labor unions. working conditions monotonous 12 – 16 hour shifts, 6 days a week dangerous when...
TRANSCRIPT
Labor Unions
Working conditions• Monotonous• 12 – 16 hour shifts, 6 days a
week• Dangerous• When workers were injured or
too sick to work, they were fired
Child Labor• Factory owners often
hired children because:– Smaller– Cheaper– Easier to intimidate
Craft Unions vs. Trade Unions
Craft Unions• Only allowed
highly skilled craftsmen to join
• Machinists, welders, electricians, etc.
Trade Unions• Designed for
unskilled laborers• General factory
workers, construction workers, etc.
Union Tactics• Strikes: workers walked off the job in
protest• Boycotts: encouraged the public to
not buy goods from companies that would not negotiate with labor
• Collective bargaining: employees negotiate contracts as a group rather than as individuals
• Mediation: allowing a neutral third party to oversee negotiations
• Arbitration: allowing a neutral third party to hear both sides’ arguments and make a final, binding ruling
• Closed shops: agreement where employers could only hire union members, non-union workers were banned from the workplace
Employer Responses• Yellow-dog contracts: contracts
which forbade workers from joining unions
• Blacklists: known union sympathizers were fired
• Lockouts: closing of factories to punish workers for unionizing
• Scabs: replacement workers hired to replace strikers
• Injunctions: sought legal court orders that forbade strikes
• Strikebreakers: hired thugs used to violently attack union leaders, strikers
The Knights of Labor• 1869 – 1949• Workers’ organization
(NOT a labor union)• Wanted:
– 8-hour workday– Equal pay for women– Ban on child labor
• Never well-organized
The Haymarket Riot• May 1886: Unions called for a day of general strike to
promote the 8-hour workday• Result: Knights of Labor lost popularity for being associated
with anarchists
The Homestead Strike• June-July, 1892• Steel workers at Andrew
Carnegie’s mill in Homestead, PA demanded higher wages
• Carnegie responded by:– Locking out workers– High fences and guard towers – Hiring scabs
The Pullman Strike• May 1894• Members of the American Railway Union refused to work on Pullman-built
cars to show support for the strikers• Pres. Grover Cleveland ordered US troops to enforce a court injunction, ending
the strike of Pullman workers
Eugene V. Debs• 1855 – 1926• Helped to form the American
Railway Union• Debs was sent to prison for failing
to obey the court injunction ordering the end to the Pullman Strike
• While incarcerated, Debs became a socialist
Support for Unions damaged by:
• Marxists: believed that labor should own and operate factories communally (socialism)
• Anarchists: opposed all government, were willing to use violence to achieve their ends (essentially terrorists)
• Nativism: anti-immigration sentiments were fed by the number of immigrants who were Marxists, anarchists
Homestead Strike Timeline
Where: Homestead, PennsylvaniaUnion: Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel WorkersCompany: Carnegie Steel Company
1876: Amalgamated Association, union for iron and steel workers, forms.1881: Carnegie put Frick in charge of the Homestead factory.1882 and 1889: Amalgamated Association won two big strikes against the Carnegie Company. After 1889, the union became very powerful and organized. They had a very strong union contract.February 1892: Amalgamated Association asked for a wage increase. Frick responded with a wage decrease.June 29, 1892: The old contract expired without the two sides reaching an agreement. Frick locked the workers out of the plant, using a high fence topped with barbed wire.June 30, 1892: Workers decided to strike and they surrounded the plant to make sure that no strikebreakers would enter.July 6,1892: After the local sheriff was unable to control the strikers, Frick hired guards from the National Pinkerton Detective Agency to secure the factory so that strikebreakers could enter.
The Pinkertons arrived by boat in the middle of the night, hoping to surround the factory unnoticed.
The strikers knew they were coming. Shots were fired and peoplekilled on both sides
Why Did the Homestead Strike Turn Violent?
• After reading the documents answer the following questions: 1. Summarize Goldman and Frick’s claims 2. How are Goldman and Frick’s claims about the
Homestead strike different?3. Whose claim is more believable? Why?
• Discussion Questions– Why did the Homestead Strike turn violent? – What are the differences between Goldman’s
account and Frick’s account? – Which account do you find more believable?
Why? – Can we ever know what happened? – What other materials would you want to look at in
order to try to figure out what happened at Homestead?
Why Did the Homestead Strike Turn Violent?