1. Review of Unions and Strikes!
The Growth
of the
American
Labor Movement
Review of Unions and Strikes!

2. Labor Force Distribution 1870-1900
Mechanization had allowed businesses to substitute unskilled and semiskilled workers for craftsmen.

3. The Changing American Labor Force

4. The average worker made $ a year, was laid off for 3-4 months, and had entire families helping to make a living.

5. “Galley Labor” Factory work was pressured and repetitive.
RR work was dangerous and dehumanizing!

6. Labor Unrest:

7. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

8. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

9. The Great RR Strike 1877 Sparked nation-wide labor movement.
Employee wages had been cut 10%.
Half of RRs were shut-down by unrest & protest.
Militias wouldn’t help, so President R. Hayes brought in federal troops.
1st federal action against workers.

10. Anarchists Meet on the Lake Front in 1886

11. Haymarket Riot (1886)
McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.= skirmish with police, resulted in workers getting shot

12. Haymarket Square 1886
Anarchists and Socialists hold protest to organize for an 8-hour workday.
At the end of the meeting, “someone” threw a bomb into the police, killing 7.
Let to shooting with 8 police & 8 protesters dead, and 70 injured.
Chicago police arrested 200+, and eventually convicted 7 organizers.
Support for 8-hour workday collapsed because protestors labeled dangerous socialists.

13. The American Federation of Labor: 1886
Samuel Gompers

14. Haymarket Martyrs

15. Homestead Steel Strike (1892)
Homestead Steel Works
The Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers

16. Big Corporate Profits!

17. The Homestead Strike 1877
Henry Clay Frick covering for Carnegie out of the county
Sought to de-unionize factories by cutting wages & not renewing contracts
3000 workers on strike.
Frick hired Pinkerton Detective Agency- shootout with workers
PA militia called out- but juries sympathetic
Scabs broke unions

18. The Corporate “Bully-Boys”: Pinkerton Agents

19. 1892 Attempted Assassination!
Henry Clay Frick
Alexander Berkman

20. Pullman, IL or Louisville, CO
A “Company Town”:
Pullman, IL or Louisville, CO

21. Pullman Cars
A Pullman porter

22. The Pullman Strike of 1894

23. The Pullman Strike 1894
Wages were going to be cut 25%, but no adjustment in company housing rent
Eugene V. Debs organized strike of ARU- American Railway Union
Brought nation’s railways to a halt
National Guard sympathetic- so President G. Cleveland brought in Federal Troops because of mail
Cited 1882 Sherman Antitrust Act

24. President Grover Cleveland
If it takes the entire army and navy to deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card will be delivered!

25. The Socialists
Eugene V. Debs

26. The Uprising of the 20,
Organized protests & pickets, largely from immigrant Jewish women
Drawing attention to NY garment worker contracts
Successfully renegotiation of contracts, but dangerous and difficult conditions remained
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire 1910 with 146 deaths

28. Ludlow Massacre 1917 Ludlow, CO Rockefeller Coal Mines
Greek, Slavic, Italian miners and women
Militia attacked tents & killed 39
11 women & children died
Survivors deported

29. Hecla Mine Incident, Louisville 4/20/1914
United Mine Workers shipping rifles to striking miners
Shooting between Hecla mine & striking workers through night of 4/27- 25K rounds!
Nat. Guard came up to keep the peace
Workers returned in Dec. w/out demands met

31. 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

32. A Striker Confronts a SCAB!

33. An injury to one is the concern of all!
Knights of Labor
Terence V. Powderly
An injury to one is the concern of all!

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

35. “Big Bill” Haywood of the IWW
Violence was justified to overthrow capitalism.

36. International Workers of the World (“Wobblies”)

37. Workers Benefits Today

38. The Rise & Decline of Organized Labor