1. L13(14): Unionism: Reaction to the Gilded Age
1869-early 1900s
Agenda
Objective:
To understand the main people and events in the history of the American labor movement.
To evaluate when unionism was not more successful in the United States.
To evaluate the implications of a less than successful labor movement on U.S. history.
Schedule:
Lecture
Discussion
Homework
None 

2. Entities in American Society Post-Gilded Age
People
Corporations
Government

3. Entities in American Society Post-Gilded Age
People
Corporations
Government

4. Entities in American Society Post-Gilded Age
People
Corporations
Government
Labor Union

5. Labor Unions Form
In response to working conditions and attitudes towards labor, labor unions begin to form during the Gilded Age
What is a labor union?
What advantages does it confer to workers?
How might management feel about labor unions?

6. The Knights of Labor First major labor union in the United States
Founded in 1869 by a group of garment workers.
Sought to include all workers in one big union.
Skilled and unskilled, men and women, whites and blacks, were all allowed to join
Hundreds of thousands of workers in the 1880s were “baptized” in a Knights of Labor initiation ceremony that required the following promises.

7. What do the Knights of Labor Believe?
“In the Beginning . . .” A Knight’s Sacred Oath
In the beginning, God ordained that man should labor, not as a curse, but as a blessing; not as a punishment, but as means of development, physically, mentally, morally, and has set thereunto his seal of approval in the rich increase and reward.
By labor is brought forward the kindly fruits of the earth in rich abundance for our sustenance and comfort; by labor (not exhaustive) is promoted health of the body and strength of mind, labor garners the priceless stores of wisdom and knowledge.
To glorify God in its exercise, to defend it from degradation, to divest it of the evils to body, mind, and estate, which ignorance and greed have imposed; to rescue the toiler from the grasp of the selfish is a work worthy of the noblest and best of our race.
You have been selected from among your associates for that exalted purpose. Are you willing to accept the responsibility, and, trusting in the support of pledged true Knights, labor, with what ability you possess, for the triumph of these principles among men?

8. Corporate Industrialization/Capitalism
Conditions
Wages
Hours
Corporate Industrialization/Capitalism
K of L

9. At the same time…
At the same time the Knights of Labor are forming, workers are becoming increasingly outraged with their working conditions and are responding with action…

10. The Railroad Strike of 1877 Background
In the wake of the Panic of 1873, bitter antagonism between workers and leader of industry developed.
The B&O Railroad declared a 10% wage cut for workers.
Details
In protest, workers throughout the United States went on strike and refused to run the trains
First strike in the U.S.
Not organized by a labor union,
most were spontaneous
This threw the country into turmoil
Trains aren’t running; people are
protesting
President Rutherford B. Hayes calls in
Federal Troops to take control and
open up railroads
Sent troops from city to city to take down
strikers
Strike ends 45 days after it began
Over 100 people killed across USA

11. The Railroad Strike of 1877
Why did the U.S. government intervene on the side of the railroad owners rather than workers?
Pro-Business Attitudes of the Government Throughout the Gilded Age
Economic Self-Interest: No trains, no $
Perception of the Strikers
Germans (Germans
immigrants, not real
Americans were
responsible)
Lazy/Idle (Strikers
were lazy vagrants, not
people who were
willing to work for a
living)
Communists (Strikers
were communist
sympathizers)

12. The Haymarket Riot of 1886 Background
The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions set May 1, 1886 as a day of protest to demand an 8 hour work day for all workers in America
Thousands of workers went on strike throughout the United States
Workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago are part of this protest
Details
May 2
In Chicago, clashes between strikers and
temporary hires (scabs) turns violent
The Chicago Police called in to bring order, but
kill several strikers
May 3
Outraged by this act of police violence, local anarchists
called for a rally
Printed fliers in German and English that claimed that the
police had murdered the strikers on behalf of business
interests and urged the workers to seek justice
1,00 to 3,0000 people show up to hear protest speeches
Police show up to control the crowd
Bomb was thrown at police and the police responded by firing on the crowd
In total, 7 policemen and 4 civilians were killed

13. The Haymarket Riot 1886 Aftermath
Police raided the office of a radical German workers’ newspaper believing that its workers were the likely culprits
Arrested a total of eight known anarchists
Shady/sparse evidence linking some to bomb-making, speaking at the Haymarket Rally, or merely being an anarchist
6 Germans/ German-Americans
2 of British heritage
7 sentenced to death and 1 to a term of 15 years in prison
Significance
Harsh Anti-Union sentiment begin to develop in America
Unions were decried as:
Violent
Anarchist
German
Union membership declines in America
Radical workers’ rights activists and anarchists are catalyzed to greater action
Suggests for some the need for a more moderate unionism…AFL

14. The American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers as an alliance of craft unions comprised of mostly skilled workers.
Gompers became synonymous with the union, serving as its President every single year (except one) between 1886 and 1924.
Unlike the Knights of Labor, the AFL was open to skilled, white men only.
By 1904 the AFL had a membership of 1.7 million and by World War One it had 2 million members
Merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955
Today is the largest federation of unions in the United States with more than 11 million members

15. What Did the AFL believe? Consider the following quotes from Gompers…
“[I]f you wish to improve the condition of the people, you must improve their habits and customs.  The reduction of the hours of labor reaches the very root of society.  It gives the workingman better conditions and better opportunities and makes of him what has been too long neglected -- a consumer instead of a mere producer  A man who goes to his work before the dawn of day requires no clean shirt to go to work in, but is content to go in any old overall but a man who goes to work at 8 o'clock in the morning wants a clean shirt; he is afraid his friends will see him, so he does not want to be dirty.  He also requires a newspaper; while a man who goes to work early in the morning and stays late at night does not need a newspaper, for he has no time to read it, requiring all the time he has to recuperate his strength sufficiently to get ready for his next day's work.”
“The Trade Unions…regard the workman as the producer of the wealth of the world and demands that wages, shall be sufficient to enable him to support his family in a manner consistent with existing civilization and all that is required for maintaining and improving physical and mental health and the self respect of human beings.”

