1. Labor Unions & Strikes
United States History

2. Three Choices for Workers…
Continue in misery
Join a Union and possibly get fired or even killed
Become a communist and start a revolution

3. Socialism Public control of property & income
Society should be in charge of wealth
Wealth should be redistributed equally
Karl Marx & Frederick Engels
How to get this done? Workers revolution

4. Could This Happen In America?
How could this help workers?
Who would be against Socialism/Communism in America?
This is radical—is there something less radical that would help workers?

5. Less Radical—Labor Unions
Unions: improve working conditions (not overthrow the system)
Collective Bargaining
Strikes (last resort)
Best—national strike
Why was this appealing to workers?

6. Knights of Labor First important national union
Terence Powderly founder
Wanted to organize ALL workers: skilled, unskilled and of all backgrounds (no racial restrictions)
Set the example: negotiate, then strike if needed
Goals: 8 hour day; end of child labor
Lost influence after violent strikes

7. Other Unions American Federation of Labor (AFL):
Founder Samuel Gompers
Smaller local unions with a national organization
Wages, hours, conditions
Strikes, collective bargaining
Barred African-Americans
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Founder Eugene V. Debs
Wobblies
Socialists

8. Wobblies View of the World

9. Employers’ Reaction No Union Meetings Union organizers fired
Blacklisting
Yellow Dog contracts: Employee promises not to join a union
Would not bargain collectively
Strikes met with violence

10. The Great Strikes
Haymarket Riot (1896)—8 hour workday (national strike); scabs hired in Chicago (fights); rally—bombing & gunfight btw. Police & strikers; Ill. Law: help with murder, then you are a murderer: 4 anarchists hanged for murder (one blew himself up in prison). Never determined who threw the bomb.
Homestead Strike (1892)—Carnegie Steelworkers called a strike (factory cut their wages) & were fired; management sent in “private” police force (fight with deaths); strike called off
Pullman Strike (1894): Company town; wages cut 25% (Panic of 1893); food prices in town NOT cut; Pullman fired three negotiators; strike; all RR traffic halted; strike ordered illegal because mail couldn’t get through