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The American Labor Movement: The Formative Years (1869-1894)

The American Labor Movement: The Formative Years (1869-1894). Knights of Labor. 1869-1890s Members: skilled & unskilled workers including African Americans & women, membership peaked at 730,000 in 1886 Goals: 8 hour work day, equal pay for equal work, and restrictions on child labor

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The American Labor Movement: The Formative Years (1869-1894)

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  1. The American Labor Movement:The Formative Years (1869-1894)

  2. Knights of Labor • 1869-1890s • Members: skilled & unskilled workers including African Americans & women, membership peaked at 730,000 in 1886 • Goals: 8 hour work day, equal pay for equal work, and restrictions on child labor • Wanted an alternative to industrial capitalism by creating a cooperative society (basically an early view of socialism) • Leadership hesitant to strike because workers usually lost, but rank & file often acted anyway • Membership fell off after leaders compromised too much Terrence Powderly (Former Mayor of Scranton, PA)

  3. American Federation of Labor • 1886 to present • Membership limited to white, male, skilled workers (1 million by 1901, 2.5 million by 1917) • Generally worked w/ craft unions (rather than w/ all workers at a single job site) • Pragmatic & opportunistic, pressed for concrete goals: higher wages, shorter hours, right to bargain collectively • Accepted industrial capitalism & wanted to work w/in the system Samuel Gompers

  4. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) • Founded 1905 by workers dissatisfied w/ AFL policies • Founders included “Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs • Organizes all workers: skilled & unskilled, immigrant & native, male & female, black or white • Aggressive tactics… not afraid to defy injunctions, break unjust laws, sometimes resorted to violence & sabotage • Socialist rhetoric of class conflict “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

  5. IWW Leaders “Mother” Mary Harris Jones “Big Bill” Haywood Elizabeth Gurly Flynn Eugene V. Debs

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