need for united stand against big industry low wages economic crises: booms and busts increasing...
TRANSCRIPT
The Organization of Labor in the United States:
1865-1900
Need for United Stand against Big
Industry
Low Wages
Economic Crises:
Booms and Busts
Increasing Labor Pool
The Need for Brotherhood
Little to no Job Security
Poor Working Conditions
Rise of the Machines
Union Animosity/Un-American
Communal wages and work rules
Strikes stop business and America is business
Imported from Europe, hints of Socialism and anarchism
The Irony of AmericaIndustry is allowed to grow and make trusts and pool,But workers are NOT allowed to organize and combine
The National Labor UnionFounded: 1866 Dissolved: 1873
Attempted to combine all Local Trade unions
Skilled and Un-skilled labor allowed to hoin
Farmers added later/Blacks excluded (C.N.L.U.)
Fought For:
8 Hour workday (adopted by U.S. government)
Banning Chinese workers
Strikes in America:
Railroad Strikes of 1877
wage reductionsfederal troops
called in
The Knights of Labor
Founded in 1869 in PhiladelphiaTerrence Powderley expands Union by 1873Membership of unskilled and skilledWomen and blacks allowed membership (1878)More secretive and other trade unions (freemasonry)Union Objectives:
End Child Labor and Convict LaborEqual Pay for WomenCooperativel ownership of Mines and FactoriesProgressive Income TaxSupported Various Strikes
Decline:
Linked to strikes (Haymarket Strike)Unsuccessful strikesUnion infightingLinkage to Populist PartyMembers leave for Socialists and IWW
The Truly Radical Element
Anarchists:
The state is useless or unwanted therefore
advocating a stateless society.
American Federation of LaborFounded: 1886 by Samuel Gompers
Formed on heels of K.O.L. failures
Membership was skilled workers only
Exclusion of black workers and women
Overview of A.F.L. Philosophy
Do NOT fight capitalism, seek fair share
Strike, boycott, walkout, negotiate. All WORK.
Membership dues required
Promoted closed shop hiring
A Federation of UnionsEach Trade Union was autonomous from the whole
Unions were encourage to “take care” of their own unions
The AFL was like the umbrella sheltering the individual unions
Union Membership Growth
Homestead Steel StrikePittsburgh Steel Mill
Pinkertons called in to put down strike atCarnegie’s factory
Pinkerton’s Defeated
Pennsylvania Militia called in
Call for 22% wage cutUnion locked outNon-Union called in to work
Pullman Car StrikeChicago Railcar Factory: 1894
Nation wide sympathy strikesRail traffic slows heavilyEugene V. Debs leads
Blacks brought in as replacement work
Strike become violentUS Soldiers sent in by Grover Cleveland
Panic of 1893 cuts demandPullman cuts wages12 hour workdaysCut wages but no lowering of rents