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Workers Organize

Ch.14; Sect. 3 STD: 2.4. Workers Organize. Main Idea. Grim working conditions in many industries led workers to form unions and stage labor strikes. Government and Business. Sherman Antitrust Act Def pg. 473 Government policies had little effect on business

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Workers Organize

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  1. Ch.14; Sect. 3 STD: 2.4 Workers Organize

  2. Main Idea • Grim working conditions in many industries led workers to form unions and stage labor strikes.

  3. Government and Business • Sherman Antitrust Act • Def pg. 473 • Government policies had little effect on business • Unbalanced distribution of wealth • Rich were exceedingly rich

  4. Industrial Workers • Workforce • European immigrants • White Americans from rural areas • Working conditions • 10 hr days • Six days a week • No paid vacation • Sweatshops • Cramped workshops in shabby tenement buildings

  5. Why would workers agree to work in difficult conditions? • Lacked the skills to work elsewhere • Needed the jobs to survive

  6. Workers Seek Change • Early organizing • 1794: Philadelphia shoemakers formed a trade union to protect their interests • Carpenters, printers, blacksmiths soon followed • National Unions • Knights of Labor • Leader- Terence V. Powderly • Hoped to achieve their ends without strikes by using boycotts and negotiating with employers

  7. Workers Seek Changes (cont.) • Great Railroad strike- 1877 • 1st railroad strike • Haymarket Riot- 1886 • Haymarket Square in Chicago • Foreign-born unionists blamed • Xenophobia • Fear of foreigners

  8. Workers Seek Change (cont.) • American Federation of Labor (FAL)-1886 • Founder • Samuel Gompers • Blacklists • Lists of people perceived as troublemakers

  9. Workers Seek Changes (cont.) • Homestead Strike- 1892 • Carnegie Steel Company • Homestead, Pennsylvania • Workers refused to work faster • Manager tried to lock them out • Pullman Strike-1893 • Pullman Company • Union supporter • Eugene V. Debs • Urged members not to work on any trains that included Pullman cars

  10. Follow-Up • Critical Thinking • Pg. 476; # 4

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