2. Ending the Gilded Age/ Beginning Progressivism
**As ordinary Americans grew tired of the corruption in politics and business of the Gilded Age, a new spirit of reform sweeps the nation. People from all walks of life begin to call for improvements and progress in America. **Labor unions had worked to gain power in the era of big business.

3. United We Stand; Divided We Fall
Labor Union- -an organization that represents the worker’s rights in the workplace. -work hours -child labor -wages -safety/working conditions **Labor unions were usually local until the National Labor Union was formed. It disbanded when a depression hit in 1873.

4. Big Business Fights Back
**Owners of big business feared labor unions and took steps to stop them. -Blacklisting -Sent spies among workers -Used the Pinkerton National Detective Agency -Sent spies to encourage trouble in meetings

5. Famous Labor Disputes of the Era
The Molly Maguires (Pennsylvania)
-most famous
-Irish coal miners form a secret union against
coal mine owned by Reading Railroad
-decided to fight violence
with violence
-sabotage and murders
-Pinkerton agent infiltrates
group and testifies
against 24 miners.
-Many hanged and imprisoned.

6. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
-Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cuts wages 10% -W. Virginia railroad workers strike -Spread to all railroads in east and Midwest -2/3 of nation’s railroads come to a stop -violence between strikers and police break out in many major cities across the nation -federal troops sent in to stop destruction -increased anti-labor feelings because of fear

7. *When prosperity returns in the 1880’s, unions again attempt to gain power for the workers.
The Knights of Labor
-secret from until it went national
-all workers, skilled, unskilled, men, women,
different races and ethnicities
-excluded liquor dealers, professional gamblers,
bankers, lawyers
-called for an end to child labor, convict labor
-wanted equal pay for women, safety codes
8 hour days, public ownership of railroads
-numbers rose to 800,000 until Haymarket Riots

8. Haymarket Riot
-at McCormick Harvester Works, Chicago, IL
-trouble between workers and police
-rally gathers in Haymarket Square to support
workers.
-bomb thrown at police, police fire on crowd
-6 civilians and 4 police die
-Knights of Labor wrongly blamed and numbers
fall to about 100,000 then fades away.

9. Homestead Strike (Pennsylvania) -at Carnegie’s Homestead steelworks
**The decline in the Knights of Labor did not mean an end to labor-management violence. Two of the biggest and bloodiest strikes took place in 1890.
Homestead Strike (Pennsylvania)
-at Carnegie’s Homestead steelworks
-boss Henry Frick cut wages and demanded union end
-workers are locked out
-3,000 workers fight 300 police
-anarchist tries to kill Frick
-popular support turns against workers
-Carnegie has gov’t on his side.
-Union is broken up

10. -Pullman Palace Car Co. in Pullman, Illinois
Pullman Strike
-Pullman Palace Car Co. in Pullman, Illinois
-wages cut but rents not cut
-workers strike and strike spreads cross-country
-President Grover Cleveland sends troops
-federal court issues an injunction to end strike
-union refuses and leaders go to jail
-leader Eugene Debs becomes a socialist in jail after
reading about Karl Marx’s ideas on Socialism
-gov’t again sides with big business
**For the next 20 years, the gov’t will use injunctions as a powerful tool against the union movement.

11. **It was decided that the unskilled worker was the weak link in the labor movement.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL)
-labor organization of skilled workers
-headed by Samuel Gompers
-concerned only with labor issues
-grew to 1.7 million members by 1904
-accepted Capitalism but just wanted workers
to get a “piece of the pie”

12. Coal Creek Labor Saga
-Anderson County, Tennessee
-Tennessee Coal Mining Co. began using only convict labor after workers began making demands:
-wanted pay in cash and not company scrips
-scrips only used at high priced company stores or
traded in for cash at a percentage of its value
-wanted to use their own checkweighmen not company’s
-TN Coal Mining also tore down miners’ houses to put up stockades
for prisoners
-300 armed miners attacked stockades
-marched prisoners to Coal Creek and loaded them onto trains
Governor John Buchanan brings in militia and sends prisoners back.
-2,000 armed miners march on stockade and send prisoners back to
Knoxville
-later do the same at Knoxville Iron Company

13. Governor and legislature meet concerning issues:
-nothing resolved
-made it a crime to interfere with convict labor contracts
Miners riot.
-burn stockade
-company buildings destroyed or looted
-prisoners set free with water and civilian clothes
Militia men sent to protect Fort Anderson and stockades.
-constant shooting between miners and militia
**Brought an end to convict labor in TN and built the
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary.