikes to earn higher wages & shorter work weeks • Industrial Unionism: • Unions include all laborers, skilled & unskilled in specific industry. • American Railway Union (ARU) • led by Eugene V. Debs won a strike in 1894 for higher wages

8. Socialism & IWW • Socialism- Government control of business and property & equal distribution of wealth. • Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) • Wobblies • Headed by William “Big Bill” Haywood • Miners, lumberers, cannery & dock workers

9. Strikes Turn Violent • Great Strike of 1877: • Workers for Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) • Protest second wage cut in 2 months • Spread to other railroad lines covering 50,000 miles • After a week of stoppage, federal troops ended the strike

10. Strikes Turn Violent • Haymarket Affair: May 4, 1886 • 3,000 people gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest police brutality • As crowd dispersed, a bomb was thrown at the police. • Police fired on the protestors • 7 police officers & several laborers were killed • Public began to turn against labor movements, why?

11. Strikes Turn Violent • Homestead Strike: June 29, 1892 workers call for strike • Frick hires Pinkertons to protect plant to hire scabs • Scabs: Strikebreakers to keep plant operating. • Workers forced Pinkertons out and kept mill closed until… • July 12, Pennsylvania National Guard arrived

12. Strikes Turn Violent • The Pullman Company Strike: 1894 • Why? • 3,000 workers laid off • Wages cut by 25-50% • Pullman refused arbitration • Result? • ARU began boycotting Pullman trains • Pullman hired Scabs, resulting in violence • President Grover Cleveland sends in Federal Troops • Pullman fires most of strikers and blacklists them from getting railroad jobs

13. Women Organize • Although barred from many unions, supported better working conditions, equal pay, an end to child labor • Mary Harris Jones: “Mother Jones” • Organized United Mine Workers of America (UWM) • Led 80 mill children on a march to President Theodore Roosevelt’s home in 1903 • Pauline Newman: Garment worker since 8 years old • At 16 organized International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) • Remember the fire at Triangle Shirtwaist factory in NYC on March 25, 1911? • One door was left unlocked, no sprinkler system, single fire escape collapsed • 146 women died • Factory owners acquitted of any wrongdoing

14. Management & Government React • Management refuses to recognize unions: • Forbade union meetings • Fired union members • Forced employees to sing “yellow-dog contracts” • Yellow-dog contracts- Swearing they wouldn’t join union • Government Pressure: • Turn the Sherman Antitrust Act on unions • Strikes & boycotts interfere with interstate trade • State or Federal government issued injunctions against the labor action • Despite these actions, workers continued to see unions as a powerful tool.

15. So What Do You Think? • Were unions an effective tool during the end of the 19th century into early 20th century? Explain! • Are unions necessary today? Explain!