~ NOTES: Labor Debacle ~
What is my job? What do you find disturbing or unusual about the image?
Child Labor
What is my job? What do you find disturbing or unusual about the image?
What is my job? What do you find disturbing or unusual about the image?
What is my job? What do you find disturbing or unusual about the image?
What is my job? What do you find disturbing or unusual about the image?
Labor Force Distribution
The Changing American Labor Force
Triangle Fire
What is a “Shirtwaist”? 19th and early 20th centuries, the shirtwaist blouse was regarded as the ‘model shirt’ for the independent, working woman. –A button-down blouse, the functional shirtwaist was valued for its ready-to- wear, workplace appeal and its simple design, originally modeled on menswear shirts. –It could be worn jacketless and fashionably tucked into the waistband of a skirt, and it was sold as both an individual piece and as an ensemble.
Average Shirtwaist Worker’s Week 51 hours or less4,5545% hours65,03379% hours12,21115% Over 63 hours5621% Total employees, men and women 82,360
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Asch Building, 8 th and 10 th Floors
Typical NYC Sweatshop, 1910
Dark cramped shops made exhausting work still more difficult and dangerous. The end of a 10 or 12 hour day was only the beginning of a long walk or ride home to scant food and crowded rooms.
Fire escape on side of building. Made of poor quality metal that melted during the fire.
Crumpled Fire Escape, 26 Died
10 th Floor After the Fire
The 240 employees sewing shirtwaists on the ninth floor had their escape blocked by back-to-back chairs and workbaskets in the aisles. The 75-foot long paired sewing machine tables obstructed essential access to the windows, stairs, and elevators.
Dead Bodies on the Sidewalk
One of the “Lucky” Ones?
Page of the New York Journal
Relatives Review Bodies 146 Dead
One of the Many Funerals
5 min film clip
What was life like in factories? -Who: -How long: -What: EVERYONE (men, women, & children) 12 hours, 6 days a week Piecework … paid by how much you produce = VERY DEMANDING
REACTIONS to conditions 1.) Labor unions = organization formed to protect workers’ interests a.) American Federation of Labor i. Samuel Gompers ii. Organized skilled laborers iii. increase wages, better hours and conditions
How the AF of L Would Help the Workers ×Catered to the skilled worker. ** ×Represented workers in matters of national legislation. ×Maintained a national strike fund. ×Evangelized the cause of unionism. ×Prevented disputes among the many craft unions. ** ×Mediated disputes between management and labor. ** ×Pushed for closed shops.**
Haymarket Riot (1886) McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.
2.) Strikes: stoppage of work a.) Haymarket Riot – want 8 hour work day i. scabs = people who work when everyone is on strike ii. strikers fight scabs … bombs thrown at police riot
Haymarket Martyrs
The Pullman Strike of 1894 b.) Pullman strike – protest wage cuts & conditions
A “Company Town”: Pullman, IL A “Company Town”: Pullman, IL i. Owners forced workers to live in a company town & pay rent to the company (took all of the workers $)
Pullman Cars A Pullman porter ii. at the height of strike company was shut down (stopped rail traffic and mail) a. = interfered with interstate commerce (violates Sherman Anti Trust Act)
iii. government is brought in to end the strike … Sherman Anti-trust act = no trusts / monopolies (interfere with trade) & does not recognize unions courts say no STRIKES!!! Government by injunction!