1. The Labor Movement

2. Workers Face New Problems
Impersonal Conditions
Long Hours
Boring, Repetitive tasks
Low wages
Dangerous Conditions
Child Labor
Periodic Unemployment
Lack of Opportunity for Advancement
Unpleasant Living Conditions

3. Workers Organize
Since most work was unskilled workers could be easily replaced- created Labor Unions to get bargaining power back
3 Main goals:
To obtain Higher wages and better working conditions
“Mutual Aid” Societies
To place pressure on Government
1- strike
2- provide pensions and insurance benefits

4. Unions The Knights of Labor
Blacks, Women and rural far workers welcomed
Demands: 8 hour workday, higher wages and safety codes in factories
Opposed: Child labor, convict labor
Favored: equal pay for women and immigration restrictions
Preferred arbitration (compromise) over strikes
KoL- founded by Terrence Powderly in 1869, membership soared in the 1880s, by 1886 they had 700,000 members

5. Unions American Federation of Labor
Federation of several craft unions (cigar makers, carpenters, and shoemakers)
Did not admit women, and some of the craft unions refused to admit blacks
Demands: higher pay, 8 hour workday, better work conditions, and a “closed shop”
Willing to use strikes and boycotts
Hurt itself by only allowing skilled workers- most of the workforce were unskilled
Founded in 1881 by Samuel Gompers, 1886 new name, AFL fe

6. Tactics of Labor and Management
Strikes
Strike funds
Boycotts
Picket lines
Management:
Strike breakers
Lockout
“yellow dog contracts”
Blacklisting
Court injunction

7. Role of Government
Federal and state governments favored big business over unions
Only about 10% of workers were unionized- by 1910
Government was made to protect private property
Public believed union demands would raise prices, also viewed unions as violent, anarchist, socialists
Businesses contributed to political campaigns
Feared disruptiveness of strikes

8. Milestones of early Labor Movement
The Haymarket Riot (1886)
Homestead Strike (1892)
Pullman Strike (1894)
These events will help solidify public dislike of Unions
The Haymarket Riot (1886)
Strikers and strike breakers got into a fight, police fired upon them and killed several demonstrators
Anarchist immigrant leaders called for a rally the next night at Haymarket square
Police ordered the crowd to disperse- dynamite bomb was thrown at police- six policemen and four demonstrators died
Unions become associated with violence and anarchists
Homestead Strike (1892)
Carnegie and Partner Henry C. Frick, locked out workers during contract negotiations at the Homestead Steel mill
Workers went on strike and picketed around mill
Hired Pinkerton workers to breakthrough picket lines- they were defeated
State militia called in
Frick hired strike breakers
Pullman strike
Pullman, Illinois- workers lived in town owned by Pullman
Pullman lowered wages but refused to lower rent and food prices
only taking home a few cents a day
Eugene V. Debs- helpd form the American Railway Union
railway workers were told to not handle Pullman cars during strike- brought train transportation to a standstill
President Clevelend sent in troops
Court filed an injunction on the ARU for interfering with interstate commerce
debs was sent to prison for 6 months and became a socialist

9. Rise od Ideology Capitalists Social Darwinism Communists Socialists
Resources privately owned and free market
Social Darwinism
Survival of the fittest
Communists
Classless society with no private property- violent overthrow of “bourgeoisie” class
Socialists
Reform and government involvement in big business on behalf of the workers
Anarchists
Abolition of central government