Working Conditions & Labor Movements: Challenges Faced by American Laborers

1. IX. LABOR, WORKING CONDITIONS & RESPONSE A. Urban Laboring Class 1. American born white Protestants had best jobs a. machinists,iron workers,craftsmen,engineers & mechanics 2. Skilled Europeans found next best jobs a. Germans, Cornish, Irish, & Jewish arrived with skills 3. Southern Europeans had little skill and did poorly 4. Black Americans did the worst a. denied employment in industries except as strike breakers b. found jobs as janitors, servants, porters, laborers B. Working Conditions 1. 10 hr. days & 6 day work week 2. many factories pay workers by the piece 3. no washing or drink facilities in factories

2. 4. few safety precautions a. open belts to run machinery b. 3 times the injury rate as other European factories i. tens of thousands each year injured on job ii. once injured workers lost livelihood, no insurance 5. salaries not equal to amount they contribute to economy a. no or few benefits b. no unemployment c. no disability d. few retirement plans 6. Families in the workforce a. most women stayed home in response to social pressure 2

3. 3 b. children worked at a fraction of normal wages i. 1880 20% of children between 10-14 worked ii. middle class children went to school a. parents did not need money b. parents valued education C. Labor Movements 1. first attempts a. old craft guilds i. workers always controlled environment and standards b. now skilled laborers want the same control i. many workers establish unofficial quotas c. labor refused to work, committed acts of sabotage, or quit

4. 4 2. Strikes a. 1877 1st nation wide strike(Railroads) i. started over a wage cut ii. spread to other issues, conditions, benefits, etc. iii. destroyed track, junction boxes, & engines iv. management hired private detectives to act as thugs a. violence escalated and over 100 die b. federal troops called to stop the violence b. Business owners reactions i. feared a united threat ii. appealed to the government that this was a revolution c. Upper & Middle class support government action

5. 3. First period of modern union activism 1881-1905 a. 16,757 strikes with over 6 million workers b. first workers rioted in own neighborhoods i. refused to go too close to jobs ii. violence and damage to own homes c. from 1845 to 1865 workers start to strike at the work place d. after the war workers start cooperative action e. unions organize 60% of strikes from 1881-1905 f. leaders organize national support & sympathy strikes g. more strikes over working conditions than wages 4. First Unions a. 1866 craft guilds & reformers start National Labor Union i. supported temperance 5

6. 6 ii. support women's rights iii. tried to form cooperatives iv. tried to form a political party v. worked for the 8 hr. day vi. depression of 1873 brought their collapse b. 1869 Knights of Labor started i. first a secret organization later goes public a. once public miners first group to join b. second group were skilled urban workers c. finally the unskilled joined ii. The union believed in cooperation a. held an open membership, anyone could join b. shop owners joined & advertised as friends of labor

7. 7 c. tried to avoid strikes but membership increases after iii. support populist candidates & union sympathizers v. win a few local and state elections similar to populists 5. Hay-Market Riot in Chicago May 4, 1886 a. McCormic Reaper works locks out workers b. Police arrive to break up “rioting” strikers c. Bomb goes off and riot starts, 8 police die and two others d. 8 anarchists arrested for politics rather than actual actions i. 3 executed, 1 commits suicide, ii. 4 received long prison terms 6. Anarchism & Communism not accepted a. personal property is too common & too ingrained b. the American dream basic to our culture

8. 9 c. philosophies from eastern & southern Europe 7. Businessmen alarmed over labor activism a. worried about violence b. unite to break unions loose interest in cooperation c. cooperatives start to fade d. 1886 Jay Gould's Railroad on strike i. strike fails and union membership drops e. company stores cut credit f. hire strike breakers, spies, & guards (Pinkertons) g. called in state militia i. imprisoned strikers ii. strikers responsible for damages h. black list union workers

9. 9 8. Knights start loosing ground in 1890s 9. American Federation of Labor 1886 a. by 1890s replace Knights as largest union in U.S. b. Samuel Gompers believed in a skilled workers union i. he saw strikes as a tool to protect skilled workers ii. unskilled workers subvert goals & prevent advances iii. wanted all skilled trades to form separate unions a. joined for boycotts, legislation & sympathy strikes iv. focused on immediate practical results a. wages, hours, right to organize & industrial safety v. refused to admit Blacks a. believed they were poor workers and undependable vi. refused to admit Women

10. 10 10. Homestead Steel Mill Strike 1892 a. workers refuse to take wage cut b. Andrew Carnegie bought mill i. wanted to break union c. Henry Clay Frick in charge i. hired 300 Pinkertons to break strike ii. erected barricades and locked out workers iii. violence erupted on July 6, Pinkertons retreated iv. called governor for militia, 8,000 troops, broke strike 11. 1893 Eugene Victor Debs formed American Railroad Union a. joined several small unions together b. Depression & railroads lay-off workers i. Pullman Palace Car Co. laid-off hundreds & cut wages ii. Pullman workers join ARU in 1894

11. 11 c. Debs calls all his workers out on a sympathy strike d. General Managers Association owners of over 24 railroads i. decided to help Pullman and put end to ARU ii. hired 250,000 scabs iii. tried to get militia but governor refused iv. convinced Richard Olney, U.S. District Attorney to help a. Grover Cleveland would not send in troops b. obtained federal injunction from Federal judge i. claimed strike was a conspiracy to restrain trade c. two days later President sends in federal troops v. Debs tried to broaden strike and asks Gompers for aid a. Gompers refused vi. Debs arrested becomes a socialist