Labor Unions & StrikesUnited States History

Three Choices for Workers…

1.1.Continue in miseryContinue in misery

2.2.Join a Union and Join a Union and possibly get fired or possibly get fired or even killedeven killed

3.3.Become a communist Become a communist and start a revolutionand start a revolution

Socialism• Public control of

property & income• Society should be

in charge of wealth

• Wealth should be redistributed equally

• Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

• How to get this done? Workers revolution

Could This Happen In America?

•How could this help workers?

•Who would be against Socialism/Communism in America?

•This is radical—is there something less radical that would help workers?

Less Radical—Labor Unions•Unions: improve working conditions (not overthrow the system)

•Collective Bargaining•Strikes (last resort)•Best—national strike•Why was this appealing to workers?

Knights of Labor• First important national union

• Wanted to organize ALL workers: skilled, unskilled and of all backgrounds (no racial restrictions)

• Set the example: negotiate, then strike if needed

• Goals: 8 hour day; end of child labor

• Lost influence after violent strikes

Other Unions• American Federation of

Labor (AFL): – Smaller local unions with

a national organization– Wages, hours, conditions– Strikes, collective

bargaining– Barred African-Americans

• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)– Wobblies– Socialists

Wobblies View of the World

Employers’ Reaction•No Union Meetings•Union organizers fired•Blacklisting•Yellow Dog contracts•Would not bargain collectively

•Strikes met with violence

The Great Strikes• Haymarket Riot (1896)—8 hour workday

(national strike); scabs hired in Chicago (fights); rally—bombing & gunfight btw. Police & strikers; Ill. Law: help with murder, then you are a murderer: 4 anarchists hanged for murder (one blew himself up in prison). Never determined who threw the bomb.

• Homestead Strike (1892)—Carnegie Steelworkers called a strike (factory cut their wages) & were fired; management sent in “private” police force (fight with deaths); strike called off

• Pullman Strike (1894): Company town; wages cut 25% (Panic of 1893); food prices in town NOT cut; Pullman fired three negotiators; strike; al RR traffic halted; strike ordered illegal because mail couldn’t get through