Lecture #3 Industrial Labor and Unionization in 19th Century America

Overview of the Second Industrial Revolution and Labor Shifts

• The second industrial revolution is characterized by a macro shift in organizational paradigms, largely driven by the "robber barons."

• These leaders created monopolies known as trusts to control vast empires in railroads, oil, and steel.

• Technological progress resulting from these empires created millions of jobs and established the United States as a wealthy nation, but also divided the citizenry between the rich (owners) and the poor (workers).

• The rise of industrialization fundamentally altered the style of working for many Americans during the second half of the nineteenth century.

Industrial Labor Conditions and Wages

• During the late nineteenth century, real wages (purchasing power) rose, yet working conditions improved very slowly.

• The average work week for most industrial workers consisted of $10$ hours per day, six days per week, totaling $60\text{ hours per week}$.

• Wage statistics for workers:

  • Skilled workers (e.g., electricians, plumbers, printers) earned approximately $20\text{ cents per hour}$.

  • Unskilled workers, who made up the majority of the new industrial economy, earned approximately $10\text{ cents per hour}$.

• Annual earnings context:

  • Industrial laborers earned between $400\text{ and }500\text{ dollars per year}$.

  • A "decent middle-class existence" during this period required approximately $600\text{ dollars per year}$.

Categorization of Industrial Jobs

• "Good Jobs": Generally offered tolerable conditions and better pay. Examples include:

  • Construction industry.

  • Machinists.

  • Government office or clerical work.

  • The printing industry.

  • Gold and silver mines in the West.

• "Bad Jobs": Characterized by low pay and harsh conditions. Examples include:

  • Eastern coal mines (dangerous and hard).

  • Agriculture (long and difficult hours).

  • The garment industry (sweatshops).

  • Unskilled factory positions involving mechanical assembly.

• Holiday Standards: Businesses typically closed on Sundays, but only a few other holidays were recognized: Christmas, Easter, July 4, and Washington’s Birthday. Modern holidays like Memorial Day or Labor Day did not yet exist as reasons to close businesses.

Workplace Safety and Occupational Hazards

• The work environment was often relentless, monotonous, grueling, and dangerous, lacking personal satisfaction.

• Safety standards were either nonexistent or extremely low; there was no equivalent to the modern Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). Provisions like fire extinguishers, fire exits, and first aid kits were not standard.

• Machinery lacked protective shielding for workers, leading to frequent injuries.

• Railroad Industry Hazards: As the key industry of the era, the attrition rates were staggering:

  • $1/26\text{ workers}$ were injured annually.

  • $1/399\text{ workers}$ were killed on the job annually.

• Workers were exposed to dust, chemicals, and pollutants in a brand-new economy where scientific implications were not yet understood.

Lag Time in Hazard Recognition: The Luminous Watch Case Study

• There exists a consistent "lag time" between creating a problem (industrial exposure), recognizing it, and addressing it.

• A specific historical example involves the production of luminous watch and pocket watch faces at the turn of the twentieth century.

• Iridium Exposure: Watch dials and hands were painted with iridium, a radioactive material, to make them glow in the dark.

• Process: Usually performed by women using fine-tipped brushes. To maintain a sharp point on the brush, workers would lick the tip with their tongues.

• Consequence: Workers ingested radioactive material hundreds of times daily. This led to cancers that took years to develop and even longer for medical professionals to link to the occupation.

Demographics and the Rise of Women and Children in Labor

• In $1870$, $15\%$ of women over the age of $16$ worked in the industrial economy. By $1900$, this rose to $20\%$, representing $5,300,000\text{ women}$.

• Census Data (1900): Women were employed in $296$ out of the $303$ occupations listed in the census.

• The transition from farms to cities necessitated earning wages to pay for groceries and fuel that families previously produced themselves.

• Work Context: Unlike farm work performed under parental supervision, industrial work was done under foreman or managers in mills, factories, or sweatshops.

• Child Labor: The number of children in industrial labor rose by $130\%$ between $1870\text{ and }1900$. Approximately $1,800,000\text{ children}$ under the age of $15$ were employed in factories, exposed to the same pollutants as adults.

• Convict Labor: Some employers hired prisoners from states for virtually no cost, further driving down wages.

The Process of Feminization and Wage Disparity

• Feminization: A process where women enter a field in large numbers and men either exit the field or move into management positions.

• Stereotypical "women's work" today (nursing, teaching, librarianship, secretarial work) was originally performed by men at the start of the Second Industrial Revolution.

• Wage Logic for Women: Women were paid significantly less than men (often half as much) based on certain societal assumptions:

  • The assumption that young women worked only until marriage to gain a "taste of independence."

  • The belief that married women’s household duties prevented long-term employment.

