Day 8: Labor Unions
Collect any overdue homework/MYP Projects Focus Sheet Pullman Strike PowerPoint Pullman Strike Document Analysis Jigsaw with Graphic Organizer 10 – 15 minutes/document Each group presents Before/During/After Modern Unions
Outcome: Analyze unions from primary sources in order to understand their historical influence 1.Briefly describe the difference between push and pull factors regarding immigrants and their reasons for leaving their home country. Provide examples for each. 2.Briefly analyze this political cartoon. Be sure to identify symbols, names, features, etc. and infer what is being represented using your knowledge of industrialism and labor reform in the late 19 th century
Interior of a Pullman Sleeper Car
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Railway car company owned by George Pullman Over 6,000 workers Workers had lived in “company town” Rent was 25% higher than other areas Pullman, Illinois
Historical Context: Depression of 1893 Pullman cuts workers’ wages But doesn’t cut rent for apartments
May 10, Workers walk out
American Railway Union is a NATIONAL union of railway workers Eugene Debs, ARU leader, decides to support Pullman strikers Across the nation, railway workers refused to run trains that had Pullman cars attached to them The country is paralyzed
President Grover Cleveland sends in troops
Presence of Federal troops sets off riots Rioters burn buildings, troops kill 4 and wound 20
By August, strike fall apart 1000 union workers fired New workers have to sign contracts promising not to join a union Debs arrested and jailed for 6 months
What can newspapers tell us? By the time of the Pullman Strike, urban newspapers had become a vital part of American public life Newspapers offer a basis for common knowledge and a means by which city dwellers could identify with (or against) strangers across town In Chicago in 1890, there were twenty-six daily newspapers (9 in English Using The Source: Newspaper Articles Think about how difficult it would be to reconstruct an event in the past without the benefit of newspapers. Daily newspapers are immediate. In Chicago, 8 of the city’s 9 English newspapers opposed the ARU’s use of the railway boycott; the Chicago Times was the only newspaper to support the ARU Advantages of newspapers: providing local details, reflecting the immediate climate, appealing to a particular readership
Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1894 “Law is Trampled On” With the coming of darkness last night Dictator Debs’ strikers threw off the mask of law and order and began the commission of acts of lawlessness and violence. A Pan Handle train carrying seven sleeper cars was flagged at Riverdale, and the engineer and fireman, under threat of being killed if they moved, were forced to hold the train while a mob of 800 men detached the Pullmans… The mob grew in numbers and resisted efforts of the train men to recouple the Pullmans. Chicago Times, June 30, 1894 “Mail Trains Must Move” At noon today United States Marshall Byington received telegraphic music instructions… to move all mail trains that were being detained in this city on account of the Pullman boycott. He… notified the… American Railway Union… giving them until 2 p.m. to decide whether or not they would offer any interference. A committee of strikers called on [Byington] an hour later and informed him that the trains would be allowed to proceed… Passenger trains on the Ohio & Mobile roads were allowed to go out this morning without sleepers.
8 groups total Groups 1 and 2: May 12, 1894 Groups 3 and 4: June 26, 1894 Groups 5 and 6: July 7, 1894 Groups 7 and 8: July 15, 1894
NFLRA (Referees) early-week-sources early-week-sources bay-packers-fans-still-coping-with-replacement-ref-rage Chicago Teacher’s Union teachers-agree-to-end-strike-classes-to-resume-wednesday?lite Apple threaten-strike-iphone-5-launch-paris-employment-huffington-post-
Complete on the back of the Focus Sheet
Analyze unions from primary sources in order to understand their historical influence Did we achieve our objective?