1. LABOR UNIONS AND POLITICAL MACHINES
25 September 2017
US HISTORY

2. Conditions for workers
Expanding middle class (thanks in part to Immigrants from where…?)
Women in the work force and society
Standard of living
Working conditions
Who can be “trusted”?
Attempts to “improve” conditions for workers:
Child labor laws
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

3. Workers in the gilded age
What kinds of work did most Americans do?
Craftsmen / Tradesmen
Common laborers
What is a union?
A union is an organization of common laborers and craft workers in a particular industry that unites to protect and further its rights and interests.
Not always welcome…
Companies would use several techniques to stop workers from forming unions. V/H integration allowed for reduced competition!
Why?

4. The rise of labor unions
Employers would use lockouts to keep unions from organizing.
“Strikebreakers” would be hired by employers.
Unions would not just consist of white males.
How do you think immigrants played a role in these unions?

5. The first labor unions Early Labor Unions The Knights Labor of•
Became strong after the Civil War
Provided assistance to members in bad times
Later expressed workers’ demands to employers
Early Labor
Unions
A national union
Recruited skilled and unskilled workers, women,
Americans
Emphasized education and social reform
The Knights
Labor of
and African
Led by Samuel Gompers
Was a craft union of skilled workers
A bread and butter union
Used collective bargaining as a strategy
The American
Federation of
Labor (AFL)
Known as “The Wobblies”
Organized unskilled workers Had radical socialist leaders Many violent strikes.
Industrial Workers
of the World (IWW)

6. Struggling to organize

7. The great railroad strike of 1877
America in a recession that began in 1873.
Major railroads cut wages for the third time.
Workers start walking off the job and blocking tracks.
Word spreads to 80,000 workers across the country.
President Hayes calls in federal troops.
Shows that allowing workers to organize was dangerous to society.

8. The haymarket square riot (1886)

9. The haymarket square riot (1886)

10. The haymarket square riot results
Union critics say “dangerous radicals” are dominating the unions.
The Knights’ reputation takes a major hit.

11. The homestead strike (1892)
The Carnegie Mill,
Homestead PA

12. Are you frickin’ serious?

13. The triangle shirtwaist factory fire (1911)

14. New unions will emerge
Mostly the same complaints (wages, working hours).
Approaches were different.
Trade unions most common, but they didn’t protect unskilled workers.
New government regulations will prevail. (ICA)
Women in the workforce!
New types of unions emerge.
The AFL
The IWW

15. Rise of the political machines
Many Americans have migrated to the city. Why?
Population begins to separate by class and race.
Cities posed the risks of crime, pollution, and fire.
Cities were outgrowing the government.
New city dwellers needed jobs, housing, food, heat, and police protection.
In exchange for votes, political machines and party bosses provided these everyday necessities.

16. Not exactly what it seems

17. The good of the gilded age