1. The Changing Workplace Ch. 8, Sect. 4 What problems were created for the emerging industrial workforce by changes in manufacturing in the 1800’s?

2. How did workers respond to these challenges? For Skilled Workers? For Unskilled Workers? For Women?

3. SHIFT FROM RURAL TO URBAN MANUFACTURING Weaving factories end the “putting-out system” of the “cottage-industry” or production in homes Decline of hand-produced goods Unskilled laborers replaces skilled laborers (masters, journeymen, and apprentices) Factory products become cheaper, more available Changes split families & traditional Communities

4. Lowell, Massachusetts: Birthplace of American Industry 1828: Women are 90% of the mill workforce Mill owners use women b/c they are paid less “Mill Girls” are primarily unmarried girls, supervised closely by female supervisors Opportunity to earn money and leave the farm

5. STRIKES AT LOWELL Worked 12 hour day, 6 days a week Poor wages, poor ventilation, poor conditions 1834: Mill workers strike over a pay cut; it fails 1836: Second strike over new pay cuts; it also fails. 1844: Mill workers form Lowell Female Labor reform Association & petition state legislature. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Women begin to organize for political and social change.

6. Workers Seek Better Conditions 1835: Nations first general strike in Philly (=a strike by skilled and unskilled workers) Employers use “strikebreakers” to crush strikes, using poor immigrants By 1840’s new immigrants are organizing their own strikes: – Irish Dockworkers strike in NY in 1840’s – Ladies Industrial Association, NY in 1845 (SEE HANDOUT ON IMMIGRATION)

7. National Trades’ Union Workers, or journeymen, begin to organize collectively, rather than by specific trades  more bargaining power. 1834: Journeymen from several industries organize the National Trades’ Union. Courts declare the Unions illegal. 1842: Mass. Supreme Court affirms worker’s rights in Commonwealth v. Hunt. 1860: only 5,000 workers are unionized, though 20,000 participate in strikes

8. What problems were created for the emerging industrial workforce by changes in manufacturing in the 1800’s? How did workers respond to these challenges? For Skilled Workers? For Unskilled Workers? For Women?