Working Class Work Life Child labor Labor Unions Strikes Labor organizations Haymarket Affair Homestead Strike Pullman strike

“Those who are above the point of separation are elevated, but those who are below are crushed down” These people were the “muscle” that helped push American productivity to new heights and made employers rich

Work 6 days a week 10 Hours + Maybe make a $1.00 a day Work was dangerous and yet boring to most Division of labor

Dangerous Life threatening Hazardous conditions Injured on the job= No pay Whirling shafts Slippery floors Spinning blades Molten steel Bone crushing machinery No safety equipment

Working could make a difference for family life Hired because they cost lost Some states had laws on child labor Most states did not follow them Mills, Factories, Coal Mines, etc.

Labor Unions Group of workers organized to protect the interests of its members. 3 Goals: Higher wages, Shorter hours and Better working conditions Strikes A labor action in which workers simply refuse to go to work Used as a last resort

Unions worked together but bad leadership  collapse in 1872 Yellow-Dog- Contracts Depression = Not good for unions Knights of Labor  skilled and unskilled workers Declined after 1886 American Federation of Labor Skilled Labors 1886  took off in the 1890s

Chicago in 1886 Started when union labors fought with nonunion workers Police shoot into a crowd of people Anarchists called for a meeting in the next day Good Meeting Around the end 180 Police officers show up Some one throws a bomb no one knows who it was and chaos follows Divided the labor movement

1892 Homestead Penn. Henry Frick 300 private Pinkerton men to protect the steel plant against strikers Strikers were armed and waiting to Pinkertons Daylong gun battle Pinkertons lost Govern calls in state militia Nonunion workers brought in and for the next four decades the union was shut out.

1894 Southern part of Chicago Pullman Palace Car company Fancy railcars Employees lived in company town of Pullman Living in town meant that employees were always in debt to the company Pullman CO. cut wages but kept bills and rent the same American Railway Union supported the Pullman strike Grover Cleveland sent federal troops Troops and Strikers battle Strike ends