1. WORKERS & UNIONS

2.  While industrial growth produced wealth for the owners of factories, mines, railroads, and large farms, people who performed work in these industries struggled to survive.  To maximize profits, people who owned the means of production looked for the cheapest labor: Immigrants, women, and children. FACTORY WORK

3.  Worked long hours, 6 days each week, in poor conditions (sweatshops)  Owners and managers enforced strict rules to maximize productivity  Demand for work was larger than supply of jobs, so owners could pay very little and easily replace workers  At the turn of the 20 th century, 20% of children ages 10-16 worked instead of attending school FACTORY WORK

4.  Mines for coal and other natural resources typically weren’t near population centers, so companies built housing for their workers  Companies charged high rents to live in these towns and segregated them by race/ethnicity  Companies also set up stores that sold goods on credit at high interest rates COMPANY TOWNS

5.  Rent and store purchases were taken out of workers’ paychecks, so by the end of the pay period, workers sometimes owed their employers money.  Workers could be arrested for leaving their jobs before paying back the money, so workers were trapped in “wage slavery.” COMPANY TOWNS

6.  Formed by Uriah Smith Stephens in 1869, included workers of all trades, skill levels, genders, ages, and races with the goal of replacing capitalism with workers’ cooperatives.  In 1881 Terence V. Powderly became the leader.  Under his leadership, the Knights of Labor grew to 700,000 members by 1885. KNIGHTS OF LABOR

7.  Organized a national strike for an 8-hour workday on May 1, 1886 (“May Day”).  Violence broke out between striking workers and those hired to replace them.  Conflict escalated over the following days and police got involved. KNIGHTS OF LABOR

8.  On May 4 in Haymarket Square in Chicago, strikers staged a protest.  Some anarchists (who oppose all government) joined in.  A protester threw a bomb, killing a policeman.  A riot broke out and resulted in the deaths of protesters and policemen.  Several anarchists were tried for murder, some of whom were executed. THE HAYMARKET RIOT

9.  Formed by Samuel Gompers in 1886 to represent skilled craftsman by uniting small unions that each represented a specific craft or trade.  Local unions remained independent but were supported in their efforts by their affiliation with the AFL. AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

10.  Charged union dues, which were pooled to support striking workers and a pension fund.  Focused on specific issues instead of broad social change.  Specifically excluded women and many local chapters found ways to exclude racial minorities, so AFL membership never matched the Knights of Labor. AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

11.  In 1892 a Carnegie Steel Plant in Homestead, PA cut workers’ wages.  When a strike was called, Carnegie’s business partner, Henry Frick, called the Pinkertons, a private security agency, to break it up. THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE

12.  The Pinkertons killed and wounded strikers during a two-week standoff.  An anarchist who had joined the protest tried to assassinate Frick and the public associated his actions with the union.  With the loss of public support, the union called off the strike after several more months. THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE

13.  In 1893, the Pullman Palace Car Company laid off workers and reduced wages by 25%.  Workers, who were required to live in a company town, went tried to negotiate with the owner George Pullman in May of 1894.  He fired three workers and shut down their plant. THE PULLMAN STRIKE

14.  Workers turned to the American Railway Union (ARU) leader, Eugene Debs.  The ARU was an industrial union that united all workers in the railroad industry, regardless of which type of job they held.  The ARU called for a national strike and by June nearly 300,000 workers had joined the effort, halting rail traffic and mail delivery. THE PULLMAN STRIKE

15.  Railroad owners went to court citing the Sherman Antitrust Act in their argument that the union was disrupting free trade.  A federal court issued an injunction against the ARU and President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops to end the strike on July 4.  Debs challenged the injunction in court, but the Supreme Court upheld the decision in the case In re Debs. THE PULLMAN STRIKE