Unit 5: Age of Reform

The Labor MovementThe Labor Movement

VocabularyVocabulary Scab

- A worker who refused to strike; also another name for a strikebreaker.

Arbitration

- The settlement of disagreements between workers and employers by an impartial (objective) third party.

Injunction

- Court order that requires or forbids some specific action in a labor dispute.

Company TownsCompany TownsA huge mining company, textile mill, or factory

that controlled and operated everything within the town.

The company owned all houses, buildings, and stores and hired all the local officials.

Workers were afraid to make demands for better conditions and frequently were not paid cash, but given credit at company stores.

Individual workers had no bargaining power with large, powerful, impersonal corporations to gain higher wages or better working conditions.

Poor Working ConditionsPoor Working Conditions Workers believed that they were not receiving

their fair portion of the great profits brought on by the nation’s great industrial growth.- Skilled workers received $20/week and

unskilled workers received $10/week. Factories were unsafe and workers usually

were given no compensation or insurance for the many accidents that occurred on the job.

- Between 1900 and 1910, 3% of all employed workers in the United

States were killed or injured every year in industrial accidents.

- In 1881, 30,000 railroad workers were killed or hurt on the job.

Workers worried about wage cuts or layoffs during hard economic times.

- Unemployment in 1889 was at 19% for factory and transportation laborers.

- Some workers lost their jobs because of new machines. This is called Technological Unemployment.

Wages were low for these reasons:1. The increasing power of employers over

employees 2. Economic Depressions3. The competitive national market for

cheap labor4. The flood of immigrant workers

The Rise of Labor UnionsThe Rise of Labor Unions Labor Union - organization of many workers

who could negotiate and bargain with business leaders for such things as higher pay, shorter hours, and better working conditions.

Poor working conditions in the late 19th century

1. Salary averaged $1 or $2 per day

2. Workers averaged an 11-14 hour workday for 6 or 7 days a week.

3. Unsafe factories – many accidents and injuries

4. Had to take these jobs during tough economic times (Depression of 1873)

Types of Labor Unions

1. Craft Unions - organizations of workers in the same trade. (Plumbers, Carpenters)

2. Industrial Unions - organizations of workers of many trades who work in the same industry. (Steel or automobile workers)

In 1869, The Knights of Labor was founded under the leadership of Uriah S. Stevens (1869-1879)

Under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, the union membership grew.

The Knights wanted the following: 1. Government ownership of railroads and

utilities.2. 8 hour work day3. Equal pay for men and women4. An end to employment of children under 145. An income tax based on the ability to pay* Strikes were used only if all bargaining failed

Powderly encouraged all workers, skilled and unskilled, to join the union 1. Women were members and many played

important roles in the union. 2. Allowed black workers to become

members3. Although somewhat open-minded, the

Knights discriminated against Chinese immigrant workers and support passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

ReviewReview• Name some reasons why wages were low…• These organizations were set up in order to rise

up against employers…• What were some of the poor working conditions

in the late 19th century?• What union had workers in the same trade in it?• Name the union that had workers from many

trades in it?• What major union organization was led by

Terence Powderly?• Name some things they wanted to change…

Failures for LaborFailures for LaborMolly Maguires - Irish workers who formed a

secret society in the Pennsylvania coal fields. They tried to win their goals through violence.

Railroad strikes of 1877 turned violent. President Hayes sent federal troops to put down strikers in West Virginia.

Haymarket Riot (May 4, 1886) 1. Strike against the McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago turned violent. 2. A bomb was thrown into the police and they fired guns into the strikers.3. 7 policemen were dead and 70 people were injured; 8 strikers were convicted of murder and 4 were executed. 4. The Haymarket Riot led to negative public support of the labor movement and meant the end of the Knights of Labor and other small unions.

Industry Against the UnionsIndustry Against the Unions Employers and corporations used lawyers,

advertising, lobbyists, and political influence to turn public sympathy against labor unions.

Black Lists - A list of workers’ names that belonged to or led unions that was circulated among several business employers. Any person on the list was denied a job in that industry.

Yellow-Dog Contracts - A written agreement not to join a union that some employers forced workers to sign. The worker was fired if he violated the contract.

Paid undercover informants were used by employers to gain information about a union, report on strike plans, and reveal the names of labor leaders.

1. Sometimes guards or agents were hired to use violence against strikers.

2. Once the strike turned violent, employers called in the police, state militia, or even Federal Troops.

Lockout - Business owners closed their plants and locked out the workers.

Strikebreakers - Nonunion workers hired to do the work of the strikers (scabs).

The American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Formed in 1886 by skilled craft union workers. Samuel Gompers was president of the union

until 1924. Avoided politics and violence – sought to

increase membership in its unions.

Homestead Strike (1892)1. AFL strike against the Carnegie Steel

Plant in Homestead, PA. 2. Henry C. Frick closed the plant and called

out 300 guards to break the strike. 3. The strike was broken only after a bloody

battle.4. Most members left the union and

remained unskilled.

Pullman Strike (May 1894)Pullman Strike (May 1894) American Railway Union (ARU) was a rapidly

growing industrial union of railroad workers and was led by Eugene V. Debs.

ARU went on strike against the Pullman Company, Chicago.

1.Fight the cut in wages and firing of workers

2. Planned to stop rail traffic to West Coast.

Pullman Company had cut wages BUT no rent in the company town. They refused to

arbitrate with the ARU.1. ARU directed members not to handle

Pullman sleeping cars and to refuse to operate trains with Pullman cars

attached.2.Rail strike spread across the country and

threatened to disrupt the entire economy.

Railroad managers brought the Federal government into the dispute.

1. U.S. mail cars were attached to every train hauling Pullman cars.

2. When strikers tried to stop these trains, managers asked President Cleveland to send in federal troops to protect

the U.S. mail and to end the violence.

3. Attorney General Richard Olney, former railroad lawyer, had connections to

the president.

4. Governor John P. Altgeld (Illinois) did not want federal help, but Cleveland sent

the troops anyway.

Olney got an injunction. Debs refused to obey and was held in

contempt of court (sent to jail). First time the Federal government broke a

strike with an injunction.