Organized Labor American History

Goals Students will be able to: Terms to know: Examine the causes and consequences of the second Industrial Revolution Analyze changes as the United States became an industrial society Examine the causes, course, and consequences of the labor movement Review different economic and philosophic ideologies Terms to know: Sweatshop, company town, collective bargaining, socialism, Knights of Labor, Terrence v Powderly, Samuel Gompers, AFL, Haymarket Riot, Homestead Strike, Eugene v Deb, Pullman Strike

Hardships Many workers in the America’s toiled in workshops These workers were often foreign born, lacked good English-speaking skills, were often very poor Factory workers often worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week, in a small, hot, dark, and dirty workhouses known as sweatshops Those who worked in mining towns lived in isolated communities near their workplace The housing areas were known as company towns, which were owned and rented out by the business that employed them Most of the income workers made, immediately went back to the business This was known as wage slavery

Labor Unions In the 1820’s factors workers began using a technique known as collective bargaining This is a system of negotiating as a group for higher wages or better working conditions In order to gain leverage, workers would strike to try and force the hand of the employer In 1869, Uriah Smith Stephens found a group called the Knights of Labor This group actively recruited African Americans and devoted their time to bring broad social reform to the country The widely adopted socialist idea that wealth should be distributed amongst the people, rather than concentrated in a wealthy elite

Labor Unions By the late 1800’s, Terrence v. Powderly took over the Knights of Labor and continued to push for economic reform Boycotts and strikes were used extensively to try and protect workers that made up every race and gender The group eventually failed after a series of failed strike attempts In 1886 Samuel Gompers formed the American Federation of Labor (AFL) The AFL was a craft union that pooled money to create a strike and pension fund to assist workers in need The AFL also pressed for closed shops, opposed women members, and local branches of the organization often excluded racial minorities

Major Strikes On May 1, 1886 thousands of workers mounted a national demonstration for an eight-hour workday Strikes took place in many cities and fights broke out between strikers and strikebreakers On May 4th, a riot broke out in Hay Market Sqaure Dozens of people were killed, as the fighting between police, anarchists, strikers and strike breakers fought

Major Strikes In the summer of 1892, a Carnegie Steel plant cut wages at a steel plant in Homestead, Penn Riots broke out and Andrew Carnegie’s partner Henry Fick was almost assassinated Even though the union had nothing to do with the assassination plot, the two were connected in the public eye and the strike was called off

Major Strikes In 1893, workers at Pullman Palace Car Company, a company that made luxury rail road cars, laid of workers and reduced wages by 25% Of the workers that went to negotiate with George Pullman regarding wage increases were largely fired and the plant was shut down in protest of workers demands Eugene V. Debs who rain the American Railway Union (A.R.U) organized a strike This strike shutdown rail traffic throughout the country which hurt business and the U.S. post office Because the strike interfered with the governance of the country President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops to put down the strike