Opening Assignment (Bell Work) Get out your classwork from Friday if you had to finish it over the weekend. Turn in to Coach Croft. 1. Who was John D. Rockefeller? 2. What company did Rockefeller own? 3. What strategies did Rockefeller use to eliminate competition? 4. What did people start calling industrial capitalists? 5. In what ways did the industrial capitalists improve their communities?

Opening Assignment 9/09/ Who was John D. Rockefeller? An industrial capitalist who ran an oil company and the wealthiest man to ever live. 2. What company did Rockefeller own? The Standard Oil Company 3. What strategies did Rockefeller use to eliminate competition? Trusts and Horizontal Integration 4. What did people start calling industrial capitalists? Robber Barons &/or Captains of Industry 5. In what ways did the industrial capitalists improve their communities? They donated parts of their fortunes to charity, started schools, and generally were PHILANTHROPISTS.

The Labor Situation Exploitation and unsafe working conditions were common in all forms of industry. Steel mills often required 7 day work weeks. Many factory workers worked 12 hours a day for 6 days a week. Employees did not receive vacation, sick leave, unemployment compensation, or reimbursement for injury. In 1882 an average of 675 laborers were killed by on the job injuries each WEEK. That’s 35,000 a year.

The Great disparity of wealth of the late 19 th Century 1890 to 1910, 4 million women enter the workforce. 20% of boys and 10% of girls under 15 held full-time jobs. Did not attend school. In 1899 the average woman earned $267. In 1899 the average man earned $498. In 1899 Andrew Carnegie earned $23 million.

Labor gets Organized The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor was one of the first major Unions. The Knights of Labor at its’ height in 1886 had 700,000 members. The Knights supported the 8 hour work day and equal pay for equal work for women. The Knights also believed the best way to fight for better treatment was through ARBITRATION, a strike or refusal to work was a last resort. Arbitration is when laborers and owners agree to let a neutral 3 rd party decide a solution that benefits both groups.

Craft Unionism This type of union included SKILLED workers from one or more trades. In 1886 the American Federation of Labor (AFL) is founded. AFL uses the strike as a common tactic. A strike is when employees refuse to work until their demands are met. Successful strikes helped the AFL earn shorter workweeks and higher pay.

Industrial Unionism A Union with membership for skilled and unskilled workers from a specific industry. Like Steel, Railroads, or Oil. Eugene Debs forms the American Railway Union (ARU) ARU successfully went on strike for higher wages. Membership climbed to 150,000.

The Great Strike of the workers for the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad went on strike after their second pay cut in two months. After the strike spread to other railroad companies and areas of the country rail traffic came to a halt. The business owners and state governors asked the Federal government to step in and stop the strike. The Federal Government stopped the strike because it interfered with interstate commerce.

The Maryland National Guard fighting through the streets of Baltimore during the 1877 Strike.

The Haymarket Affair 1886 A union member was killed and others injured at the McCormick Harvester plant when police broke the strike. The following day 3,000 people gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square where someone (an anarchist) threw a bomb at the police and killed seven officers. The police fired upon the crowd and killed four protestors and wounded over 70 others. The leaders of the protest were first charged with inciting a riot, but later eight anarchists were convicted for the crime; four were hanged and one committed suicide while in prison. The Haymarket Affair turned public opinion against labor unions specifically, the Knights of Labor for fear of violence.

The Haymarket Riot

The Homestead Strike1892 Steel workers at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Plant went on strike after the company president announced plans to cut wages. The company hired armed guards from the Pinkerton Detective Agency to protect the plant and allow scabs, or strikebreakers, to keep the plant operating. The following “battle” left three detectives and nine workers dead. The workers defeated the Pinkertons and kept the plant closed until the Pennsylvania National Guard ended the strike.

The Homestead Strike ends.

Unions Under Pressure Management placed pressure on workers not to join unions. Employers fired union members, forbade union meetings, and forced new employees to sign “yellow-dog” contracts promising not to join a union. Industrial Capitalists and their lawyers even turned the Sherman Anti-trust Act against labor unions. The corporations argued that a strike, a picket line, or boycott would harm interstate trade. Then the courts would issue an injunction (an order to stop action) against the labor union.

Ticket out the door 1. Do most young people want to work and earn money? 2. How old should kids be before they are allowed to work? 3. How does it make you feel to think that young children had to work to survive during the late 19 th Century?