Unions

1
Unions

• There were two basic types of industrial workers
  in the United States in the 1800s
• Common laborers
• Craft workers these are workers that had
  special skills and training. Craft workers also
  received higher wages and had more control over
  how they organized their time. The following are
  some of those craft workers
• Machinists
• Iron molders
• Stonecutters
• Glass-blowers
• Shoemakers (cobblers)
• Printers
• Carpenters

2
Unions

• Craft workers began to form trade unions in the
  1830s, as industrialism began to grow.
• A trade union was limited to people with certain
  skills.
• By 1873 there were 32 national trade unions in
  the United States.
• Industry was opposed to trade unions because they
  represented workers whose skills they needed.
• Industrial unions, opposed by large
  corporations, because they united all craft
  workers and common laborers in a particular
  industry.

3
Unions

• Workers who organized a union or a strike were
  fired and put on a blacklist.
• Troublemakers
• If a union was formed, companies used a lockout
  to break it. (no workers allowed)
• The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
• First nationwide protest where workers walked off
  the job and blocked tracks
• 80,000 workers eventually went on strike

4
Unions

• Knights of Labor the first nationwide
  industrial union
• Demanded an 8 hour workday
• Equal pay for women
• No child labor
• Arbitration a process where an impartial third
  party helps mediate between workers and
  management
• Haymarket Riot caused the popularity of the
  Knights of Labor to decline.
• Protests in Chicago left several dead after
  violence erupted