Labor and Labor Organizations

By Prateek Patel & Duncan Trosan

Effects of the Industrial Revolution on the labor force

• Because of the influx of factories less skill was required to perform jobs the were once done by master craftsmen.

• Because less skill was required workers were less valuable and easily replaced.

• Factory owners could treat his employees badly and if it led to a strike could hire new ones.

• Very little rights for common workers.• Jobs also required less strength so children and women

also worked more.• DT

Child Labor• Most children worked in factories or

mines. (DT)• Many children worked 12- 18 hours a

day and 6 days a week. They were hired because they were a cheap work force, not have to support family (low wages) (DT)

• In the 1st textile mill, created by the mechanical skills of Samuel Slater, 7 boys and 2 girls were employed that were under the age of 12.(PP)

• Many teenage girls at the age of 15,16, and 17 were employed to work in textile mills or Lowell mills, they sewed cloth in the factor mainly, because this was called “women's work”. They worked for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week and earned an income of $2 a week. Once married they went back home and most stopped working. (PP)

Strikes and Unions • (1806) Commonwealth vs.

Pullis Supreme Court case strikers found guilty

• (1825) Boston Ship Carpenters organize strike in Boston against the 10 hour work day

• (1835) In the Paterson Textile Mills, the child workers go on strike in New Jersey for the 11 hour day, 6 days a week

• (1842)Commonwealth v Hunt ruled that labor unions were legal and had the right to organize and strike. • Nonunionized workers in

Boston achieve an 8 hour work day.

DT

Women in the Labor Force Force

• Women were mostly employed as school teachers, nurses, or assistants in the early 1800s, especially teachers. (DT)

• In the mid 1800s, many women started working in the textile industry for half the money of their male counter parts. (DT)

• Until the mid 1800s, there were no labor laws for women. (DT)

• In the mid 1800’s labor laws were passed to restrict women labor such as limiting women to a maximum of 8 hours a day and could not work between the hours of 6 A.M. and 8 P.M. (DT) Women were mostly employed as Textile workers because making clothes was still viewed as women’s work.

DT

Cheap Paying Immigrants

• A large wave of Irish and German immigrants came into the United States, due to the potato famine in Ireland, and no united government in Germany.

• These Irish wanted to get settled into the US and lived in the slums therefore asked for less wages.

• Due to these asking for cheaper wages they took over the work force and caused there to be less labor for the Americans because they asked for a higher paying salary.

• The Irish held many jobs in the police department & were seated by many political machines and despite being hated by Americans for their race and culture, they created much labor for themselves.

• This financially made many companies grow, due to them spending less on wages and much labor fell in the palms of the Irish.

• The Germans financially helped create many public schools which intact led to many new jobs as teachers.

PP

Samuel Slater• In England, they reached their

Industrial Revolution in 1750, and they wanted to keep their secrets of their mechanization to themselves.

• In the US, many bounties were placed for any British workers, who can tell them the secrets to the British industrialization

• Slater was a 21 year old skilled mechanic, who worked for England was brought into America.

• He helped build the 1st textile mill in the US and became known as “The Father of the Factory System”

• This textile mill, was the foundation to more labor in factories to the north PP

Cotton Gin Increasing Slave Labor

• Eli Whitney invents this machine, for the southern plantation owners in America, after seeing slaves handpicking cotton fibers.

• This machine was used to pull fibers out of cotton so they may be used.

• This increased slave labor so cotton can be grown faster, as a result of the cotton gin.

• Cotton became the largest export crop along the cotton belt, which was from South Carolina to Texas.

PP

Interchangeable Parts

• Before this invention, everything was made by a skilled craftsmith

• New machines now were made of standardized parts and one just has to put the machine together.

• This was invented by Eli Whitney also like the cotton gin. • All assemblyline production comes from interchangeable

parts.• This meant no more skilled craftsman use and now one could

pay less for wages and increase one companies capitol, so more money can be saved.

• 1 individual= less valuable; any man can do the work

PP

Importance of Capitol

• To build a factory one needs capitols and workers• One needs capitol to pay for the workers and to

purchase the machines needed to used in a factory.

• In the south, who were concentrated in cotton plantations, needed a high use of slave labor so they lost all its capitol in slaves and due to this they did not move into the factory business unlike the northeast.

PP

Works Cited• http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_oTMPOHf2qs/TlrnrNJ-l4I/AAAAAAAADsk/TvV44LXD558/s1600/garment_work

ers_strike.jpg• http://usw12003.com/printable/node/277• http://www.lutins.org/labor.html• A History of Women in America, Chapter 8• http://frysingerreunion.org/uk/wales2062.jpg• http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/ellis-island/cartoon-2.jpg• http://www.friendsbalt.org/studentshowcase/middle/LearnAboutBaltimore/jonestown-mw/Industrial%20

Revolution%20Child%20Labor.jpg• http://www.xtimeline.com/__UserPic_Large/86879/evt101207121101059.jpg• The World Book Encyclopedia, 1988• The American Pageant 13th Edition• http://www.scfl.org/images/boilermakers.jpg