1. The Organization of Labor
The Gilded Age
The Organization of Labor

2. Essential Question: How did workers & the U. S
Essential Question: How did workers & the U.S. government respond to the rapid changes of industrialization during the Gilded Age?

3. Changes of the Gilded Age
During the Gilded Age ( ), the U.S. industrialized rapidly:
New technology led to a boom in railroads, oil, steel, electricity
Trusts, corporate mergers, & new business leaders led to monopolies
Mass immigration from Southern & Eastern Europe increased the size of American cities

4. Describe the changes in the Labor Force:

5. Changes of the Gilded Age
During the Gilded Age ( ), the U.S. industrialized rapidly:
New technology led to a boom in railroads, oil, steel, electricity
Trusts, corporate mergers, & new business leaders led to monopolies
Mass immigration from Southern & Eastern Europe increased the size of American cities
But, problems during the Gilded Age led to demands for change

6. Group Activity: Gilded Age Theme Analysis
Students will examine a series of three primary sources from the Gilded Age:
For each image, provide a one sentence summary of the image
Once all three images are revealed, determine how the images are related—What’s the theme?

7. Theme #1—Image A

8. Theme #1—Image B

9. Theme #1—Image C

10. Theme #1: Labor Unions 10 – 18 hour days, 6 days per week
Industrial work was hard:
10 – 18 hour days, 6 days per week
Received low wages; No sick leave or injury compensation
Industrial work was unskilled, dangerous, & monotonous
These bad conditions led to the growth of labor unions -- groups that demanded better pay & conditions through collective bargaining
Low wages ($ /year but living cost $600); railroad injury rate 1 in 26, death rate 1 in 399; Composition of work force in 1900: 20% women (in 296 of 303 jobs) 10% of girls & 20% of boys had jobs (“child labor” meant ↓14 yrs)
all children poorly paid, but girls less than boys; Earning comparisons: Adults > Children; Men > Women; Skilled > Unskilled; Protestants > Catholics or Jews; Whites > Blacks & Asians; Blacks worked menial jobs; Chinese worked on Pacific Coast; often discriminated against (Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882)

11. Theme #1: Labor Unions Two Labor Union (types)
1) Trade Unions (skilled)
Limited to people with similar skills
Vs.
2) Common Laborers
(unskilled)
workers w/ little to no skills (paid less)

12. Theme #1: Labor Unions Industrial Unions
Unification of all trade unions and common laborers
Opposed by business interests

13. Knights of Labor first major union founded in 1869
demanded sweeping reforms:
Equal pay for women
An end to child labor
8 hour work day
claimed a substantial membership
Women
African Americans
immigrants

14. American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Samuel Gompers, creates union catered exclusively to skilled laborers and focused on smaller, more practical issues:
Increasing wages
Reducing hours
Imposing safety measures
Pushed for closed shops
Company could only hire union workers

15. Theme #1: Labor Unions
Some people turned to socialism (government control of business and property, equal distribution of wealth)
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, called the “Wobblies”) formed in 1905
Socialism seemed appealing to some Americans, but never became a major option for workers
By 1900, only 4% of all workers were unionized

16. Theme #2—Image A

17. Theme #2 —Image B

18. Theme #2—Image C

19. Theme #2: Strikes & Labor Unrest
One of the tactics used by unions to gain better pay was to strike:
Strikes were designed to stop production in order to gain pay

20. Theme #2: Strikes & Labor Unrest
Business Opposition
Blacklists
union organizers
put on do not hire
lists
Lockouts
when union formed,
business locks out
workers
Strikebreakers
(scabs)
replacement workers

21. The Corporate “Bully-Boys”: Pinkerton Agents
Some business firms hired private police companies to deal w/ strikers
In some cases, violence broke out

22. Theme #2: Strikes & Labor Unrest
During the Chicago Haymarket Strike (1886), unionists demanded an 8-hr day; When violence broke out, public opinion turned against unions, viewing them as violent & “un-American”

23. Theme #2: Strikes & Labor Unrest
Violence erupted during the Homestead Strike (1892) at one of Carnegie’s steel plants; State militia were called to re-open the place with replacement workers
Steelworkers did not form a new union for 40 years

24. Theme #2: Strikes & Labor Unrest
In 1894, Eugene Debs led railroad workers on a national strike when the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages by 50%
President Cleveland sent the army to end the strike; Strikers in 27 states resisted U.S. troops & dozens died

25. Management vs. Labor “Tools” of Management “Tools” of Labor “scabs”
P. R. campaign
Pinkertons
lockout
Blacklisting
open shop
boycotts
sympathy demonstrations
informational picketing
closed shops
organized strikes
“wildcat” strikes

26. The Great U.S. FEAR: The Hand That Will Rule the World One Big Union

27. A “Company Town”: Pullman, IL

28. Child Labor

29. Child Labor

30. After viewing the photos of child labor, why do you think this image is called “Galley Labor?”

31. Organized Labor Loses Strength
Supreme Court later upheld the use of injunctions against labor unions, giving businesses a powerful new weapon to suppress strikes

32. Organized Labor Loses Strength
Lochner v. New York (1905)
Supreme Court ruled 60-hour work week limit unconstitutional
Freedom of Contract
Organized labor began to fade in strength, and did not resurge until the 1930s