Workers Organize

An Industrial Society1860-1914

Chapter 20, Section 4

Essential Questions

• What are the responsibilities of business leaders who own companies to their employees (workers)?

• How have the rights and benefits gained by unions during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s benefited workers in the United States today?

Mary Harris “Mother” Jones

• Labor Leader!– Fought for Workers

Rights!

• Organized Meetings, Gave Speeches, Helped Striking Workers

• Lost Her Family to Yellow Fever, Then Her Business Years Later to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871

Keeping High Profits $$$• Business Owners Ran

Their Factories as CHEAPLYCHEAPLY as Possible:

• Required Workers to Buy Their Own Tools & Bring Their Own Coal to Stay Warm (Wouldn’t Turn on Heat in Factories) Save $$$

• Refused to Buy Safety Equipment– No Air Brakes– 30,000 People Injured– 2,000 Killed Per Year

Sweatshops• Places Where

Workers Worked Long Hours

• Poor Working Conditions (Unsafe) & Low Wages

• Children & Adults Worked in Sweatshops

Factory Workers in 1880’s

• Workers Did the Same Job All Day Long!

• Grew Bored = DANGEROUS

• Workers Got Paid Less Than $10 Per Week– What’s WRONG with

This?

• If Worker Was Sick or Injured on the Job, FIRED!

What’s Wrong Here?

The Birth of Labor Unions

• Unhappy Workers Started to Join Together to Improve Their Lives

• Formed Labor Unions

• Negotiated/Fought with Business Owners to Obtain Better Pay & Safer Working Conditions

The Knights of Labor• One of the 1st Labor

Unions Ever to Fight for Workers Rights

• Allowed Women & African Americans into the Union

• Didn’t Care About Gender or Race, Just Workers Rights!

• Inspired People to Join!

U.S. Depression of 1873

• U.S. Went Through a Depression for 44 Years

• Millions of Workers Had Their Wages Cut

• 1/5th (20%) of Workers Lost Their Jobs!

The B & O Railroad Strike (The Railroad Strike of

1877)• In 1877, The B & O

Railroad Company Cut Workers Wages by 10%

• The B & O Railroad Workers Went on Strike

• No Railroads Operated!

• Other Railroad Workers Heard About the Strike & Went on Strike Too!– The Country Came to a

Halt!

The Railroad Strike of 1877

• All Railroads Came to a Halt in the United States!

• No Railroads = No Transportation = No Trade = No $$$

• September 11th Phone Calls

• What Did President Rutherford B. Hayes Do?

Railroad Strike of 1884-1885

• In 1884-1885, Railroad Workers Went on Strike Against the Union Pacific Railroads

• Workers Were Members of the Knights of Labor

• The Union Won Better Wages for Workers!

• As a Result, Union Membership Increased!

Socialism• An Economic System in

Which ALL Members of a Country are Equal Owners of All the Businesses!

• Everyone Gets Paid Equal! – Doesn’t Matter What Type

of Job You Have!

• Everyone Shares the Work & the Profits:– No Rich, No Poor, No

Middle Class!

Anarchy/Anarchists

• Anarchists Want No Government at ALL!

• They Want to Abolish All Governments!

• Very Extreme!

Fear of Socialism/Anarchy

• If YOU Owned Your Own Business/ Factory, Why Would You Be Afraid of Unions???

• Strikes???

• Socialism???

The Haymarket Affair• In Chicago (1886),

The McCormick Harvester Company Fired Striking Workers

• Hired Strikebreakers (Non Union Workers) (Scabs) to Work

• Union Members (Strikers) & Strikebreakers & Police Fought! 1 Person Was Killed!

The Haymarket Affair• The Next Day, Union

Members Called for a Huge Rally to Protest the Scabs!

• Police Moved in to End the Rally!

• Someone Threw a Bomb! 77 Cops Were Killed, 60 People Wounded

• Police Opened Fire on the Crowd!

Results of the Haymarket Affair

• After the Haymarket Affair, Police Arrested Hundreds of Union Leaders, Socialists & Anarchists

• People Hated Unions! Blamed Them for the Violence!

• Union Membership Decreased!

The Homestead Strike• In 1892, Andrew

Carnegie Cut Wages at Steel Mill in Homestead, Penn.

• Union Did Not Accept the Pay Cut!

• Carnegie Locked Out the Workers:– Hired Strikebreakers!

• Hired 300 Armed Guards to Protect the Scabs!

The Homestead Strike• Locked Out Workers

Went Home & Came Back with Weapons!

• Battle Broke Out! 10 People Were Killed!

• Penn. State Troopers Had to Escort Scabs into the Steel Mill for 44 Months. – Protect Scabs from the

Locked Out Workers

• Strike Failed! Union Looked Weak!

The Pullman Strike• In 1894, The Pullman

Palace Car Company (Railroad Co.) Cut Workers Pay 25%

• The Company Did Not Lower Rent for Workers Staying in Company Apartment Buildings

• Workers Made Almost Nothing After Paying Rent!

• Workers Went on Strike!

The Pullman Strike• In 1894, Eugene Debs

(Union President), Called for All Railroad Workers to go on Strike!

• Shut Down the Country!

• Workers Used Violence!

• President Grover Cleveland Had to Call Out the U.S. Army to End the Strike– Debs Was Thrown in

Jail!

Proctor & Gamble

• Proctor & Gamble Took a Different Approach:– Gave Employees

an Extra ½ Day Off– Started a Profit

Sharing Plan with Employees

– Gave Employees Some of Their Salary in Shares of Stock

– WHY???

Samuel Gompers• Samueal Gompers

– Founder of the AFL (American Federation of Labor)

• AFL Fought For Improved Working Conditions!– Achieved Shorter

Working Hours & Better Pay

• Used Methods Such As:– Strikes– Boycotts– Negotiations– ALL PEACEFUL!

Essential Questions

• What are the responsibilities of business leaders who own companies to their employees (workers)?

• How have the rights and benefits gained by unions during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s benefited workers in the United States today?