Labor Unions

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Labor Unions
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Why they formed

• Great disparity between rich and poor
• (9of Americans held 75 of the wealth)
• Working conditions
• No standard work day
• No minimum wage

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The First Labor Unions

• Started in certain trades
• 1837-National Trades Union
• Open to all workers in all crafts
• Did not survive long
• A few unions formed around the time of the Civil
  War
• Most formed after the Civil War

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Knights of Labor

• 1869- Philly
• Recruited from a variety of jobs
• Farmers, office workers, factory workers
• Women and African Americans were allowed to join
• Terrence Powderly Leader

Union anyone?
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Goals

• Equal pay for equal work
• 8 hour work day
• End child labor

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(No Transcript)
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American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Whats up?

• Samuel Gompers
• Craft Union
• Skilled workers only
• No women
• African Americans could join, but many chapters
  prevented them from joining

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Goals

• Wages
• Hours
• Conditions
• Strike to get it done

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Haymarket, 1886

• Chicago McCormick reaper factory
• Police broke up a fight between strikers and
  scabs
• Anarchists joined the strikers
• Someone threw a bomb
• 4 police officers were killed

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Contd

• The Knights of Labor were blamed for this
• Unions involvement was never proved
• Union membership declined after 1886
• Many began to associate unions in general with
  violence and radical ideas