6.7 Labor in the Gilded Age

LEARNING OBEJCTICE: Explain the socioeconomic continuties and changes assoicated witht he growth of industrial capitalism from 1865 to 1898

INTRODUCTION

• Gilded Age

  • Refers to the superficial glitter of new wealth displayed during late 1800

    - era of “captains of industry”(controlled corportations politics, & wealth)

    - problems faced workers, farmers, and cities under new wealth

CHALLENGES FOR WAGE EARNERS

• Growth of industry was based on physical labor in mines and factories

  • Worker life was difficult and hard

WAGES

• 2/3 of employed Americans worked for wages

  • Wages were determined by supply and demand

    - increase in immigrants as workers—→ decreased wages

  • David Ricardo justified low wages (“Iron law of wages”)

    - argued that increase in wage—→ increase in working population—→ availability of workers would descrease wages—→ misery and hunger

  • Most wage earners could not support a family

    - working-class families depended on income of women and children

    - millions of families averaged less than $380 a year in income.

LABOR DISCONTENT

• Factory work was radically different from small workplaces

  • Value for artisan skill—→ semiskilled monotous labor

    - workers were assigned one step in manufacturing a product

  • Workers faced tyranny of the clock

    - most jobs required ten hours a day, six days a week

• Industrial workers rebelled against working conditions

  • Missed work or quit

    - changed jobs on an average of about every 3 years

    - 20% eventually dropped out of industrail workplace

  • Some joined labor unions

THE STRUGGLES OF ORGANIZED LABOR

• Deadly and frequent labor conflict arose

  • Many feared warfare between capital and labor

INDUSTRIAL WARFARE

• Management held most power in struggles of labor

  • Employers used different tatics for defeating union

    - Lockout: closed factories to break movements before organization

    - Blacklist: roster of pro-unions circulated so these ppl cant find work

    - Yellow-dog Contract: contract that stated workers cannot join a union

    - Private Guards, State Militia: put down strikes

    - Court Injunction: judicical actions by employers ended strikes

    - Replacement: replaced workers easily with desperate scabs

• Management created public fears of unions as anarchistic and “un-american”

  • If violence developed, employers turned to support from government

    - management won most battles against unions

TATICS BY LABOR

• Workers were divided on best method of defense

  • Political action

  • Direct confrontations

    - strikes, picketing, boycotts, slowdowns

    - allowed for workers to collectively bargain (negotiate with employers)

GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1877

• Worst outbreaks of lavor violence

  • Railraod companies cut wages to reduce cost during depression

    - strike on Baltimore and Ohio Railroad spread across country

    - Rutherfod B. Hayes sent federal tropps to end dispute

    - 2/3 of railraods shut down, more than a 100 were killed

    - some employers improved conditions, other busted down more unions

ATTEMPTS TO ORGANIZE NATIONAL UNIONS

• Unions has originally been ogranized as local associations

  • Craft Unions

    - focused on oen type of work

NATIONAL LABOR UNION

• First attempt to organize all laborers was National Labor Unions

  • Organization fought for higher wages and shorter hours

    - Had an additional social program for equal rights of women and blacks , monetary reform, and cooperatives for workers

    - won 8-hour workdays from federal government

    - lost support after depression of 1873 and strikes of 1877

KNIGHTS OF LABOR

• 2nd national labor unions was Knights of Labor

  • Secret society meant to avoid detection by employers

    - went public with leadership fo Terrence V. Powderly

    - opened up membership to all workers (included blacks and women)

  • Advoated a variety of reforms

    - forming worker cooperatives (each man could be his own employer)

    - abolishing child labor

    - abolishing trusts and monopolies

    - settling lavor disputes with arbritration rather than strikes

  • Knights were big but loosely organized

    - couldnt controll strikes

    - declined rapidly after Haymarket riot (public opinion turned)

HAYMARKET BOMBING

• Workers held a public meeting in Haymarket Square for the May Day Movement

  • Someone threw a bomb as police tried to break up the meeting

    - seven police officers were killed, bomb thrower was never found

    - anarachist leaders were tried for the crime, some scentenced to death

    - americans thought of unions as radical and violent

    - knights of labor (most visible union at the time) lost popularity

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

• American Federation of Labor concentrated on “bread-and-butter” unionism

  • Founded by Samuel Gompers

    - focused on higher wages and improved working conditions

    - directed local unions to walk out until employer agreed for negotiation

    - became larger lavor organization with 1 million members

    - did not acheive success until early 1900s

STRIKES AND STRIKEBREAKING IN THE 1890s

• Two massive strikes demonstrated discontent of labor and power of management

HOMSTEAD STRIKE

• Henry Clay Frick (manager of Homstead Steel plant) cut wages by nearly 20%

  • Used lockout, private guards, and strikebreakers to defeat walkout

    - resulted in 16 deaths, mostly steelworkers

    - failure of homestead stike—→ set back of union movement in steel

PULLMAN STRIKE

• Workers started a strike in George Pullman’s company town

  • Pullman Palace Car company manufactured railraod sleeping cars

    - Pullman announced a cut in wages and fired leaders of unions

    - workers laid down they tools and turned to American railraod Union

    - Euguene V. Debs (ARU leader) directed workers to not handle Pullman cars (boycott tied up rail transportation across country)

  • Railroad owners supported Pullman by linknging to mail trains

    - federal court fordbid interefernce with the operation of mail

    - workers were forced to abandon the boycott and strike (or were jailed)

  • Supreme court case In re Debs (1895)

    - supreme court approved court injuctions against the strikes

    - allowed employers legal weapon to break unions

  • Debs thought more radical solutions were needed

    - turned to socialism and the American Socialist party

CONDITIONS OF 1900

• Only 3% of workers were in unions by 1900

  • Management held the upper hand (gov took their side)

    - people began to recognize the need for better balance (would help avoid strikes and violence)

  • Industrial growth was concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest

    - larger populations, most capital, best transportation

    - cities developed, immigration increased

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