1. Chapter 5.4
Unions

2. Working in the United States
Imagine you’re working 59 hrs a week, paid 22¢ an hour. (That’s a week)
Now your boss come in to tell you that he has to cut your pay.
All the while you can buy more stuff after the pay cut than before.
How happy are you about the lost wages?

3. Early Unions 2 types of worker Early unions focused on skilled workers
Skilled – some talent or ability, usually trained
Unskilled – no special skill needed, any bum on the street
Guess which one you are!
Early unions focused on skilled workers
Trade Unions focused on one specific craft
Industrial Unions would be one entire industry – all shoemakers
Industry’s opposition was based on a desire to keep control

4. Cont. Opposition strategies The Government supported Industry
Contracts, investigators, blacklists, lockouts
The Government supported Industry
People felt Unions were Marxist (Socialist)
Add in European immigrants and it gets worse

5. Struggling to Organize
The Great Railroad Strike
A wage cut leads to a strike
Violence ends in 100 dead and $100 million in damages
The Knights of Labor
What did they want?
8 hr. day, equal pay for women and an end to child labor
Boycotts vs. strikes
Haymarket Riot (or Strike)
Strike in Chicago leads to violence, ends in bomb killing 6 – one police officer
4 of 8 convicted were executed

6. Cont. Homestead Strike Pullman Strike
Wage cut at a Carnegie steel mill
Violence leads to several dead and militia protecting replacement workers
Carnegie supported the plant manager Frick
Pullman Strike
Cut in wages but not prices in the “company town”
Many American Railway Union (ARU) workers went on strike
Refusal to move mail cars violated Federal law
Supreme Court sided with the Owners

7. New Unions Emerge The Rise of the AFL The IWW Working Women
Samuel Gompers combines several trade unions
Focused on wages, hours & working conditions
The IWW
Wobblies
Wanted 1 union for all
Focused on unskilled workers
Few real successes
Working Women
Many more women in the workforce
Unfair pay, opportunities & treatment
Some small unions – no real successes