Exploited Workers

Long Hours…and DANGER!!!

- Most factory workers worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week. Steel mills required 7 day work weeks. Vacation, sick leave, unemployment compensation, or reimbursement for injuries did not exist.

Everyone Works!

8 million women worked for wages…so did 20% of the boys and 10% of the girls under age 15. Some as young as 5 years old had full-time jobs.

These jobs required few skills…often paying 27 cents for a child’s 14 hour workday

Women earned an average of $269 a year, men averaged $498 a year. Andrew Carnegie made $23 million a year with no income tax.

Labor Unions Emerge!

• Labor Unions- Legally recognized groups designed to help workers achieve better pay, hours, benefits, and working conditions.

• Labor Laws- Workers have the right to better working conditions, fair pay, bargaining power, and the right not to join a union. This is where Minimum Wage and the right to Strike came from.

Union Posters Project!!!• You have terrible working conditions, long hours, and lousy pay.

Change is what is needed for you to be productive in the workplace. Your job is to create a Union Poster trying to persuade others to join your cause.

• 1- Create a visually pleasing poster (color, title, what industry you are in, etc.)

• 2- Explain why workers rights are needed. (3-4 sentences max)

• 3- Include a picture that relates to your job (drawn or found online)

• 4- Must be persuasive! You need workers to join your union to fight for fair working conditions!