1. 14.3: Labor Unions
Share with your partner(s) what you already may know about labor unions:
- examples of some
- what they do or try to do
- good or bad for economy/society/gov’t
Minilesson:
Notes
“Homestead Strike” Video

2. Labor Force Distribution 1870-1900

3. The Changing American Labor Force

4. II. Union Movements
A. Working Conditions
10 hour shifts
6 days a week
low wages
no retirement benefits
no medical coverage
no worker’s compensation injuries on job
pregnant women often fired
child labor
- as young as 8 years old
- low school attendance

5. I. Sherman Antitrust Act [1890]
A. Gov’t Takes Steps
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890): trust illegal if interferes with free trade
- “trust” not defined
- “paper tiger”  too difficult for gov’t to enforce
- corps. have so much $ to fight legal battles
- special interests  influence over gov’t

6. Child Labor

7. Child Labor

8. “Galley Labor”

10. B. Craft Unionism
ONLY skilled workers from one or more trades.
Samuel Gompers helps found American Federation of Labor (AFL)
collective bargain  negotiate for all union members

12. C. Industrial Unionism
included skilled, unskilled workers in an industry
Eugene V. Debs forms American Railway Union
-uses strikes
D. Socialism and the IWW
Labor activism turned to socialism:
- Government control of business, property
- Equal distribution of wealth
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or Wobblies, forms 1905
- radical unionists, socialists
- industrial unions give unskilled workers solidarity

14. Management vs. Labor “Tools” of Management “Tools” of Labor
“scabs” [non-Union]
public relations campaign
Pinkertons [armed private police]
lockout
blacklisting
yellow-dog contracts [oath never to join union]
court injunctions [stop strike]
open shop
boycotts
sympathy demonstrations
informational picketing
closed shops
organized strikes
“wildcat” strikes

15. Labor Unrest:

16. III. Strikes Turn Violent
A. The Homestead Strike
1892, Carnegie Steel workers strike over pay cuts
- take over control of factory
Pinkerton Detective Agency [well-armed private police force] hired to protect scabs
- well-armed and paid to break up strikes by force
strikers win
Penn. Nat’l guard called in  plant reopens
Steelworkers do not remobilize for 45 years

18. B. Great Strike of 1877
Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad strike spreads to other lines over paycut
governors say impeding interstate commerce
Pres. Hayes sends federal troops
- intervention—ends strike

19. The Molly Maguires (1875)
James McParland

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

21. A Striker Confronts a SCAB!

22. B. The Haymarket Affair
3,000 gather at Chicago’s Haymarket Square, protest police brutality
Police show up
- crowd began to disperse
- bomb thrown at police lines  police open fire
- 8 charged with inciting a riot  convicted  hanged
public opinion turns against labor movement

23. C. The Pullman Company Strike
Pullman lays off 3,000, cuts wages but not rents
- workers strike
Pullman refuses arbitration
- hires scabs  violence
Pres Cleveland sent federal troops
- Debs jailed
- most workers fired
- many blacklisted

24. E. Women Organize
Women barred form many unions; unite behind powerful leaders
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones—most prominent organizer in women’s labor:
- Works for United Mine Workers.
- Leads children’s march
Pauline Newman—organizer for International Ladies’ Garment Workers
1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory results in public outrage—146 women died