1. Unions: Workers Organize
Workers Respond to Industrialization

2. Why Did Workers Organize?
Work changes from skilled workers in smaller factories to unskilled labor in large corporations
Poor Working Conditions and Low Wages
Workers organize to demand fair treatment

3. First Union: Knights of Labor
In 1869, Knights of Labor formed
Open to all workers, regardless of race, gender, or degree of skill
Terrence Powderly leader
Favored 8 Hr. day and arbitration for settling labor disputes

4. Haymarket Incident of 1886
Knights of Labor leaders against strike but locals workers strike anyway.
Courts rule against workers & police arrest strikers
Police kill 4 unarmed strikers in Chicago
Union holds protest meeting in Haymarket Square
Bomb explodes; riot breaks out 11 people die and over 100 wounded
Union leaders tried for deaths; four convicted and hanged
Public turns against unions

6. American Federation of Labor
Knights decline after Haymarket Incident
In 1886, Samuel Gompers formed American Federation of Labor
Organized as craft unionism, which included skilled workers only
Favored strikes
Between 1890 &1915, in unionized industries
Weekly wages rose
Workweek hours fell

7. Socialism & the IWW Many union activists turned to socialism
Extreme socialism is communism (overthrow of the capitalist system)
Most socialists NOT communists; just wanted better conditions for workers
However in 1905 group of radical unionists formed the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies)
Headed by William “Big Bill” Haywood

8. Industrial Unionism
Some labor leaders felt that unions should include all laborers – skilled & unskilled – in a specific industry
In 1893 Eugene V. Debs formed industrial union – the American Railway Union
Most workers were unskilled and semiskilled laborers, but skilled engineers & firemen joined too
Used strike as a major weapon

9. The Great Uprising of 1877
Railroads, during depression & after series of pay cuts, cut wages again
B&O RR workers strike
President Hayes sends federal troops to protect RR property
RR workers in East & Midwest angry & stop work
Violence in Pittsburgh when state militia shoots 25 strikers
When this news spreads, so does strike
Strikes fail but Great Uprising notable because workers cooperated across ethnic lines.

10. Workers Continue to Strike
Hamlin Garland described conditions in Carnegie’s steel mill, “Everywhere…groups of pale, lean men slouched in faded garments, grimy with the soot and grease of the mills…A roar as of a hundred lions, a thunder as cannons…jarring clang of falling iron…!”

11. The Homestead Strike
Steelworkers at Carnegie’s plant strike in 1892, after company president Henry Frick announces pay cuts
Hires Pinkerton Detective Agency guards so that he can hire scabs (strikebreakers)
Steelworkers fight & force out Pinkertons
Keep plant closed until PA National Guard arrives

12. Pullman Company Strike
During Panic of 1893 & economic depression that followed, Pullman Company lays off workers, cut wages by 25-50%
After paying rent, workers took home under $6 a week
Economy improves but Pullman fails to restore wages
Eugene Debs, ARU head, asks for arbitration, but Pullman refused. ARU boycotts Pullman trains
Pullman hires strikebreakers; strike turns violent; President Cleveland sends in federal troops
Eugene Debs jailed & workers blacklisted.
Debs embittered by experience; becomes socialist