The Gilded Age

The Rise of Big Labor

Sources of Labor

Former Self-employed

Siblings in farming families

Immigrants (largest category)Between 1870 and 1920 24 million immigrants arrived

from:Southern and Eastern Europe – 60%

Northern Europe – 25%

Other (Asia, Mexico, etc.) – 15%

By 1910 53% of all wage earners were of foreign birth

Effect of Mechanization on Labor

Changed employer-employee relationsGradually reduced customary autonomyDecision making became centralized in managementWorkers generally lost control of production processPace of production set by managersIncreasingly impersonal

Created new categories of workersSkilled artisans generally replaced by unskilled “machine tenders”Supervisors, managers

Women in the Workforce

The “Boom” & “Bust” Business Cycle

Terence Powderly,Leader of

the Knights of Labor

Knights of Labor

Rejected “wage slavery”

Open to all laborers, skilled and unskilled

Maintained an adversarial relationship with business

Advocated broad social and economic reformsProducer’s cooperatives

End to Child labor

Graduated income tax

Monetary reform

The Haymarket Square Riot

Samuel Gomper

sof the AFL

The American Federation of Labor

Restricted to skilled laborers

Accepted wage system

Wanted to work with business owners

Promised amenable labor relations

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

First nationwide strikeBegan in Martinsburg, WV

Strike spread quickly along the rail routesStrikers halted all train trafficUnemployed and workers in other industries joined the protest

Mobs defied militia sent to disperse themRioting persisted for about a week

Fearing a national insurrection President Hayes called out the army to suppress the strike

Federal troops fired into a crowd in Pittsburg, killing 20By the end of the strike over 100 were dead

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Homestead Steel StrikeCarnegie determined to gain control over every facet of production

Want to break the Amalgamated Iron, Steel and Tin Workers Union

Workers went on strike in JuneGovernor refused to use National Guard to disperse themSteel Company used a private armyAfter day-long gun battle, governor sent in troops to restore orderFactory reopened with strikebreakersAfter four months the union was forced to admit defeat

Carnegie reduced workforce by 25%Lengthened work dayCut wages 25%Affected all steel workers

Within a decade, every major steel company operated without union interference

Troops Guard the Trains during the Pullman Strike

Eugene V. Debs

Head of the American

Railway Union and founder of the American Socialist Party