Lives of Factory Workers

1
Lives of Factory Workers

• Ch 13. Sec 2

2
Factory Workers

• Factory Workers had many rules to follow.
• Had to be on time, breaks at set times, only
  leave with permission, work in all types of
  weather.
• Breaking of rules resulted in fines, pay cut, or
  job loss.
• Factory machines had no safety devices.
• Accidents happened frequently.
• Employers offered no compensation.
• Workers were expected to work 14 hrs a day, six
  days a week.

3
Changes in workplace

• Abuses soon scandalized England.
• Parliament investigated working conditions in
  factories.
• Elizabeth Bently was questioned.
• She said that she started to work when she was 6.
• She was forced to work from 5 in the morning to 9
  at night.
• She was beaten for been late.
• England passed the Factory Act of 1883.
• Allowed for factory inspections and enforcement
  of child labor laws.

4
Tenements

• Life for workers was not much better at home.
• Lived in shabby apartments called Tenements.
• 12 or more people were crammed into a single
  room.
• In one town in England up to 50,000 workers lived
  in cellars.

5
Development of Middle Class

• Balance of economic power shifted form farming to
  industry.
• Well-educated middle class thrived.
• Many of them served as management for the
  factories and kept them running.
• Gained economic and political power. Not based
  on birth.
• They started to live in bigger houses and were
  able to acquire more expensive life-style.

6
Women and Industrialization

• With the decrease for farm labor many women
  started to work in Textile factories.
• Some started to work for the middle class
  families in domestic activities.
• Middle class women started to stay home.
• Many started to look for independence.
• Found work as nurses, operators, went to college
  and as teachers.