Labor-Big Business

1. Labor-Big Business Click on this symbol Don’t click on this symbol in the corner

2. Clara Lemlich, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were all Jewish immigrants from Russia, but they were on opposite sides of the 1909 Shirtwaist Strike. Clara Lemlich, labor union organizer

3. Sweat shops • Originally sweat shops were tiny clothes factories that a person would set up in their tenement apartment. They would pay new immigrants to sew clothes together for tiny wages. • Workers worked 7 days per week, 12 hours per day. Workers were expected to make more and more clothes for less and less money until they quit. (ex. Workers were charged for pins, thread and needles they used, lunch breaks shortened, they would start earlier each week and end later but still get less pay) • This process was called “Sweating” • The owner would then get more immigrant workers.

4. This is a typical sweat shop in a dumbell tenement. List the fire hazards and safety issues you see in this picture.

5. Labor Unions • Workers join together for better pay and working conditions. • Clara Lemlich organized a female garment workers union “Local 25” • They fought to get a 20% increase in pay, a 52 hour work week and the right to join a union.

6. How would a union hurt owners? Clara Lemlich wanted to form a union to protect girls like this. The girl in the back is wearing a banner written in Hebrew because most clothing workers were Jewish.

7. Lock-outs • A lock out is when the owners do not allow workers into the factory. They literally lock them out. No work = no pay for the workers. • Triangle Factory owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris locked out their workers when they found out they were trying to join a union.

8. How would a lock out hurt workers?

9. Strikes • When workers refuse to work. Then there are no products made for the owners to sell and make a profit from. • Clara Lemlich organized a strike of 15,000 women in 1909 that stopped production of shirtwaists for 12 weeks in over 500 factories in New York City.

10. How would a strike hurt business owners?

11. Strike Breakers • Strike breakers (scabs) were people hired by the owners to work in the factory to replace the workers on strike. Other people were hired to fight with the striking workers to scare them back to work. • Clara Lemlich was beaten up by a thug hired by shirtwaist factory owners. Mobsters were hired to fight striking women workers in the streets. Max Blanck and Isaac Harris hired prostitutes to replace striking shirtwaist workers during the 1909 Shirtwaist Strike.

12. Why did workers hate strike breakers - scabs? Strikers Strike Breakers

13. Workers used unions and strikes to get what?Owners used lock-outs and strike breakers to get what?Think about the capitalism simulation we did in class.