2.  1900 – 2/3 of Americans worked for wages (10 hrs a day, six days a week)  Supply and Demand  David Ricardo “Iron Law of Wages”  Most families needed 2-3 incomes  In 1890, 11 million of 12.5 million families in the US averaged $380/year. ($8958.14)

3.  Lockout – closing the factory  Blacklists – names of pro-union workers  Yellow-dog contracts – workers agreed not to join a union  Private guards, state militias, court injunctions

4.  Depression  Wage cuts by many railroads (had been $1.75 per day for 12 hours ($2.90/hour))  Dangerous working conditions  B&O Railroad workers stop trains in WV  Crowd gathers, police can’t stop

5.  Governor sends in militia  Strikers and militia exchange fire, one striker dies  600 trains stopped  Governor applies for federal troops  Troops out west, Congress didn’t give money, but a few wealthy bankers offered to pay only officers.  Trains begin to move again

6.  Baltimore, thousands surround National Guard armory. Throw rocks, soldiers fire.  10 strikers dead, 1 soldier wounded  15k people surrounded the depot  500 soldiers quiet things down

7.  “Strikes were occurring almost every hour. The great State of Pennsylvania was in an uproar; New Jersey was afflicted by a paralyzing dread; New York was mustering an army of militia; Ohio was shaken from Lake Erie to the Ohio River; Indiana rested in a dreadful suspense. Illinois, and especially its great metropolis, Chicago, apparently hung on the verge of a vortex of confusion and tumult. St. Louis had already felt the effect of the premonitory shocks of the uprising.... “ - Joseph Dacus, editor of the St. Louis Republican

8.  P&P Railroad – required “double headers”  Crew refused to go  Strikers joined by men from mills and factories  2000 cars idle, Philadelphia militia kills 10 workingmen  Crowd surrounds troops, buildings and cars set on fire  24 people eventually killed  79 buildings burned

9.  Pittsburg, Harrisburg, Pottsville, Reading Pennsylvania  Chicago – police vs. crowds (18 dead by clubs and guns)  St. Louis – Multicultural workingman’s strike  New York

10.  Hundreds dead  Thousands jailed  100,000 gone on strike  Half of railroad lines stopped “The railroads made some concessions, withdrew some wage cuts, but also strengthened their "Coal and Iron Police." In a number of large cities, National Guard armories were built, with loopholes for guns” – Howard Zinn

11.  National Labor Union – All workers into 1 union.  640,000 members by 1868.  8 hour day  Equal Rights for women and blacks  Lost support after 1877 strike  Knights of Labor  Secret society early  Open to women and African Americans  Worker coops  Abolition of child labor  Abolition of trusts and monopolies

12.  American Federation of Labor  Practical economic goals  1 million strong by 1901  Little thought to social reform

13.  Haymarket Bombing  1 st May Day movement  Anarchists set off a bomb  Police fire at protesters, police and strikers die  Seven sentenced to death, though the prosecution admitted they didn’t throw the bomb  Americans thought unions were violent, membership declined

14.  Homestead Strike  See video  Pullman Strike  Railroad sleeping cars, company town  General cut in wages, fires negotiators  American Railroad Union / Eugene V. Debs encourages boycott of Pullman cars  Railroad owners link cars to mail trains  President steps in  Debs and others arrested

15.  By 1900 only 3% of workers were in unions  Management could rely on police, state, and federal troops  All levels of government seemed to be on the side of management, ignoring the plight of workers.

16.  “Right to Work” states  12.5% in Unions (1 in 8)  28 % in 1954  CEO pay is 263 TIMES that of the average worker