16. What the AFL believed
The group from the outset concentrated upon the income and working conditions of its membership as its almost sole focus.
Fundamentally conservative "pure and simple" approach
Favored pursuit of workers' immediate demands rather than challenging the property rights of owners, and took a pragmatic view of politics which favored tactical support for particular politicians over formation of a party devoted to workers’ interests.
The AFL's leadership believed the expansion of the capitalist system was seen as the path to betterment of labor, an orientation making it possible for the AFL to present itself as what one historian has called "the conservative alternative to working class radicalism."

17. Corporate Industrialization/Capitalism
Conditions
Wages
Hours
AFL
Corporate Industrialization/Capitalism
K of L

18. Question Activists Are Asking: Is Corporate Industrialization Here to Stay?
Reactionaries: No! (Populists & AFL)
Go back to the way life was before the creation of corporations!
Uproot the system and go back!
Union: Knights of Labor
Political Movement/Ideology: Populism
Reformers: Yes! (Progressives & AFL)
We have to accept the existence of corporate industrialization, but we can reform it to make it better for the people
The roots of the system are here to stay, but we can pick the weeds!
Union: American Federation of Labor
Political Movement/Ideology: Progressivism
Revolutionaries: No! (Socialists)
Destroy the capitalist system and create a new system predicated on workers rights and primacy in society
Union: None
Political Movement/Ideology: Socialism

19. The Homestead Strike of 1892
Background
Unionized workers at Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, PA sought a new contract with their employer
Union = Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
Plant manager Henry Clay Frick refused to renegotiate a new union contract
Frick, backed by Carnegie, cut wages in response to their asking for a new contract
Details
In an effort to break the union, Frick locks out the workers
He seals the plant to workers by edging it with barbed wires, sniper towers, and high-pressure water cannons
In response, the workers declare a strike
Frick hires replacement workers (scabs) and a private security force (Pinkertons) to protect them
Strikers and and the Pinkertons clash and exchange gun fire and violence…things get crazy….
Pinkertons trying to land by barge were shot at
Strikers attempted to burn the barges and threw dynamite at them
Strikers lit railroad cars in the mill on fire
Pennsylvania Governor calls in the state militia
to restore order
Militia was successful at getting scabs into the mill to work
Were able to restore the factory to full capacity
Anarchist attempt to assassinate Frick
AFL chose to ignore the unions pleas for help,
the strike broke down
Union voted to return to work on Carnegie’s terms

20. The Homestead Strike 1892 Result:
Workers wages dropped from an average of $2.25/day to $1.89/day
Would be 45 years before Carnegie Steel Mill would do business with unionized workers
Significance:
Broke the AA as a force in the American labor movement
Showed that labor movements would be minimally effective so long as:
There was a steady stream of scabs willing to cross picket lines
The government would use its power to defeat labor and prop up business

21. The Pullman Strike of 1894 Background
Pullman company made railroad cars
Founded by George Pullman
Most of the workers lived in the company town
of Pullman, Il
When his company laid off workers and lowered
wages it did not reduce rent in the town, and
the workers called for a strike.
Most workers were not unionized, so they reached out to Eugene Debs the President of the American Railway Union to sign up.
The Pullman Company refused to negotiate with the ARU
Details
Debs decides that:
Workers should strike
There should be a massive boycott against all trains that carried the Pullman car
Within four days, 125,000 workers on 29 railroads had walked off the job rather than handle Pullman cars
Wanted a general strike of all union members in Chicago by Gompers, head of the AFL, said no

22. The Pullman Strike 1894 Details (continued…)
Under direction from President Grover Cleveland, U.S. Attorney General issued an injunction demanding that the strikers cease their activities
Debs ignored the injunction
Cleveland sent federal troops to various cities in the U.S. to use force to get the strikers back to work
Cleveland calls for Debs arrest on federal charges of obstructing the U.S. Mail
SCOTUS rules in In Re Debs that the federal government had the right to issue the injunction
Deb sentenced to six months in prison
Public Opinion of the Strike
Media coverage was extensive and negative
Media depicted the boycotters as foreigners who were
trying to sabotage America
Aftermath
Debs’ time in prison radicalizes him. There he reads
Marx and decides to dedicate his life to socialism
After his release from jail he becomes the leading
socialist figure in the United States
Runs for president 5 times as the head of the Socialist
Party
In an effort to placate organized labor after the strike,
Cleveland and Congress created Labor Day as a
federal holiday.

23. Concluding Thoughts
How would you characterize the nature of unionism in the United States?
Why wasn’t unionism more successful?
What has been the effect of an unsuccessful labor movement in the United States?