Labor Strives to Organize

1. Labor Strives to Organize CH 6 Section 3

2. Government and Business • The Government most often favored the industrialist • They placed high Tariffs (taxes) on imports • This allowed American business to dominate the market • However the public was putting pressure on Govt. to outlaw trusts like Standard oil

3. Sherman Antitrust Act • {Passed in 1890 it outlawed all trusts and Monopolies that restrained trade} • The law failed to define what constituted a monopoly or trust and corporations • By 1890 10% of the population controlled 75% of the wealth • 50% of unskilled workers made under $500 a year

5. New Working Class • Jobs are being filled by the immigrants coming to America • African Americans moved into cities from the country searching for jobs • African Americans could not find jobs in the South • The number of Female workers doubled between 1870 and 1890

6. Working Conditions • Children were working from 7:30 in the morning till 9:00 at night for pennies a day • White males worked 10 hour days 6 days a week for $10 a week • Immigrants and African Americans made less • Companies had their own towns to control all of their employees money

8. The workers would be paid in “script” which was only good at the company store • Prices at the company store were much higher than regular stores

9. The Knights of Labor • {In 1869 nine Philadelphia garment workers, led by Uhiah Stephens founded the Knights of Labor} • This was a early union It was opened to skilled and unskilled workers • {Mary Harris Jones the “most dangerous woman in america” was determined to educate and organize workers.}

10. The Knights of Labor • They offered membership to women • They did not offer membership to African Americans till 1883 • Chinese were not accepted because they were seen as “stealing jobs from white Americans”

11. The Great Upheaval • {A year of intense strikes and violent labor confrontations} • An economic depression led to wage cuts and workers demanded relief • 1,500 strikes involving more than 400,000 workers swept the nation • Strikers clashed with police and Employers

12. The Haymarket riot • Workers wanted an 8 hour workday • It fell under the leadership of political radicals and anarchists • The first day led to confrontations and left two strikers dead • The next day in Haymarket square a peaceful rally was broken by 200 police • A bomb exploded in the midst of the police • The police responded with gunfire • 7 police officers and 1 civilian were dead

14. Worker Activism Declines • After the Haymarket Riots employers drew up blacklists of union supporters that they shared • Workers on the list found it impossible to get a job • Strike breakers were bought in to work during a strike • Usually people not allowed in the unions

15. Pullman Strikes • The Pullman sleep cars • Pullman had cut wages and refused to lower rent or prices in his company town • {Eugene V Debbs as the head of the American Railway union, supported the Pullman strikers • Railways halted and the rail companies went to the govt. for help} • They ordered the trains to run

16. Continued • When the American railway union ignored the order the leaders were jailed • President Cleveland ordered troops in to break the strike • The strike was stopped and the ARU destroyed • What would equate the shutting down of the railways to present time?

17. Review Questions • What process burned all the impurities in molten iron with hot air? • What is a guarantee to protect an inventors rights to make, use or sell his invention? • Karl Marx came up with what form of Govt? • What did the Sherman Anti Trust Act outlaw? • Mary Harris Jones the “most dangerous woman in america” was determined to educate and organize workers • Eugene V Debbs as the head of the American Railway union, supported who?

18. Pullman strike