  • The argument that single women did not need to support a family.

• Special Circumstances: In $1900$, only $5\%$ of married women worked overall, but $25\%$ of married black women worked due to family economic necessity.

Mobility and Hope within the Industrial System

• Physical Mobility: The $1900$ census revealed that $50\%$ of Americans lived in a different place than they had ten years prior.

• Social and Economic Mobility: $1/4$ of all unskilled manual laborers rose into the middle class in the second half of the nineteenth century.

• While $75\%$ did not rise, the success of the $25\%$ injected hope and ambition into the system, preventing widespread rebellion or turbulence.

The Emergence and Evolution of Labor Unions

• Pre-industrial work was personal; bosses and employees often shared the same tasks. Industrialization created layers of middle management (foremen/accountants) whose incentives centered on profitability and efficiency over worker welfare.

• The Labor Union served as the only mechanism for workers to gain leverage in a system where individual employees were easily replaceable.

• Union Popularity: In the nineteenth century, unions were broadly unpopular. Never more than $2\%$ of the total labor force joined, and only $10\%$ of strictly industrial workers were members.

• Evolutionary Arc of Unions:

  1. Early Stage: Incredibly idealistic/Utopian goals.

  2. Middle Stage: Mixture of idealism and pragmatic reform.

  3. Final Stage: Purely pragmatic negotiation for wages and conditions.

Key Labor Organizations of the Nineteenth Century

• National Labor Union (NLU):

  • Founded: Approximately $1866$ by William H. Syllvis.

  • Composition: Represented only skilled workers.

  • Goal: Utopian; sought worker cooperatives and collective ownership/management of factories.

  • Membership: Reached $640,000$ by $1868$; collapsed following Syllvis's death in $1869$.

• The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor:

  • Founded: $1869$ by Uriah S. Stevens; later led by Terence Powderly in $1879$.

  • Composition: Admitted both skilled and unskilled workers.

  • Goals: Eight-hour workday, abolition of child and prisoner labor, end of trusts/monopolies, and temperance.

  • Strategy: Preferred "moral suasion" over strikes, which limited initial growth.

  • Peak: After a successful unauthorized "wildcat" strike against the Missouri and Pacific Railroad in $1885$, membership surged from $110,000\text{ to }730,000$.

  • Decline: Following a failed strike against the Texas and Pacific Railroad in $1886$, the union faded by $1890$.

• American Federation of Labor (AFL):

  • Founded: $1881$.

  • Composition: Open only to skilled workers, organized along craft lines (Printers, Electricians, etc.).

  • Philosophy: Avoided politics and Utopianism; focused on "bread and butter" issues: higher wages, shorter hours, better conditions.

  • Exclusionary Tactics: Used high dues and technical exams to effectively exclude women and minorities.

  • Growth: Reached $1,000,000\text{ members}$ by $1901$ and $2,000,000$ by $1914$.

Conflict, Strikes, and the Haymarket Riot

• Management Tactics: Employers used spies, intimidation (thugs), blacklisting, and the inflammation of racial/ethnic tensions to break unions.

• Nature of Strikes: In the $1800$s, strikes often involved physical occupations of factories to cease production. Since these were private property, owners obtained legal injunctions (court orders) to remove strikers.

• Violence: Efforts to enforce injunctions often involved police or hired security, leading to bloodshed. Between $1880\text{ and }1900$, there were $23,000\text{ strikes}$.

• The Haymarket Riot (May 1886):

  • Context: A strike against the McCormick Harvester works for an eight-hour day turned violent when police killed a worker.

  • Event: A protest meeting was held at Ann Marcus Square in Chicago. Police ordered the crowd to disperse.

  • The Bomb: An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb, killing one officer immediately and mortally wounding six others.

  • Aftermath: Eight prominent anarchists were arrested and convicted of inciting the violence despite no evidence linking them to the bomb. Four were hanged.

  • Public Perception: The event linked labor unions with "un-American" ideas like anarchism, communism, and socialism in the public mind.

Questions & Discussion

• Question 11: What is the first labor union to stage a successful strike against a railroad?

  • Answer: The Knights of Labor (specifically the strike against the Missouri and Pacific Railroad in $1885$).

• Question 12: William Silvis created the first well-known labor union in American history. What was the name of that labor union?

  • Answer: The National Labor Union.

• Question 13: When a court issues an order for someone or some organization to stop doing something, what is that called?

  • Answer: An injunction.

• Question 14: When women took control of a certain career field, like nursing or teaching, and the men left it, what is that process called?

  • Answer: Feminization.

• Question 15: What is the name of the labor union that admitted only skilled workers, organized them along craft lines, and embraced purely pragmatic goals like better wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions?

  • Answer: The American Federation of Labor (AFL).