Topic 5: The Labor Movement

1 (Problems Faced by Industrial Workers)

-Impersonal conditions/ boring, repetitive task

2 (Problems Faced by Industrial workers)

-Long Workdays: 12 hours a days, six days a week (exhaustion and disrupted family line)

3 (Problems Faced by Industrial workers)

-Lack of opportunity for advancement

4  (Problems Faced by Industrial workers)

• Low wages/ periodic unemployment: workers in many industries such as manufacturing mining, and agriculture, were paid extremely low wages that often did not cover basic living experiences

5 (Problems Faced by Industrial workers)

--Dangerous conditions/ No workers’ compensation: factories lacked ventilation, exposed to hazardous materials without protection. Accident were frequent, and workplace safety regulations were virtually nonexistent

1 (Unpleasant Living Conditions)

-Workers often lived in crowded and unsanitary urban tenements. Poor housing conditions, along with low wages, contributed to the cycle of proverty for many laborers.

2 (Unpleasant Living Conditions)

-Cramped, poorly lit, under ventilated, and usually without indoor plumbing, the tenements were hotbeds of vermin and disease, and were frequently swept by cholera, typhus, and tubercubsis.

Child Labor

-Children young as five or six were employed in factories, mines, and mills. They worked in dangerous and were paid significantly less than adults.

Labor Unions

organizations formed by workers to improve their conditions: negotiated with business owners for:
-higher wages

-fewer hours

-better working conditions

Knights of Labor: Terence Powderly

• Created for skilled and unskilled workers, women, and minorities

• Collapsed shortly after Haymarket Riot

American Federation of Labor (AFL): Samuel Gompers

• focused on improving conditions and raising wages

• hostile to immigration

• refused to have women or African Americans as members

Collective Bargaining (Advantage of Labor Union)

workers act together in negotiating new contracts for higher wages and better working conditions

Mutual Aid Society (Advantage of Labor Union)

• save money for emergencies

Strikes (Tactics of Labor Unions)

• Workers walk off their jobs and picket the factory or workplace

“Closed Shop” (Tactics of Labor Unions)

• Only union members can work there

Lockout (Tactics of Management)

• Closing down a factory or mill son that workers cannot work there

Strike-breakers (Tactics of Management)

• also known as “scab”

• temporary workers who fill jobs during a strike, often from a different ethnic group than most of the strikers

Blacklisting (Tactics of Management)

• Circulating names of fred employees to other employers

Yellow-Dog Contrast (Tactics of Management)

• Forcing workers to sign an agreement not to unionize

Pinkertons (Tactics of Management)

• private detectives used to break up strikes

Injuction (Tactics of Management)

• a court order to end a strike

Haymarket Riot (1886)

• After an explosion during a demonstration in Haymarket Square, labor leaders were arrested and put on trial

• 4 were hanged

• Public mind- the labor movement became associated with violence and anarchism

Homestead Strike (1892)

• Carneige and Frick decided to “break” the union and lacked out workers from Homestead Steelworks when they failed to negotiate a new contract

• State militia was called out to protect the plants

• Frick sent strike breakers

• Workers gave in, ending unionization in steel mills

Pullman Strike (1894)

• Pullman lowered wages but not prices in company→ Pullman workers went on strike\

• Eugene Debs’ American Railway Union joined in sympathy and would not work on Pullman cars→ Trains in the West came to a stop

• President Cleveland sent in federal troops to end the strike

1(Consequence of the Labor Movement)

Improved Working Condition:

• better wages shorter workweeks, and safer working for many workers

2 (Consequence of the Labor Movement)

Legal Protections:

• labor activists and unions achieved various laws and regulations, which continue to protect workers’ rights today

3 (Consequence of the Labor Movement)

Social Awareness

4 (Consequence of the Labor Movement)

Economic Impact:

• help to establish a more balanced distribution of wealth and power

1 (Role of Government)

Suppression of Labor Strikes:

• state militias and federal troops, used to break up strikes and protect the interests of employers

2 (Role of Government)

Mediation and Arbitation:

• violence escalated government established United States Department of Labor (1913), federal agency dedicated to address labor issues and promoting collective bargaining

3 (Role of Government)

Legislation:

• Clayton Antitrust Act (1914), exempted labor unions from antitrust laws, and the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938), establish a minimum wage and maximum workweek hours

4 (Role of Government)

Regulation of Child Labor:

• limit the employment of children in hazardous industries and to establish minimum age requirements for employment

5 (Role of Government)

Worker Safety Regulations:

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) establish to set and enforce workplace safety standards

6 (Role of Government)

Support for Unionization:

• the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) of 1935 protected workers’ rights to form unions and engage in collective bargaining with employers

Ideology

• A system of belief s about society and government

Main Characteristics:

• have a unifying factor across their domain

• individuals identifying with a certain group have a vision of what an ideal society should be working towards

Capitalism

• Market-based economic system in which individuals or corporations privately own the means of production

• Dominant system in the U.S.

• Industrialization and the growth of corporations reinforced capitalist principles