Aim #47: How did reformers of the period handle the problems of an industrial society and what was the impact of strikes? Do now! (1) Read Samuel Gompers’ “Why Strikes are Necessary” AND (2) read “Labor Day Lesson Plan: Unions Today” Switched at birth? Samuel Gompers or the KFC guy??? (Colonel Sanders) “Scabby the Rat”

(I) The Benefit of Unions a.Low-skilled jobs make workers expendable as number of workers abundant b.Labor union: an organized association of workers formed to protect and further their rights and interests c.Collective bargaining: people (through unions) bargain for their terms of employment; strength in numbers d.Reasons to organize 1.Long work days (generally 12 hr. shifts 6/7 days a week) 2.Basic benefits such as sick leave, unemployment compensation, lost wages due to injury on the job 3. Dangerous working conditions: 4. Women and children were exploited (children paid as little as 27 cents an hour and could work as long as 14 hr workdays; women paid on average ½ of a man’s salary)

(II) Key Terms a.strike: refusal to work b. boycott: refusal to buy goods c. scabs: strikebreakers (NFL referees) d. injunction: court order to stop striking or lose job e. “yellow dog” contracts: agreement that workers won’t join unions (outlawed in the 1930s) f. lockout: closing of place of employment to employees ***clip NHL lockout

(III) Problems a. Strikes often nullified by the use of "scab" workers b. federal courts often ruled in favor of corporations c. Corporations could also ask states to call in troops d. rebellious workers might be blacklisted e. Public grew tired of frequent strikes; became unsympathetic labor's demands. f. Strikes seemed to be unpatriotic

(IV) LABOR UNIONS a.Knights of Labor: Terence Powderly 1.Allowed skilled and unskilled workers; women and minorities b. American Federation of Labor: Samuel Gompers 1.Skilled workers only 2.Fought for “bread and butter” issues (8 hour work day) c. International Workers of the World (IWW): Eugene Debs and “Mother Jones” 1.More militant tactics 2.Downfall: encouraging strikes during WWI

“The real problem in America is not child labor, but child idleness. You cannot convince me that it hurts a child either physically or morally to make him work. Where one child, in my experience, has been injured from work, ten thousand have gone to the devil because of lack of occupation.” An American Senator

“If you don’t show up on Sunday, don’t bother coming in on Monday.”

Haymarket Riot of 1886 ● Violence erupted on May 3 in Chicago ● Strikes were on going throughout the country for 8 hour workdays ● Police fired into a crowd of strikers killing four ● Haymarket Riot (May 4th, 1886) ● Police attempted to break up an assembly ● A bomb was thrown at the police and killed 7 police ● The “Chicago 8” (anarchist leaders) were put on trial for their ideas and and four of them were hanged ● Only one (maybe 2) of the 8 was at the “riot” ● At the trial the jury was made up of jurors hostile to labor and the judge was openly hostile to the defendants

Homestead Strike of 1892 ● Background ● Carnegie Steel plant attempted to reduce wages and break the union ● Workers refused the pay cut ● Violence erupted ● Armed company men and around 10,000 labor sympathizers fought ● Strikebreakers were brought in immediately to keep the mill running and after 4 months the strike was broken ● Results ● Carnegie Plants forced increased hours and pay cuts on their employees and unions were not present into the 20th century

Exit Slip: To be Written on a Separate Sheet of Paper Look at the chart on STRIKES 1.Which methods do you think were the most successful and why? 2.Why did the President and Congress often side with the employers/industrialists against the workers?