Harsh Working Conditions: Past and Present

1. What do you think of this contract? What if I told you this—if you don’t sign the contract, you will not be allowed to attend school? How would you react?

2. Directions • Draw parallels between this contract and the situation that existed in the early labor movement. Working conditions included: • long hours with few breaks, • no clear procedures communicated to workers, • complete dependence on company and business owner, and • workers fired for protesting or organizing.

3. Dicussion • Why do you think industry made conditions for workers so harsh? • It kept costs down and kept owners in complete control.

5. Working Conditions • Lack of Workplace Safety Industrial workers in the decades after the Civil War often risked their lives to keep their jobs. They performed repetitive tasks in hazardous conditions. The air in factories caused lung problems, and workers did not wear masks. Workers ran heavy machinery that had no safety devices. Injuries were common, but workers who were hurt on the job and could no longer work received no compensation. • Wages and Hours Workers were paid low wages and worked long hours.

6. Discussion • How did industrialization affect working conditions and hours? • Workers faced increasingly hazardous workplaces. New machinery, working styles, and very long hours led to a great number of workplace injuries. No regulations or protections existed for industrial workers, so those injuries could end their working careers.

7. Industry Opposes Unions • “Union-busting” companies had several strategies for keeping workers from organizing. • They made workers sign contracts promising not to join a union. • They kept a blacklist of workers who were pro-union. • They used lockouts to keep union workers out of the workplace. • They hired strikebreakers to take the jobs of striking workers.

8. Dicussion • Why do you think companies opposed creating safer working conditions for their employees? • It would cost money to do so and there were no legal sanctions if they did not. In addition, the labor pool was so large that new workers were constantly available to replace those who were unable to work

9. Discussion • What did workers hope to gain by organizing? • safer working conditions and better wages • Why did workers join a union rather than just bargaining individually? • The union advantage was strength in numbers. A strike by an entire union could shut down a factory, but a protest by a single person was extremely unlikely to gain the desired resolution.