Labor Unions

Working conditions Monotonous – same job day after day 12 – 16 hour shifts, 6 days a week Dangerous machinery with no safety precautions Workers frequently lost fingers, limbs, eyesight, & hearing Lung diseases from coal and lint dust When workers were injured or too sick to work, they were fired

Child Labor Factory owners often hired children because: They were smaller, so more room for machinery They were cheaper – children were paid less than half of what grown men were They were easier to intimidate with beatings and abuse

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Craft Unions vs. Trade Unions Only allowed highly skilled craftsmen to join Machinists, welders, electricians, etc. Trade Unions Designed for unskilled laborers General factory workers, construction workers, etc.

Industrial Unions United all craft and trade workers in a particular industry in a single union Example: United Auto Workers unites everyone who works in the auto manufacturing industries

Union Tactics Strikes: workers walked off the job in protest Boycotts: encouraged the public to not buy goods from companies that would not negotiate with labor Collective bargaining: employees negotiate contracts as a group rather than as individuals Mediation: allowing a neutral third party to oversee negotiations Arbitration: allowing a neutral third party to hear both sides’ arguments and make a final, binding ruling Closed shops: agreement where employers could only hire union members, non-union workers were banned from the workplace

Employer Responses Yellow-dog contracts: contracts which forbade workers from joining unions Blacklists: known union sympathizers were fired Lockouts: closing of factories to punish workers for unionizing Scabs: replacement workers hired to replace strikers Injunctions: sought legal court orders that forbade strikes Strikebreakers: hired thugs used to violently attack union leaders, strikers

Government Responses Supported employers over labor unions Courts often ruled unions and strikes to be illegal conspiracies Courts authorized use of force to break strikes when necessary Presidents even used the US Army to break strikes

Great Railway Strike of 1877 80,000 railroad workers went on strike to protest pay cuts Angry strikers damaged equipment, ripped up tracks, and blocked other tracks President Hayes ordered US Army to reopen tracks Over 100 people died in clashes between strikers and troops, millions of dollars in damage done to railroads

The Knights of Labor 1869 – 1949 Workers’ organization (NOT a labor union) Wanted an 8-hour workday Promoted equal pay for women Supported a ban on child labor Proposed worker-owned factories Never well-organized, which left it ineffective

The Haymarket Riot May 1886: Unions called for a day of general strike to promote the 8-hour workday Strikers and police clashed in Chicago, 1 striker killed Anarchists protested in Haymarket Square the next day; police arrived to break up the demonstration A bomb was set off, followed by a gun battle, killing 8 policemen, 4 strikers 8 anarchists were arrested, including a member of the Knights of Labor 4 were executed for murder Knights of Labor lost popularity for being associated with anarchists

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) Merger of 20+ trade unions into the AFL in 1886 Focus – get companies to recognize unions and agree to collective bargaining, push for closed shops, promote the 8-hour work day Still exists today as the AFL-CIO

Samuel Gompers 1850 – 1924 1st leader of the AFL Supported “plain and simple” unions: keep unions out of politics, reject ideals of socialism, communism, and anarchism Concentrate on little things – better wages and working conditions Preferred negotiation over strikes or boycotts

The Homestead Strike June-July, 1892 Steel workers at Andrew Carnegie’s mill in Homestead, PA demanded higher wages, Carnegie responded by locking out workers, fortifying the plant with high fences and guard towers and trying to hire scabs Striking workers laid siege to the plant, refused to allow scabs or even managers entry Carnegie sent 300 armed agents of the Pinkerton Security firm to secure the plant and a gun battle erupted

The Homestead Strike (cont.) The Pinkerton agents were forced to surrender and run out of town, prompting the governor to send in the state militia to end the violence Under the protection of 4000 soldiers, the plant reopened with (mostly black) replacement workers and the strike failed; union voted to accept the pay cut and go back to work

The Pullman Strike May 1894 Pullman Company (which built train cars), required workers to live in the town of Pullman, IL and buy goods from company owned stores Pullman cut wages, leading to workers struggling to meet their rent & buy necessities Workers who complained were fired, prompting a general strike Members of the American Railway Union across the country refused to work on Pullman-built cars to show support for the strikers, tying up rail traffic

The Pullman Strike (cont.) Railroads arranged for US mail to be attached to Pullman cars, resulting in the mail not being delivered Strikers and the ARU were then in violation of federal law for interfering with the delivery of the US mail This prompted the US government to get involved to ensure the delivery of the mail Pres. Grover Cleveland ordered US troops to enforce a court injunction, breaking the boycott of Pullman cars and ending the strike of Pullman workers

Eugene V. Debs 1855 – 1926 Worked with many different unions in his career, but gained much of his experience by helping to form the American Railway Union Debs was sent to prison for failing to obey the court injunction ordering the end to the Pullman Strike While incarcerated, Debs became a socialist and would later run for President as the Socialist Party’s candidate 5 times (1900, ’04, ’08, ’12, & ’20) Opposition to WWI would land him in prison a second time

Women’s Trade Union League Most unions excluded women workers because they weren’t the primary breadwinners for families 1903: Mary Kenney O’Sullivan, Leonora O’Reilly, Jane Addams, & Lillian Ward created the WTUL Goals: 8-hour work day, a minimum wage, no night shifts for women, ban on child labor

Support for Unions damaged by: Marxists: believed that labor should own and operate factories communally (socialism) Anarchists: opposed all government, were willing to use violence to achieve their ends (essentially terrorists) Nativism: anti-immigration sentiments were fed by the number of immigrants who were Marxists, anarchists