Labor Force Distribution

The Changing American Labor Force

 While industrialization brought with it a number of innovations and increased job opportunities  It also produced problems within the cities  For poor, unskilled citizens and newly arrived immigrants, urban life could be hard and challenging

 Working conditions were often difficult for everyone involved.  Factories relied on the work of specialized laborers with machines that performed the same task over and over and over  Work was really monotonous and left employees feeling very little sense of pride

 Whole families tended to work because wages were low and no one person could make enough to support a whole household  Men, women, and children worked in mills and factories  Usually at least twelve hours a day  Women tended to be limited to running simple machines and were given almost no opportunity at all for advancement

 Chronically low wages  average wages $ per year  salary required for decent living $600 per year  Dangerous working conditions  railroad injury rate 1 in 26, death rate 1 in 399  factory workers suffer chronic illness from pollutants

 Sweatshops were also hazardous  These were makeshift factories set up by private contractors in small apartments or unused buildings  Since factories often needed more production than they had room to produce, they would hire these contractors and then pay them by production  Often poorly lit, poorly ventilated and unsafe, sweatshops relied on poor workers, usually immigrants, who worked long hours for very little pay

 “child labor” means under 14  children poorly paid  girls receive much lower wages than boys

 Children, some as young as five years old- had to leave school in order to work  This not only meant that they missed out on a childhood  But without education they were inevitably caught in an endless cycle of poverty as well

Young Driver - West Virginia, September Young Miners, South Pittston Pa., January 6, 1911

Adolescent girls from Bibb, Mfg. Co. in Georgia

Young cigar makers in Engelhardt and Co.

 To keep them awake, their bosses beat them.  Their tiny hands could fix broken bobbins and thread the machines.  The dangerous machinery injured many of the children.  The fluff from the cloth would fill their lungs.  Many of them were victims of stunted growth because they were never outside in the sunshine.

"The spinning-room overseer had the task of maintaining production. He did it by instilling fear and inflicting pain - children were beaten simply to keep them awake towards the end of their 14 or 15-hour day."

“Galley Labor”

 One event that highlighted how dangerous industrial work could be was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911  On March 25 of that year, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City  Many of the exit doors to the factory were locked to keep employees from stealing  The fire killed 146 people and led to increased demands for safer working conditions

 Knights of Labor: 1 st industrial union  unskilled/skilled workers demanded reforms in child labor, safety, hours (8 hr day), equal pay for women (Radical)  Samuel Gompers founds American Federation of Labor  A.F.L. seeks practical improvements for wages, working conditions ▪ focus on skilled workers ▪ ignores women, African Americans

Goals of the Knights of Labor ù Eight-hour workday. ù Workers’ cooperatives. ù Worker-owned factories. ù Abolition of child and prison labor. ù Increased circulation of greenbacks. ù Equal pay for men and women. ù Safety codes in the workplace. ù Prohibition of contract foreign labor. ù Abolition of the National Bank.

How the AF of L Would Help the Workers ù Catered to the skilled worker. ù Represented workers in matters of national legislation. ù Maintained a national strike fund. ù Evangelized the cause of unionism. ù Prevented disputes among the many craft unions. ù Mediated disputes between management and labor. ù Pushed for closed shops.

 Crossed purposes  employees seek to humanize the factory  employers try to apply strict laws of the market

 Great RR Strike of 1877: RR shut down, Hayes used army to end strike  Haymarket Square Riot: bomb killed 7 policeman, police fired on strikers  Homestead Strike: Carnegie hired Pinkertons to violently end strike  Pullman Strike: RR shut down, federal troops brought in and people get hurt and lose their jobs.  Bread and Roses: Lawrence,MA, habeas corpus denied, military law declared, favored workers

Management vs. Labor “Tools” of Management “Tools” of Labor  “scabs”  P. R. campaign  Pinkertons  lockout  blacklisting  yellow-dog contracts  court injunctions  open shop  boycotts  sympathy demonstrations  informational picketing  closed shops  organized strikes  “wildcat” strikes

A Striker Confronts a SCAB!

The “Formula” unions + violence + strikes + socialists + immigrants = anarchists

 Unions were prevented by:  Not hiring union workers  Banning union meetings  Using the courts and troops to stop unions

Labor Union Membership

Workers Benefits Today

The Rise & Decline of Organized Labor

Right-to-Work States Today