Warm-Up QUIETLY – Walk around the room, viewing the photo gallery. Answer the questions provided to you.

Warm-Up

QUIETLY – Walk around the room, viewing the photo gallery. Answer the questions provided to you.

3-4 The Rise of Labor Unions

Lesson Objective

How did the United States become an industrialized society after the Civil War?

Working in the United States• Machines are taking over what people had done in the past - machine

driven factories• Relationship between boss and workers changes• Skills were easily replaced

• Dull• repetitive tasks • dangerous unhealthy working conditions

– Lint, dust, toxic fumes breathed in– Machines lacked safety devices

Working in the United States• Low pay – 22 cents an hour • Long Hours - 59 hours per week• Dangerous conditions – 1882, 675 laborers were killed on the job

Sweatshops – long hours in poor conditions for low pay (usually women or children)

Children as young as 5 worked Steel Mills – 7 day work weekLess than $500 a year for men $267 a year for womenNo vacations or sick daysSeamstresses – 12+hours a day, 6 days a weekNo unemploymentNo $ for injuries suffered on the jobWages were so low that everyone in the family had to work

Children at work• 2 million children under 15 yrs. old worked• Hazardous textile mills, tobacco factories, garment sweatshops, coal mines• 12 hour days, 6 days a week• Little time for schooling = reduced chances to build a better life as an adult

Hazards at Work• Lung damaging dust in textile mills• Cave-ins and gas explosions in mines• Vats of molten metal spilling without warning in steel mills.• Some workers health was destroyed• Some workers were severely injured or killed

Two types of Industrial Workers

Craft WorkersSpecial skills and training

Higher wages and more control over time

• Machinists• Iron molders• Stonecutters• Shoemakers• printers

Common LaborersFew skills and lower wages

• Miners• Seamstresses

Stop. Think. Discuss.

What would you do to try and get better wages, shorter hours and safer

work places?

Workers want better conditions

• Slowed their work pace• Went on strike• Some workers banded together to win better conditions• Most early efforts to form unions failed

Form Unions

• By 1830 craft workers to form trade unions• By 1873, 30 national trade unions existed

• Industrial unions – united all the workers in a particular industry– Rarely successful

The Major UnionsKNIGHTS OF LABOR

• Skilled and unskilled Industrial Union

• Open to immigrants, African Americans, women, and unskilled workers

• NO STRIKES – rallies and arbitration

• 8 hour workday• End child labor• Equal pay for men and women• Workers and employers to share

ownership and profits

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR• Craft Union - Skilled workers only• Closed shops – companies can only hire union workers• Trade unions – a union of persons working in the same

trade then joined the AFL• Higher wages• 8 hour work day• Improved working conditions• Collective bargaining – negotiate with management for

workers as a group• Supported the use of strikes

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS of the WORLD

• Organize all workers according to industry

• Supported strikes• Too radical for most• “The working class and the

employing class have nothing in common”

ILGWU & WTUL

International Ladies Garment Workers Union• 1 million worked in factories• Mary Jones “Mother Jones”• Better wages• Benefits

Women’s Trade Union League• Mary O’Sullivan, Leonora O’Reilly, Jane Addams,

Lillian Wald• 8 hour work day• Minimum wage• End child labor• End to evening work

STOP. THINK. DISCUSS.

• Who might be against unions? Why?

Country at the time• 1870-1900 – economy swung back and forth• 2 major depressions and 3 smaller recessions• In such hard times – workers lost their jobs or faced pay cuts

• Violent strikes and sometimes riots

• Federal government usually sided with factory owners• Presidents sent in troops to end strikes• Courts usually ruled against strikers

– Pullman and railroad car factory. Sherman Antitrust used against strikers.

Opposition to Unions• Generally viewed as conspiracies that interfered with property rights• In particular opposed industrial unions• Tried to stop workers from forming unions

– Take oaths or sign contracts promising not to join a union– Hired detectives to identify union organizers– Fired workers who tried to organize unions or strikes – placed on blacklist– Lockouts – Hired strikebreakers

• No laws protected workers• Viewed as un-American and communist or anarchist

STOP. THINK. DISCUSS.

• If you were a worker and the owners cut your wages, had you work longer hours – brainstorm what would you do?

Great Railroad Strike• Baltimore and Ohio Railroad announced it was cutting wages – 3rd time• Workers walked off the job and blocked tracks• Word spread – railroad workers across the country walked off the job• 80,000 railroad workers• Equipment was smashed, tore up tracks, blocked rail service

• Governors called out militia• President Hayes sent federal troops• 12 days to restore order• 100 dead, $10 million in property destroyed

Haymarket Riot– Workers at the McCormick Harvester went on strike– McCormick hires strikebreakers, or replacements– Workers clash with strikebreakers outside the factory and police open fire (killing 4)– 3,000 workers gather to protest killings– Someone throws a bomb – police open fire – workers fire back – 170 injured and 10 police killed– Unions earn negative reputation

Triangle Fire 150 people died

Sweatshop in NY that caught fireWorkers raced to exits that were lockedFire trucks arrived but ladders could not reach upper floorsWorkers jumped to their deathsShocked the public – new safety laws were put in place

Homestead & Pullman Strikes• HOMESTEAD

– Steel mill owned by Carnegie and managed by Henry Frick.– Cut wages 20% and locked out employees– Had Pinkerton Detective Agency bring in replacements– Pinkerton + strikebreakers clash with strikers– PA governor brings in militia to protect strike breakers

• PULLMAN STRIKE– Slashed wages without lowering rent and prices in company town– American Railway Union refused to handle Pullman cars– Railroad managers attached US mail cars to Pullman cars– President Cleveland sent in federal troops to keep mail running Both strikes

unsuccessful for workers

STOP. THINK. DISCUSS

• What would be the pros and cons of striking?

Today– Minimum wage is $7.25– Average work day or week in hours 5 days a week, 8 hour days = 40 hours– Benefits– United States Department of Labor determines safe working conditions through

Occupational Safety & Health Administration

History of Labor Day

A Holiday for Workers• A New York City carpenter named Peter McGuire is credited for coming up

the idea for Labor Day. In 1872, after working many long hours under poor conditions, McGuire rallied 100,000 workers to go on strike. The workers marched through the streets of New York City, demanding a better work environment.

• McGuire spent a decade fighting for worker's rights. In 1882, he proposed the idea to create a special holiday for workers. On Tuesday, September 5, 1882, more than 10,000 workers hit the streets of New York City for the first ever Labor Day parade. Two years later the celebration was moved to the first Monday in September. And in 1894, Congress passed a law making Labor Day a national holiday.

Exit Out

• What are the three things Unions wanted. 1.

2.

3.