1. Chapter 20 - 4 The Labor Movement

2. Workers Organize Key? - Why did workers organize? Living conditions improved, but workers suffered; long hours, no sick days, low pay, dull & repetitive, unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Low wages forced the whole family to work. Discontented workers formed Labor Unions – groups of workers that negotiated with business owners to obtain better wages and working conditions.

3. Early Unions Knights of Labor – loose federation of workers from different trades; women and African Americans allowed to join. Railroad Strike of 1877 – refused to run railroads for 2 weeks in protest of pay cuts, and lost jobs. Railroad strike again in 1884-1885; won their strike; hundreds of thousands joined the Union. Chinese laborers and African Americans were hired during strikes, because they would work for less money.

5. The Struggle Between Business and Labor Key ? - How did business leaders react to workers’ demands? Business blames union leaders for being un American. Socialism – a social system in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government. Anarchists – believed in the abolition of all governments.

6. Business and Unions Clash McCormick Harvester Company – locked union members out and hired cheap labor. Haymarket Affair – Union protested at Haymarket Square; bomb went off; police fired on crowd. Samuel Gompers – helped founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) Used negotiations, strikes, and boycotts to achieve its aims.

9. The Homestead & Pullman Strike Homestead Strike – Carnegie reduced wages. Union and guards battled; 10 dead; set back for the Union. Pullman Strike – cut workers’ pay 25 percent; Eugene V. Debs called on all U.S. railrad workers to refuse to handle Pullman cars; Grover Cleveland called out federal troops & ended the strike. Debs was jailed.