Labor in the Gilded Age

Socioeconomic Changes (1865-1898)

• Industrialization created a divide between rich and poor.

• Wealthy engaged in "conspicuous consumption".

• Working-class faced economic challenges like the Panic of 1873 and 1893.

• Mass production decreased prices.

• Rising wages improved living standards for many, including immigrants and migrants.

Labor Activism

• Dangerous working conditions led to injuries and deaths.

• Workers formed labor unions to collectively bargain for better conditions.

• Tactics included political action, slowdowns, and strikes.

Key Strikes

• Great Railroad Strike of 1877

  • Railroad companies cut wages which led to workers striking.

  • President Hayes sent federal troops to restore order after violence broke out.

• Pullman Strike

  • George Pullman cut wages of workers.

  • Eugene V. Debs directed union members to not work on trains with Pullman cars.

  • Federal intervention led to Debs's jailing and the strike's end.

Labor Unions

• Knights of Labor

  • National union open to all, including black laborers and women.

  • Sought to abolish trusts, monopolies, and child labor.

  • Declined after the Haymarket Square riot in 1886 due to public association with violence.

• American Federation of Labor (AFL)

  • Led by Samuel Gompers and composed of craft workers.

  • Focused on higher wages and safer working conditions.