1. The Labor Movement Unions and Strikes

2. Living Conditions for Workers Tenement: apartments located in urban slums that lacked light and ventilation Settlement Houses: multipurpose buildings in poor neighborhoods that offered social welfare, educational, and homemaking services to the poor or immigrants, led by middle- class women

3. Freedom and Liberty of Contract Laissez-Faire Policies = No Government Regulation Contract between labor and the company Government has no place inserting regulation Bottom Line: Workers get very little support from the federal government

4. Working Conditions Sweatshop: cramped, poorly ventilated textile factory Benefits of industrialization are distributed unequally Problems for Workers: 1)Long Hours 2)Low Wages 3)Unsafe Conditions (35,000 die each year between 1880 and 1890) 4)No Safety Net

5. Women and Child Workers To survive, many families put their mothers and children to work By 1900, 1 million women were in the workforce 1 in 5 married women worked outside home In 1880, 1 in 6 children <16 years old forced to work By the early 1900’s most states had passed laws against child labor.

6. Social Beliefs in the Gilded Age Social Darwinism: Inequality is a natural and unavoidable part of society Gospel of Wealth: hard work and perseverance lead to wealth, anyone can become wealthy implying poverty is a character flaw

7. Liberty of Contract in the Supreme Court Wabash v. Illinois (1886) Federal government can regulate RR’s (but they always find in favor of the company) United States v. E.C. Knight and Co. (1895) Manufacturing process cannot be regulated by federal government Lochner v. New York (1905) State law cannot regulate the number of hours worked

8. The Rise of Labor Unions Before Unions = low pay, long hours, unsafe conditions, fierce competition New machines meant less people needed Millions of workers laid off Depressions or “panics” meant no one was buying goods

9. The growth of industrialization matched by the rise of labor unions Laissez-faire resulted in unsafe, unsanitary and dangerous conditions, low wages and long hours Workers responded by organizing and fighting for improved wages, hours and working conditions

10. 18671914 Labor Union Membership in 1867 and 1914

11. The Knights of Labor One of the 1 st unions Started in 1870 as an organization of tailors, but then welcomed workers of all industries Combination of skilled and unskilled, men and women, black and white laborers 800,000 members in 1886

12. The Knights of Labor, cont’d Goals of the Knights of Labor: 8-hour workday Public employment programs Currency reform and graduated income tax Equal pay for women Regulate child labor So…essentially Socialism Knights of Labor intended to undermine liberty of contract Knights of Labor wanted economic rights Believed that capitalists were like slave masters

13. Haymarket Affair Advocating for the 8-hour workday Meeting of workers in Haymarket Square in Chicago Someone throws a bomb  Seven police officers killed  Seven activists were arrested and sentenced to death Knights of Labor loses popularity because people think they are too radical

14. American Federation of Labor Concentrated on winning specific and practical goals, collectively bargaining with management for best deal they could get Different from large reform efforts like Knights of Labor Focused on higher wages and safer conditions Samuel Gompers 1 million members by 1901

15. Tactics to Fight Unions Owners resisted unions with violence and government assistance Lockout: closing a factory before a strike can be organized Blacklists: names of pro-union workers that were passed around employers Yellow-Dog Contracts: workers must agree to stay away from unions if they want a job Using private guards or the United States military Court restrictions against strike

16. Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Railroads cut wages of workers  Strikes on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Strike spreads across 11 states and shuts down two-thirds of RR track 500,000 workers from other industries join the strike President Hayes uses military to maintain order  0ver 100 people die

17. Pullman Strike Pullman makes cars for railroads In 1894, Pullman cuts wages for workers and fires worker leadership Eugene V. Debs and the American Railroad Union boycott Pullman trains  Massive disruption in transportation Court prohibits the boycott  Debs is arrested Debs turns to socialism to solve problems

18. Homestead Strike 1892 Steelworkers in Pittsburgh strike to protest wages being cut (20%) Homestead Steel uses the lockout, private guards, and strikebreakers to defeat the strike 3 private guards and 17 strikers are killed Sets the steel labor movement back

19. Organizing a Social Movement Organizing: the process of empowering and educating others to achieve their political, social, and economic goals Important steps for organizing: 1.Identify the problem(s) 2.Identify the goals of the movement (what does success look like?) 3.Identify the barriers to change 4.Identify strengths of the movement 5.Formulate a plan of action

20. Organizing a Social Movement Stages of a Social Movement 1.Business as Usual (Problem? What Problem?) 2.Existing Institutions Fail (I tried to go through the process…) 3.Growing Awareness/Discontent of the Problem 4.Take-Off (usually from a “trigger event”) 5.Despair and Identity Crisis (What do we do now?) 6.Majority Public Support of the Movement (Support of the people!) 7.Success! (Yay) 8.Moving On (How can we use this success to achieve more?)

21. Get into your groups… Begin working on the Social Movements Plan Worksheet You will have 15 minutes to complete ALL parts of this plan,. Be sure to explain the motivations behind your actions and any pitfalls for which you would have to account (Think: barriers)