1. Organized Labor Movement
Time Period:

2. Essential Question:
How did the rise of labor unions shape relations among workers, big business, and government?
Terms and People:
AFL
Collective bargaining
Company town
Eugene V. Debs
Haymarket Riot
Homestead Strike
Knights of Labor
Pullman Strike
Sweatshop
Samuel Gompers
Socialism
Terence v. Powderly

3. Typical Day in a Factory
12 hour days
6 days per week
Small, hot, dark and dirty sweatshops
Owners ensured productivity by strictly regulating hours – lunches, breaks
Workers paid fines for breaking rules or working too slowly
Noisy machines – workers lost hearing
Faulty equipment/lack of training = tons of accidents

4. Child Labor
Workers were paid very little; parents brought children to work to keep them off the streets and to earn a small wage.
Late 1800s - one in five children between 10 and 16 worked in a factory rather than attending school!
1890s – Social Workers push to get children out of factories; states begin passing child labor laws.

5. HC Frick Coke Company Town, Shoaf, PA
Business owner rents houses to laborers.
Laborers forced to shop at company owned store.
Sold on credit; high interest!
Forced into wage slavery
HC Frick Coke Company Town, Shoaf, PA

6. Think about it… What were working conditions like?
How did working conditions affect families?

7. Early Labor Protests
Collective Bargaining – Negotiating as a group for higher wages or better working conditions.
First national labor union was founded in 1834 – National Trades Union, open to workers from all trades. Only lasted a few years.
Successfully negotiated slightly shorter work days in New England – 10 hour workday became standard.

8. What is Socialism?
Economic and political philosophy that favors public, instead of private, control of property and income. Wealth should be distributed equally to everyone.
This idea spread through Europe in the 1830s.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto, denounced capitalism and predicted workers would overturn it.

9. Knights of Labor (1869) Founded by Uriah Smith
Included workers from all trades
Actively recruited African Americans
Secret society devoted to broad social change
Sought to replace capitalism with workers cooperatives
Uriah Smith Stephens
Knights of Labor Seal

10. The Knight’s Constitution
“The recent alarming development and aggression of aggregated wealth, which, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses, render it imperative, if we desire to enjoy the blessings of life, that a check should be placed upon its power…and a system adopted which will secure to the laborer the fruits of his toil.”
-Preamble to Knight’s Constitution, 1878

11. Knights of Labor Expands…
Began leading the Knights of Labor in 1881.
Moved the secretive Knights of Labor into the mainstream; focused on wide social change.
By 1885, Membership grew to over 700,000 men and women nationwide.
Organization died out during the 1890s due to several failed strikes.
Terence V. Powderly

12. American Federation of Labor
Formed by Samuel Gompers in 1886.
Focused on specific workers’ issues: wages, working hours and conditions.
Charged high membership fees and created a strike and pension fund for workers in need.
Opposed women members because Gompers thought their presence in workplace would drive wages down
African Americans were usually excluded.
Samuel Gompers, 1902

13. How were these two labor unions different?
Think About It…
How were these two labor unions different?

14. Major Strikes of the Late 1800s
Cause
Effect
Railroad Strike, 1877
Response to cuts in workers’ wages
Set the scene for violent strikes to come
Haymarket Square, 1886
Part of a campaign to achieve an eight-hour workday
Americans became wary of labor unions; the Knights of Labor were blamed for the riot and membership declined
Homestead Strike, 1892
Economic depression led to cuts in steelworkers’ wages
After losing the standoff, steelworker unions lost power throughout the country
Pullman Strike, 1893
Wages cut without a decrease in the cost of living in the company town
Employers used the courts to limit the influence of unions

15. Eugene V. Debs
The son of poor immigrants, eventually worked his way up to become the head of the American Railway Union.
Imprisoned for his role in the Pullman Strike; read the works of Karl Marx and eventually became a socialist.
Ran for President five times between 1900 and 1920 on the Socialist Party ticket.
Pacifist who opposed US participation in World War I.
Imprisoned for opposing the government; received one million votes in the 1920 election while in prison!
Eugene V. Debs

16. Effects of the Labor Movement
Employers appealed frequently for court orders against unions and the government approved the appeals; denying unions recognition as legally protected organizations.
Government severely limited union power for 30+ years.
Industrialists, workers and government agencies battled over labor issues during the start of the 20th century.
Strikes, contract negotiations, and legislation very common.
Debs – Socialist Party – Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) – Violent protests – What until you see what happens next…

17. Try to use at least 8 of the terms!
Free Write:
In your notebooks (I will look for it during the Notebook check!!), please write two concise paragraphs discussing the relationship between the following terms:
AFL
Collective bargaining
Company town
Eugene V. Debs
Haymarket Riot
Homestead Strike
Knights of Labor
Pullman Strike
Sweatshop
Samuel Gompers
Socialism
Terence v. Powderly
Try to use at least 8 of the terms!
Circle the key terms!!