Big Business, Big Labor (ch18)

Mass production (economies of scales)

mass distribution

vertical integration

a method of growth where a company acquires other companies that include all aspects of a product’s lifecycle from the creation of the raw materials through the production process to the delivery of the final product

like Starbucks

horizontal integration

method of growth wherein a company grows through mergers and acquisitions of similar companies

managerial hierarchy

• passing off power and succession

Interstate commerce (1887)

• first regulation bureaucracy

Federal Meat Inspection Act 1906

• mandatory inspection of all livestock before slaughter

• post inspection

• sanitary standards for slaight and processing

• department of Ag in charge of this

Pure Food and Drug Act 1906

• drugs that had no real effect….got rid of quackery

  • accurate labeling…what you’re putting in stuff

  • keep out unsafe products

  • product must actually work if it is regulated by the FDA

  • or must put a disclaimer

Federal Trade Commission (1914)

Securities and Exchnage Commission (1930s)

DOT National Highway Traffice Safety Admin (1960s)

Environmental Protections Agency (1970s)

Department of Homeland Security/ Transportation Security Admin (2000s)

Consumer Financial Protection (2009)

Union Membership

• goes up and down every 20ish years from 1880 to 1960s

  • Great New Deal

  • Production of for war

  • Goes up in 1950s (car factories)

Inconsistency of Union Membership

• divided by race and ethnicity in different ways, than just SES

• Immigrant workers regulated different than citizens

• employers unusually powerful…corrupt and cracked down on unions

• American dream of self-employment distracted workers

  • everyone wanted to be their boss

Decline after 1960

• disappearance of industrial blue collar jobs

• Globalization: industries hiring work across seas

• immigrant coming in, not unionizing

• higher educated professionals or women entering the workforce who were less at risk of harm

  • engineers,

Labor Unions

• national Labor Union (NLU)

  • 1866-1877

  • called for 8 hour days max

  • called for laborers to form their own political party and into congress etc.

  • Colored NLU (women and AA discriminated

  • wanted monetary reform (big in 1890s

• Knights of Labor

  • no more child labor

  • child body could fit in machinery that adults couldn’t

  • equal pay for equal work

    • even for women and other ethnicities

  • included non-producer

    • meaning lawyers, engineers, etc.

• American Federation of Labor

  • decent hours

  • decent conditions

  • more money rather than fighting for promotion

Great Southwest Railroad strike of 1886

Haymarket riot of 1886

LA times building 1910

Homestead Strike of 1892

• andrew carnegie’s homestead steel plant

  • always trying to cut costs (cutting wages by 20%)

  • called in Pinkertons to be a militia against

  • led to a conflict, Pinkertons lost…then investigated by the government

  • Henry Clay Flick (Carnegie’s business partner)

  • Union gave up because it was reopened by the government

Child Labor

by 1900

• 20% of boys worked

  • taken out of school around 9th grade to get jobs

• 10% of girls worked

  • usually stayed in school longer

  • began taking jobs traditionally held by men

    • secretaries, bookkeepers, front desk people, teachers

• Changed after Great Depression

  • less competition for jobs