1. Unit 5: An Industrial America Part III: Workers and Unions

2. Working Conditions factories replaced specialized craftsmen with machines factory work often monotonous and workers felt little pride in their work ruled by the clock, which told them when to start, when to break, and when to stop fatigue, faulty equipment, and careless training often resulted in fires or accidents

3. Working Conditions factories faced no shortage of labor because they paid more than anyone else people in constant fear of losing their jobs because they could be fired for any reason and easily replaced

4. Child Labor factory owners could pay them less and families needed them to work to make ends meet couldn’t go to school because they were in the factory all day six days a week didn’t have a childhood and spent all day without seeing the sun prompted states to begin regulating the workplace

5. Labor Unions organizations of workers formed to protect the interests of its members craft unions open to skilled workers who specialized in a specific craft trade unions open to unskilled workers

6. Knights of Labor founded in 1869 with the goal of organizing all working men and women into one union membership included farmers, factory workers, shopkeepers, and office workers recruited African American workers and women

7. Knights of Labor wanted equal pay for equal work, the 8- hour workday, and an end to child labor relied on political activity and education to make changes series of failed strikes led to its decline and disappearance in 1890s

8. American Federation of Labor (AFL) craft union founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886 implemented strikes and boycotts as economic pressures to institute change used collective bargaining to negotiate as a group and thus increase bargaining power used mediation by bringing in a third party to negotiate a compromise settlement

9. American Federation of Labor (AFL) sometimes the third party was given arbitration and both workers and employers had to abide by whatever decision they made pressed for a closed shop workplace in which employers could only hire union members

10. Eugene Debs one of the most influential union leaders in America even ran for president as a member of the American Socialist Party

11. Employers Response made workers sign yellow-dog contracts that forbade them from joining unions forbade union meetings, fired union workers, refused to bargain collectively when strikes did occur refused to recognize unions as their workers’ legitimate representatives placed union workers on blacklists that prevented them from getting a job anywhere else

12. Employers Response instituted lockouts and refused to let striking workers come back to work hired scabs to replace striking workers found they had the support of the government so asked for injunctions or court orders that forbade strikes because they violated the law or threatened public interests even used violence and intimidation to deal with unruly workers

13. Great Strike (July 14-August 25, 1877) first major case of nationwide labor unrest railroad workers responded to proposed wage cut with violence President Hayes sent in federal troops twice to put down the violence showed employers they could appeal to the government to help them deal with workers

14. Haymarket Riot (May 4, 1886) workers demonstrated in favor of 8-hour workday group of radicals exploded a bomb in Haymarket Square immediate responding gunfire turned into riot with death of strikers and police turned public opinion against unions people began to identify strikes with anarchy and violence

15. Homestead Strike (June 30-July 6, 1892) steel worker strike at Carnegie Steel plant in Homestead, PA Carnegie’s partner Henry Frick hired private police force Pinkertons to put down strike strikers and Pinkertons engaged in shootout that killed and wounded several people public viewed strikers as instigators of violence and union had to call off strike

16. Pullman Strike (May 11- June 29, 1894) group of workers went to industrialist George Pullman to protest laying off workers when Pullman fired three of the labor representatives the union went on strike Pullman closed the plant rather than deal with union Eugene Debs called for nationwide boycott of Pullman cars Cleveland sent in troops to enforce the ruling established precedence for factory owners to appeal to courts to end strikes