The Industrial

Revolution
Part III
The Rise and Fall of Labor Unions
- Problems of Workers in the Industrial Age
- Less value placed on skills
- Depersonalized relations with corporate employers,
- Technological unemployment
- Labor Market is glutted - IMMIGRANTS
- Begin looking to unions for help.
- Had difficulty organizing
- Extreme opposition from employers
- Courts and Police favored employers over workers.
- To many immigrant workers
- Several Major Labor Unions Form
- National Labor Union
- Knights of Labor
- American Federation of Labor

-
Cont.
- The National Labor Union
- Formed 1866 - 600,000 workers at height
- General union with skilled & unskilled workers, and farmers
- Sought social reform 8 hr. day
- Get 8 hr. day for govt workers but 1870s depression destroys union
- RR wage cuts in 1877 led to massive strikes, federal troops called in & violence
erodes support for unions among Americans
Cont.
- The Knights of Labor
- Led by Terence Powderly
- Originally a secret organization
- ALL workers welcome: unskilled and skilled
- Recruited women & blacks
- Sought broad reforms:
- Health and safety codes
- 8 hour day; end to child labor, etc.
- Cooperative ideas eventually workers would own factories
- Used political activity first; preferred NOT to use strikes
- Successful strike against Goulds Wabash RR in 1885
- Association with anarchy & violence (Haymarket Square Riot) causes end of Knights by 1890s
Cont.
- The American Federation of Labor
- Led by Samuel Gompers
- A CRAFT Union
- ONLY skilled workers - why?
- (better bargaining power)
- Kept out blacks and women
- Sought bread and butter reforms:
- Higher Wages
- Shorter Hours
- Better/safer working conditions
- Also sought closed shops (union workers only)
- Relied on economic pressure: walkouts, strikes and boycotts
collective bargaining
The Major Strikes
- The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
- The Great RR Strike of 1877
- B&O - Cut Wages during a depression
- Striking and violence spread: Employers called on the federal government for help.
- President Hayes sent federal troops to restore order.
- The Haymarket Square Riot
- On May 1, 1886, unions called for national strike in support of an 8 hour work day
- Thousands of workers demonstrated in U.S. cities but Chicago was the center, with 40,000
demonstrators
- After bomb thrown into crowd, police fired upon strikers killing an unknown number of workers
- Several anarchist labor leaders arrested and tried and hanged without supporting evidence
- Association between unions & violence leads to demise of Knights of Labor
Cont.
- The Homestead Strike
- After Andrew Carnegie retires he hands his company over to Henry Clay Frick.
- Frick attempts to bust the union, firing anyone who refuses to sign an anti-union
contract.
- Workers bar entrance to the plant and Frick calls in a private security firm over
warnings from the strikers.
- A gun battle breaks out and leaves more than 10 dead. The state national guard was
called in and the strikers were arrested or disbursed.
- The Pullman Strike
- Pullman workers were forced to live in company housing. When their pay was cut their
rent was not reduced. A strike ensues.
- Led by Eugene Debs, strikers unsuccessfully protested. Violence ensued and Debs is
arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison.
The Lasting Impact of the SIR
- The SIR had several major lasting implications for the United States.
- As a whole, the standard of living rose for ALL Americans.
- The United States will develop into the most powerful manufacturing economy in the
world.
- Wealth will become increasingly concentrated at the top of the socio-economic scale.
- This contradicted the popular Horatio Alger myth that through honesty and hard
work anyone could become wealthy. Most Americans will remain poor.
- The Middle Class will expand dramatically, increasing demands for services and further
creating a consumer culture in the United States.
- The majority of Americans will work wage earning jobs, no longer owning businesses or
farms . Wages were low and many women and children would become important earners
for their families.