1. Labor Unions

2. Working conditions Monotonous – same job day after day
12 – 16 hour shifts, 6 days a week
Dangerous machinery with no safety precautions
Workers frequently lost fingers, limbs, eyesight, & hearing
Lung diseases from coal and lint dust
When workers were injured or too sick to work, they were fired

3. Child Labor Factory owners often hired children because:
They were smaller, so more room for machinery
They were cheaper – children were paid less than half of what grown men were
They were easier to intimidate with beatings and abuse

5. 5

6. 6

7. 7

8. 8

9. 9

10. Craft Unions vs. Trade Unions
Only allowed highly skilled craftsmen to join
Machinists, welders, electricians, etc.
Trade Unions
Designed for unskilled laborers
General factory workers, construction workers, etc.

11. Industrial Unions
United all craft and trade workers in a particular industry in a single union
Example: United Auto Workers unites everyone who works in the auto manufacturing industries

12. Union Tactics Strikes: workers walked off the job in protest
Boycotts: encouraged the public to not buy goods from companies that would not negotiate with labor
Collective bargaining: employees negotiate contracts as a group rather than as individuals
Mediation: allowing a neutral third party to oversee negotiations
Arbitration: allowing a neutral third party to hear both sides’ arguments and make a final, binding ruling
Closed shops: agreement where employers could only hire union members, non-union workers were banned from the workplace

13. Employer Responses
Yellow-dog contracts: contracts which forbade workers from joining unions
Blacklists: known union sympathizers were fired
Lockouts: closing of factories to punish workers for unionizing
Scabs: replacement workers hired to replace strikers
Injunctions: sought legal court orders that forbade strikes
Strikebreakers: hired thugs used to violently attack union leaders, strikers

14. Government Responses Supported employers over labor unions
Courts often ruled unions and strikes to be illegal conspiracies
Courts authorized use of force to break strikes when necessary
Presidents even used the US Army to break strikes

15. Great Railway Strike of 1877
80,000 railroad workers went on strike to protest pay cuts
Angry strikers damaged equipment, ripped up tracks, and blocked other tracks
President Hayes ordered US Army to reopen tracks
Over 100 people died in clashes between strikers and troops, millions of dollars in damage done to railroads

16. The Knights of Labor
1869 – 1949
Workers’ organization (NOT a labor union)
Wanted an 8-hour workday
Promoted equal pay for women
Supported a ban on child labor
Proposed worker-owned factories
Never well-organized, which left it ineffective

17. The Haymarket Riot
May 1886: Unions called for a day of general strike to promote the 8-hour workday
Strikers and police clashed in Chicago, 1 striker killed
Anarchists protested in Haymarket Square the next day; police arrived to break up the demonstration
A bomb was set off, followed by a gun battle, killing 8 policemen, 4 strikers
8 anarchists were arrested, including a member of the Knights of Labor
4 were executed for murder
Knights of Labor lost popularity for being associated with anarchists

18. The American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Merger of 20+ trade unions into the AFL in 1886
Focus – get companies to recognize unions and agree to collective bargaining, push for closed shops, promote the 8-hour work day
Still exists today as the AFL-CIO

19. Samuel Gompers 1850 – 1924 1st leader of the AFL
Supported “plain and simple” unions: keep unions out of politics, reject ideals of socialism, communism, and anarchism
Concentrate on little things – better wages and working conditions
Preferred negotiation over strikes or boycotts

20. The Homestead Strike June-July, 1892
Steel workers at Andrew Carnegie’s mill in Homestead, PA demanded higher wages, Carnegie responded by locking out workers, fortifying the plant with high fences and guard towers and trying to hire scabs
Striking workers laid siege to the plant, refused to allow scabs or even managers entry
Carnegie sent 300 armed agents of the Pinkerton Security firm to secure the plant and a gun battle erupted

21. The Homestead Strike (cont.)
The Pinkerton agents were forced to surrender and run out of town, prompting the governor to send in the state militia to end the violence
Under the protection of 4000 soldiers, the plant reopened with (mostly black) replacement workers and the strike failed; union voted to accept the pay cut and go back to work

22. The Pullman Strike
May 1894
Pullman Company (which built train cars), required workers to live in the town of Pullman, IL and buy goods from company owned stores
Pullman cut wages, leading to workers struggling to meet their rent & buy necessities
Workers who complained were fired, prompting a general strike
Members of the American Railway Union across the country refused to work on Pullman-built cars to show support for the strikers, tying up rail traffic

23. The Pullman Strike (cont.)
Railroads arranged for US mail to be attached to Pullman cars, resulting in the mail not being delivered
Strikers and the ARU were then in violation of federal law for interfering with the delivery of the US mail
This prompted the US government to get involved to ensure the delivery of the mail
Pres. Grover Cleveland ordered US troops to enforce a court injunction, breaking the boycott of Pullman cars and ending the strike of Pullman workers

24. Eugene V. Debs
1855 – 1926
Worked with many different unions in his career, but gained much of his experience by helping to form the American Railway Union
Debs was sent to prison for failing to obey the court injunction ordering the end to the Pullman Strike
While incarcerated, Debs became a socialist and would later run for President as the Socialist Party’s candidate 5 times (1900, ’04, ’08, ’12, & ’20)
Opposition to WWI would land him in prison a second time

25. Women’s Trade Union League
Most unions excluded women workers because they weren’t the primary breadwinners for families
1903: Mary Kenney O’Sullivan, Leonora O’Reilly, Jane Addams, & Lillian Ward created the WTUL
Goals: 8-hour work day, a minimum wage, no night shifts for women, ban on child labor

26. Support for Unions damaged by:
Marxists: believed that labor should own and operate factories communally (socialism)
Anarchists: opposed all government, were willing to use violence to achieve their ends (essentially terrorists)
Nativism: anti-immigration sentiments were fed by the number of immigrants who were Marxists, anarchists