1. Labor Unions
Objective 5.03: Assess the impact of labor unions on industry and the lives of workers.

2. The Problem
Employers get rich while workers can barely survive on their low wages
Long hours (12 hour shifts)
6 days a week in hot, dark and dirty factories
Dangerous work
Injuries were common due to improper training and faulty equipment
Poor ventilation and loud machines

3. Sweatshops The worst working environment Employed thousands of people
Worked for long hours on machines
Productivity was ensured through strict regulations
Clock in and out, even for break time
Workers were fined for breaking rules or working slowly

5. Child Labor
Since both parents worked the children worked in factories to stay out of trouble
Allowed children to make money and the family needed the money
Had some of the most dangerous jobs…climb into machines and fix them
Stunted physical and mental growth
Eventually child labor laws were passed

9. Company Towns Owned by the business and rented to employees
Some employees were forced to live in these isolated communities
Company controlled the company store where employees had to buy their goods…expensive
Company wages pay the company rent and other bills
Wage slavery

10. Complaints from workers fall on deaf ears of the employer
Labor Union Forms
Complaints from workers fall on deaf ears of the employer
See the complaints as a threat to their business
Government is on the side of the employer/business
Workers tried to gain more power by using collective bargaining (negotiating as a group for higher wages and better working conditions)
Use strikes (refuse to work) to make their point

11. The Knights of Labor
Accepted skilled or unskilled workers (trade union)
Actively recruited African Americans
Encouraged boycotts and strikes as worker tactics
Promoted social reform

12. American Federation of Labor
Formed by Samuel Gompers
a craft union (from a specific craft or skill)
Aimed to increase wages, lower working hours and better working conditions
Wanted closed shops in which workers had to join the union to be hired
Did not accept women or AA

13. Tactics Used by Employees: Strike Collective bargaining
Mediation: negotiate with employer
Arbitration: having a third party decide for the union and employer…the last hope
Used by Employers:
Lockout: lockout employees until they agree to terms
Scabs: temporary workers to replace workers who strike
Injunction: court order to stop a strike
Blacklist: list of workers who supported labor unions…kept from employment
Yellow dog contract: employee promises to not join a union in order to get hired

14. The Great Strike Workers response to cuts in wages A nationwide strike
Would not allow the train to move until wages were increased
National Guard was called in, killed 10 strikers

15. Haymarket Riot Workers strike for an 8 hour day
Fights broke out and police were called
A radical threw a bomb that killed a policeman and dozens of others
Radicals are tried and executed
Result: Americans are fearful of labor unions, Knight of Labor are blamed for the violence and their membership declines

17. Homestead Strike
Workers were striking against a wage cut at a Carnegie Steel plant
Pinkerton’s ( successful at breaking up strikes) are called into break up the strike, kill several strikers in a two week standoff

18. Pullman Strike
George Pullman reduced wages at his luxury railcar factory but did not lower rent within the company town
Workers that tried to negotiate were fired
Ask the American Railway Union under Eugene Debs to help in their strike…entire RR went on strike
Railroad traffic stops
Luxury cars are not needed if RR’s are not moving
President Cleveland ordered (injunction) the strike to end…Debs was arrested
Proof that the government favored business over employees