Industrialization and the Organized Labor Movement

These flashcards cover key concepts related to industrialization and the organized labor movement, including significant events, laws, and labor organizations.

Immigrants

Were a cheap source of labor for factories that helped companies industrialize in the late 19th Century.

Nativist Beliefs

American workers' concern about competition from immigrants that lowered wages, and fears from business owners regarding potential anarchism among foreign workers.

Chinese Exclusion Act

An 1882 law that outlawed Chinese immigration into the U.S. due to racist attitudes and competition fears.

National Origins Act (Johnson Reed Act)

Restricted immigration into the U.S. to 3% of a nation's proportion of the U.S. population in 1890, targeting southern and eastern Europe and Asia.

Tenements

Crowded apartments in cities, often unsanitary, with inadequate food preparation facilities and bathrooms located outside.

Urbanization

The process of people moving from rural areas to live in cities.

Andrew Carnegie

Became one of the richest men in America by utilizing the Bessemer process for steel production and adopting vertical integration.

John D. Rockefeller

Made his wealth by developing Standard Oil Company and controlling 90% of oil refining in the U.S. through rebates and buying out competitors.

Scientific Management

A philosophy aimed at making production efficient, often involving quotas and time requirements for workers.

Laissez-faire Capitalism

An economic system where the government does not regulate markets and leaves businesses to operate freely.

Vertical Integration

Occurs when a company controls all aspects of production, from raw materials to retail.

Horizontal Integration

Occurs when a company controls one stage of the production process, as exemplified by Standard Oil Company's dominance in oil refining.

Monopolies

Business structures that reduce competition, resulting in higher prices and lower quality products for consumers.

Labor Unions

Organizations formed by workers to address issues of low wages, long hours, and unsafe working conditions.

Collective Bargaining

The process where workers, through a labor union, negotiate wages as a group.

Haymarket Rally (1886)

A protest for an 8-hour workday that led to violence and a decline in membership for the Knights of Labor.

Pullman Strike

A strike by railroad workers for better wages and conditions that ended with federal intervention favoring railroad owners.

Homestead Strike

A strike by steel workers protesting low wages that resulted in state militia intervention and a setback for labor unions.

Knights of Labor

A labor organization that accepted all workers, which declined in influence after the Haymarket Square Incident due to perceptions of extremism.