Rise of Organized Labor During 19 th Century Industrialization

1. Rise of Organized Labor During 19th Century Industrialization

2. Union: Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) • Founded, 1863 • Initially The Brotherhood of the Footboard • Founder: N/A • Membership today is approximately 55,000

3. Railroad Strike of 1877 • Company Involved: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) • Causes (began in July 1877): • B&O Railroad announced a wage cut of 10% in the midst of a major recession (2nd such cut in 8 months) • Running of “double headers” – trains with two engines and twice as many cars as usual. • Increased chances of accidents and layoffs

4. Events of Railroad Strike of 1877 • Railway workers in Baltimore resorted to violence • Rioting spread to Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, and elsewhere. • In Martinsburg, WV, strikers turned back local militia prompting President Hayes to send in federal troops • Soldiers fired on rioters, killing and wounding many in Pittsburgh • Railroad company property was set afire as result

5. Railroad Strike of 1877: Effects • Millions of $$$ of damages • Use of federal troops to put down strike for first time in U.S. history

6. Knights of Labor • Formed in Philadelphia in 1869 • Form all workers, skilled and unskilled into one union • Actively recruited African-Americans • Founders: Uriah Smith Stephens and Terrence Powderly • Ex. of issues: equal pay for equal work, 8 hour day • Membership at height = 700,000

7. American Federation of Labor (AFL) • Founder = Samuel Gompers • Year = 1886 • Different objectives than KofL = only organization of skilled workers in network of smaller unions; each devoted to specific craft • Focused mainly on wages, hours, and working conditions and used economic pressure to accomplish goals • 250,000 members in 1892, 11 million as of 2008 (AFL-CIO) largest federation of union in the U.S.

8. Haymarket Riot, 1886 • Business: McCormick Harvesting Machine Company Plant • Cause: • National demonstration calling for “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will” • EIGHT HOUR WORK DAY

9. Haymarket Riot, 1886: Events • Began May 1, 1886 (May Day) • Spread to many cities • May 3 in Chicago at McCormick reaper factory police broke up a fight between strikers and scabs. • Several casualties among workers • May 4: Union leaders call for protest rally in Haymarket Square • Group of anarchists joins and stir up more anger • Bomb thrown into police formation, killing 7; gunfire followed killing dozens

10. Haymarket Riot: Effects • 8 anarchists charged for conspiracy to commit murder (though bomber never IDed) • 4 hanged, one committed suicide, remaining 3 pardoned by Governor John P. Altgeld • To Unionists, participants in Haymarket remembered as heroes • To employers, they remained vicious criminals • Unions began to be associated with violence and radical ideas

11. Homestead Strike, 1892: Causes and Events • Causes: • Henry Frick, partner to Andrew Carnegie, tried to cut workers’ wages at Carnegie steel. • Led union at plant to call for a strike. • Events: • Frick calls in Pinkertons (private police force) on July 1 to crush union • 300 Pinkertons move up Monongahela Rover on barges • In a shootout with strikers, several people died or wounded • July 23: anarchist Alexander Berkman tried and failed to assassinate Frick. • Union admitted defeat on November 20. Homestead reopened

12. Homestead Strike, 1892: Effects • Initially, Americans sympathized with striking workers until failed assassination attempt • Public again associated strikes and labor movement with violence • Many industrialists commit to preventing unions from forming

13. American Railway Union (ARU) • Key Founder/Leader = Eugene V. Debs (former treasurer of BLET) • Policy of uniting all railway workers unto one force for legislative and industrial action

14. Pullman Strike, 1894 Causes • Causes: • Panic of 1893 led to George Pullman laying off workers and cutting wages by 25% • Kept rent and food prices at the same levels in the town Pullman had built for his workers • May 1894: delegation of workers goes to Pullman to protest and he fires 3 of them. • Local Union goes on strike in response • Pullman shuts down plant rather than baragining

15. Pullman Strike Events • ARU, led by Debs, called for a boycott of Pullman cars throughout the country • Led to widespread local strikes • June 1894: 120,000 workers had joined strike • Debs encouraged workers not to disrupt mail but strike got out of hand • Completely disrupted western railroad traffic and mail delivery • Attorney general Richard Olney, citing the Sherman Antitrust Act, won a court order forbidding all union activity that halted railroad traffic. • July 4: President Cleveland sent 2500 federal troops to ensure strikers obeyed the order; strike ended one week later

16. Pullman Strike: Effects • Factory owners began appealing for court orders against unions to prohibit or hinder action • For the next several decades the government typically granted such appeals, denying many unions recognition as legally protected organizations • Union gains and success limited well into 20th century