Unit VI A Growing America

1
Unit VI A Growing America

• Chapter 19Section 3 Industrial Workers
• Lecture Stations

2
Industrial Workers

• The Big Idea
• Changes in the workplace led to a rise in labor
  unions and workers strikes.
• Main Ideas
• The desire to maximize profits and become more
  efficient led to poor working conditions.
• Workers began to organize and demand improvements
  in working conditions and pay.
• Labor strikes often turned violent and failed to
  accomplish their goals.

3
Main Idea 1The desire to maximize profits and
become more efficient led to poor working
conditions.

• Several factors led to a decline in the quality
  of working conditions in the late 1800s.
• Machines and unskilled workers replaced skilled
  craftspeople.
• These low-paid workers could easily be replaced.
  They brought costs down and caused production to
  rise.
• Frederick W. Taylor, an efficiency expert,
  published The Principles of Scientific Management
  in 1909.
• Encouraged managers to view workers as
  interchangeable parts
• Injuries increased, and conditions worsened.
• Workers looked for ways to bring about change.

4
Maximizing Profits and Efficiency

• Why did factories focus on specialization?
• How did machines lead to a decrease in jobs?

5
Poor Working Conditions

• Small, crowded rooms
• Specialization made workers tired, bored, and
  more likely to be injured.
• Managers paid less attention to working
  conditions.
• Stuffy air
• Unsafe workplaces
• Long hours
• Low wages
• No job security

6
(No Transcript)
7
Workers begin to Organize

• 1800s- Laissez-faire attitude- little concern
  for workers (scraping by for less than 500/year)
• Factory workers- 12-16 hour days, six (some
  seven) days a week, bad light, poor ventilation,
  and women and children make up 1/2 the work
  force.
• No sick leave, no vacations, unemployment
  compensation or reimbursement for injuries on the
  job.
• 1882-
• average of 675 laborers injured per week.
• Wages so low all family members had to work.
• Kids gave up their futures to help the family
  survive.
• Horrible conditions.
• Sweatshops paid the worst- .27 per day for a
  child working 14 hours
• 1899- Women- 267/yr., Men- 498/yr. Carnege 23
  million with no income tax.

8
Trade Unions

• 1842- Commonwealth v. Hunt- Supreme Court
  decision that Unions were just as legal as any
  other club organized to help members.
• 1866- National Labor Union- ironworkers- got the
  8 hour workday. Open only to skilled workers.

9
Main Idea 2 Workers began to organize and
demand improvements in working conditions and pay.

• Knights of Labor
• First national labor union, founded in 1870s
• Pushed for eight-hour workday, equal pay for
  equal work, and end to child labor
• Included both skilled and unskilled workers
• Terence V. Powderly became leader in 1879 and
  ended secrecy of organization.

• American Federation of Labor
• Organized individual national unions, such as
  mine-workers and steelworkers unions
• Limited membership to skilled workers
• Used collective bargaining, in which all workers
  acted collectively, or together, to negotiate
  with management

10
Trade Unions

• 1869- Noble Order of the Knights of Labor
• Open to all workers regardless of race, gender,
  or degree of skill.
• Supported the 8 hour work day, end of child labor
  and equal pay for men and women.
• Strike was a last resort only,preferred boycotts.

11
Craft Unions

• American Federation of Labor
• Samuel Gompers
• Skilled workers from one or more trades.
• Collective bargaining
• Bread and Butter- shorter hours, better
  conditions, better pay.
• Successful strikes.

12
Trade Unions

• Socialism and IWW- 1905- Industrial Workers of
  the World- Wobblies. Miners, lumberers,
  cannery and dock workers. Wanted government
  control of businesses, property and equal
  distribution of wealth.

13
Workers Organize

• What were two important labor unions in the late
  1800s?
• Why did collective bargaining give workers a
  greater chance of success?

14
Main Idea 3 Labor strikes often turned violent
and failed to accomplish their goals.

• Haymarket Riot
• Erupted between protesters and police in Chicago
• Resulted in decline of Knights of Labor

• Homestead Strike
• Strike occurred at Carnegie Steel Company in
  Homestead, Pennsylvania.
• Resulting fight left workers and Pinkerton guards
  dead.

• Pullman Strike
• Began with workers who made Pullman train cars
• Spread to workers who worked on trains pulling
  sleeping cars
• Federal troops stopped strike.

15
Homestead Strike 1892 (0239)
16
Homestead Strike 1892

• Andrew Carnege left Henry Clay Frick in charge of
  Homestead Steel while he was in Scotland.
• Frick refused to negotiate with union on new
  contract and eventually locked the entire work
  force out.
• Frick hires 300 strike breaking Pinkertons.
• No one knows who fired the first shot, but the
  detectives opened fire on the crowd and wounded
  several workers.

17
Labor Problems

• 1892- Homestead Strike- Homestead, Pennsylvania.
• The battle lasted from 4 a.m. on July 6 until 5
  p.m., with workers finally agreeing to the
  surrender of the Pinkertons. Three Pinkertons and
  seven workers died and many more were wounded in
  the fight.
• The national guard was eventually called in
• The union was broken, Carnege and Frick win.
  There would be no steel workers union for 45
  years.

18
Labor Problems

• 1886- Haymarket Affair- Chicago- The
  International Working People's Association
  organize a meeting May 4th, 1886 in Haymarket
  Square, Chicago
• Wage cuts, workers gather at Haymarket square to
  protest.
• Bomb thrown, 11 dead, 100 wounded.
• Public turns on labor.
• 8 anarchist leaders are arrested, yet 7 were not
  at the meeting and one was speaking at the time
  of the bomb. 4 were hung.

19
Pullman Railroad strike of 1894

• "About the only difference between slavery at
  Pullman and what it was down South before the
  war, is that there the owners took care of the
  slaves when they were sick and here they don't."
• At the Pullman factory, employees lived in the
  company town, much like slaves lived on the
  plantations where they worked. Pullman residents
  lived in constant fear of their employer.
• Residents felt that the company had taken over
  every aspect of their life, and had taken their
  identity in the process.

20
Labor Problems

• 1893-94- Pullman Company Strike.
• Laid off 3,000 of 5,800 workers and cut the wages
  of the rest by 50, but failed to reduce the rent
  in the company owned housing.
• Eugene V. Debs organizes the American Railway
  Union (ARU)
• Union asks for arbitration- Pullman refuses and
  Union workers boycott Pullman trains.
• Pullman hires strikebreakers
• Pres. Cleveland sends in troops- strike threatens
  US mail, prompting violence and looting in
  Chicago
• Strikers fired or blacklisted

21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
Labor Strikes

• What were union members protesting during the
  Homestead Strike?
• Did the Haymarket Riot help or hurt the labor
  movement?
• Do you think strikes are an effective and
  appropriate way to handle labor disputes?