Unit 3 Part 2

City Life and Rise of Labor

City Life

Tenement Housing
Urban Poor live in Tenements: low cost apartment buildings densely packed with residents

Tenement Housing

Problems: Tenement Housing

Poor sanitation (open sewers) Poor air quality (coal heat) Rapid spread of contagious diseases
Cholera, TB, Typhoid, Malaria, Yellow Fever, etc.

Risk of FIRE

Great Chicago Fire (1871)

Great Chicago Fire (1871)

18,000 buildings burn 100,000 homeless 250 die

$2 billion damage (2012 dollars)

Workforce Changes

Women in the Workforce

Low wages mean one person cannot support family ($2-$3 per day) Women enter industrial workforce:
Excluded from skilled or high paying jobs Paid less than men for similar work Operate simple machines Piecework Garment work is popular Also clerical 2700% increase by 1910

Women in the Workforce

Women in the Workforce

Child Labor
Children work out of NECESSITY Expected to pay for own basic needs and help support siblings 2 million children under age 15 work

No time for education

Why Hire Children?

Value small bodies to fit in small places (Mining) Value small hands for intricate work (Sewing)

Pay less than Adults!!

Mining

Factory Work

Coal Mining

Working Conditions

Working Conditions Difficult

Long hours (12 hr days common)

Poor pay ($2-$3 per day for men)

No job security

Work is repetitious and monotonous

Frederick Taylors Principles of Scientific Management Increase efficiency via division of labor Workers lose focus

Working Conditions Difficult

Workplaces very dangerous
Speed valued over worker safety 675 US workers killed per week No benefits to family if worker dies

Sweatshops: Dimly lit, poorly ventilated factories

Workers Complain at Own Peril

Workers who complain are simply fired and replaced.

Rise of Organized Labor

Workers Unite
Workers band together to make demands of employers as a group.
Harder to replace ALL experienced workers than ONE worker who seeks reform Form Labor Unions

Noble Order of the Knights of Labor

Noble Order of the Knights of Labor

Uriah S. Stephens 1869

Terrence V. Powderly 1879

Noble Order of the Knights of Labor

Open to all workers (skilled and unskilled) Peaked at 700,000 members in 1885
Included women and African-Americans

Claimed not to want strikes

Political/Public Awareness Boycotts

Biggest victory came via strike

1885 Southwestern Railroad Strike

SW RR cuts worker pay KoL organizes strike Gains:
Old wages back in place 30 day notification before wage cuts Time and a half pay for overtime
Jay Gould Owner Southwestern RR

Knights of Labor: 5 Goals

1. 8 hour work day 2. Equal Pay regardless of Race or Gender 3. Improved Working Conditions 4. Limits on Child Labor 5. End to Prison Contract Labor

Demise of Knights of Labor

Series of Failed Strikes after 1885 SW RR strike never achieved goals Public turns against them after Haymarket Riot. Basically gone by 1890.

Haymarket Riot

Lead up to Riot
May 1, 1886 - National protest for 8 hour work day Strikes follow, including Chicago McCormick Reaper Factory (KoL)

May 3, 1886 police break up fights between strikers and scabs

May 4, 1886

May 4, 1886
Knights of Labor prominent in organizing rally Anarchists join workers in Haymarket Square When speeches begin to advocate disobeying laws, police step in to disperse crowd Bomb thrown into police ranks Police and crowd open fire on each other

May 4, 1886

Aftermath
7 Police die 60 wounded 4 protesters die 70 wounded 8 anarchists put on trial 7 sentenced to death Public Relations disaster for KoL:
People view them as radical and violent Associate KoL with anarchists Craft members flea to AF of L

American Federation of Labor

AF of L
Founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers Only White Males Only skilled workers in certain crafts Only major early union to survive into 20th Century 8 million members by 1955

AF of L
Favored Collective Bargaining:

Unions negotiating with employer to set terms for all workers

Only strike: after collective bargaining fails; if union has money to support workers.

AF of L: 6 Goals
1. 8 hour work day 2. Higher pay 3. Improved Working Conditions 4. END of Child Labor

5. Limits on Immigration
6. Injury Benefits

Industrial Workers of the World

IWW a.k.a. Wobblies

Big Bill Haywood

Eugene V. Debs

IWW a.k.a. Wobblies

Founded 1905 Radical Socialist groups

Organized all workers in specific industries

Union declines during Red Scare. Bill Haywood later fleas to Russia after espionage conviction.

Eugene Debs runs for President as Socialist Party Candidate 5 times (last from jail).

Congress of Industrial Organizations

CIO
Founded in 1938 by John L. Lewis All workers - skilled or unskilled - in a given industry Autoworkers, Steelworkers, etc.

Goals are higher pay and fringe benefits

6 million members by 1955

AFL-CIO (1955)
AF of L and CIO Merge
Total 14 million members

Reactions to Unions

Management Opposition
Refuse Recognition/Bargaining

Blacklists
Yellow-dog contracts

Lockouts
Scabs Pinkertons Injunctions

Strikes

1877 Railroad Strike

1877 Railroad Strike

US in depression starting 1873 RRs cut wages to $1 per day

Baltimore and Ohio RR (B&O) cuts wages again on July 14, 1877 others follow suit
Strikes break out across nation (all RRs)

1877 Railroad Strike - Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania RR workers riot in Pittsburgh
National Guard troops brought in to put down riots

1877 Railroad Strike - Pittsburgh

1877 Railroad Strike - Pittsburgh

President Hayes sends in federal troops to put down riots
Sets pro-management precedent that feds will side against labor

1892 Homestead Strike

1892 Homestead Strike

Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) represents 800 of 3800 workers CBA Expires Frick proposes wage reductions says will bargain for 29 days and then cease to recognize union No agreement reached LOCKOUT
Henry Clay Frick

1892 Homestead Strike

Workers barricade selves inside plant (Fort Frick) Frick calls in 300 Pinkertons

1892 Homestead Strike

14 hour battle

3 Pinkertons 9 workers die

Pinkertons surrender Governor calls in State Militia to put down worker revolt

All strikers blacklisted replacement workers hired

Union-Free until 1930s (US Steel)

1894 Pullman Strike

1894 Pullman Strike

Maker of RR sleeping cars

IL workers live in company town

Wages cut rents and costs of goods NOT cut. 140,000 American Railway Union workers refuse to work on trains pulling Pullman cars
George Pullman

1894 Pullman Strike

Shutdown of Western RRs stops delivery of US Mail Attorney General uses Sherman Antitrust Act to get injunction forcing strikers back to work

Federal troops sent to force workers to obey

1902 Coal Strike

(Turning Point)

1902 Coal Strike

United Mine Workers strike for better wages and shorter hours President TR fears coal shortage for winter

Heating Fuel
Threatens to take over coal fields with Army if sides do not submit to binding arbitration Neutral stance by Federal Govt