CONDITIONS, CONFLICT & REFORM

Women in the Workplace Women outnumbered men in a number of workplaces, including the ones below: The Textile Mills – of the Cotton Industry The Tobacco Factories of the South Garment Factories of New York City

Women at the Textile Mills – Lowell Mills, Massachusetts

Women in the Tobacco Industry North Carolina

Garment Industry of New York City

Child Labor Children were forced to work in a variety of fields, including all of the following: textiles, tobacco factories, coal mines, garment sweatshops. Sadly, these children were not allowed to go to school – they had to work for their families.

Children Working in the Coal Mines

Children of the Textile Mills

“We get to go to school!”

Mother Jones: Mary Harris Jones “Mother” Jones was one of the many women involved with supporting labor unions. She was especially interested in the plight of working children – fighting for child labor laws – but also very much involved with supporting strikers and leading protest rallies.

Dangerous Working Conditions The dangers faced on the job were numerous, depending on the type of work men and women did. Coalminers could face cave-ins or air quality issues that caused immediate dangers or long-term concerns like emphysema or “black lung.” Textile workers often faced lung disease from exposure to tiny cotton fibers. Steelworkers were in danger of burns or crushing injuries constantly.

Emphysema and Black Lung

Dangers in Textile Mills Women faced issues with their lungs from working in textile mills as well, breathing in cotton and fiber filaments all day. Many women and children lost fingers and toes in the high velocity machines as well.

Steel Mills were extremely dangerous work environments. Due to the open cauldrons of molten steel, and the heavy mechanized tools which could crush limbs, steel mills were notoriously dangerous. And most companies offered no compensation to workers injured on the job.

The Meatpacking Industry Due to the de- assembly line methods used in meat packing plants – requiring hasty knife work, many workers were injured on the job – losing fingers, or worse!

Terence V. Powderly, Knights of Labor

The Knights of Labor A labor union, negotiating with employers, primary demand was for an eight hour day. All trades were accepted- skilled and unskilled workers, all races, men AND women, but not much accomplished.

Samuel Gompers, leader of the AFL Founded by Samuel Gompers (for 37 years)- focuses on improving working conditions and better pay – they used strikes , boycotts and negotiations. Every member of the AFL was a skilled worker. Gompers believed the AFL would have more political and economic power if unskilled workers were excluded.

The Homestead Strike of 1892 This violent event happened in Homestead, PA at Carnegie’s Steel Co. It began because Carnegie cut wages of workers- Carnegie said he would hire non-union workers(scabs). The strike lasted four months and became very violent when plant management called in the Pinkerton Detective Agency force the striking workers out of the steel plant. Several people were killed. The Homestead strike broke the union (Amalgamated Assoc. of Iron and Steel Workers) as a force in the American labor movement. Carnegie Steel remained non-union for the next 40 years. Strikes such as these caused many Americans to associate labor unions with violence. http://www.history.com/topics/homestead-strike/videos#homestead-strike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NljbZAGk0w

The Pullman Strike Pullman Sleeping Car Co. cut pay 25%-but did not lower the rent of the housing. They refused to unload any Pullman car. Rail traffic came to a halt as other rail labor unions joined the strike in support of the Pullman workers. President Cleveland called out federal troops to end the strike as US commerce came to halt when the railroads stopped running. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N2tl1LM1r0

Haymarket Strike Spring of 1886, workers struck at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago, the factory that made farm equipment including the famous McCormick Reaper. The workers on strike demanded an eight-hour workday, at a time when 60-hour work weeks were common. The company locked out the workers and hired strikebreakers, a common practice at the time. On May 1, 1886, a large May Day parade was held in Chicago, and two days later, a protest outside the McCormick plant resulted in a person being killed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OQxncb2ihQ

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Approximately 500 people, mostly immigrant women, worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. They worked long hours, six days a week, in cramped quarters and were paid low wages. Many of the workers were young, some only age 13 or 14. On Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire started on the eighth floor-killing 146 people Many on the eighth and ninth floors were stuck. The elevators were no longer available, the fire escape had collapsed, and the doors to the hallways were locked (company policy). Many workers headed to the windows. The ladders of the fire trucks only reached the 6th floor. Those on the window ledges started jumping. The fire and the large number of deaths exposed the hazardous conditions and fire danger that was ever-present in these high-rise factories. Shortly after the Triangle fire, New York City passed a large number of fire, safety, and building codes and created stiff penalties for non-compliance. Other cities followed New York's example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdNYqBP_5q4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpxGZ4YgN8s

The Industrial Workers of the World: “The Wobblies” Describing themselves as “One Big Union” and engaging in singing and public demonstrations as well as outright violent acts, this union was feared for its radical and ideological agenda – they fought for higher wages and safer working conditions.

Joe Hill: The Wobblies Singing Martyr Joe Hill, the songwriter and protester who lead dozens of strikes in the miner’s camps of the West, was eventually convicted of a murder which took place at one of the protesters sites. He was put to death in Utah during the 1910s.