Labor In The Late 1800 s Labor Force

Labor In The Late 1800 s

Labor Force Distribution 1870 -1900

The Changing American Labor Force

Child Labor

Labor Unrest: 1870 -1900

The Molly Maguires (1875) Irish Workers James Mc. Parland

Management vs. Labor “Tools” of Management “Tools” of Labor “scabs” M boycotts P. R. campaign M sympathy demonstrations Pinkertons lockout blacklisting yellow-dog contracts M informational picketing M closed shops court injunctions M organized strikes open shop M “wildcat” strikes

A Striker Confronts a SCAB!

Tools of Management • Scabs - workers hired to replace those who went on strike • Pinkertons – detectives hired to report on efforts to unionize and to put a stop to it. • Yellowdog Contracts - contracts a worker had to sign to get a job in which he agrees NOT to join a union • Blacklisting – putting out negative information on you so no other company will hire you • Lockout – Businesses literally locked their doors

Cont • Court Injunctions – court orders to return to work • Open shop- a business where no one had to join a union and anyone could work- this is the opposite of a “closed shop” where a person MUST be a union member to work there

Tools of Labor • Sympathy demonstrations – other businesses would walk off their jobs in support of a striking union • Closed Shops- businesses that required you be a union member to get a job there • Strikes- walking off your job and refusing to work until management agrees to your demands

Knights of Labor Terence V. Powderly The first organized labor union 1869

Knights of Labor For skilled labor only Knights of Labor trade card

Goals of the Knights of Labor ù Eight-hour workday. ù Workers’ cooperatives. ù Worker-owned factories. ù Abolition of child and prison labor. ù Increased circulation of greenbacks. ù Equal pay for men and women. ù Safety codes in the workplace. ù Prohibition of contract foreign labor. ù Abolition of the National Bank.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Anarchists Meet on the Lake Front in 1886 This proved to be the downfall of the Knights of Labor because it made people think the Anarchists And Socialists were behind the union

Haymarket Riot (1886) Chicago Illinois Mc. Cormick Harvesting Machine Co.

The American Federation of Labor: 1886 Samuel Gompers

How the AF of L Would Help the Workers ù Catered to the skilled worker. ù Represented workers in matters of national legislation. ù Maintained a national strike fund. ù Evangelized the cause of unionism. ù Prevented disputes among the many craft unions. ù Mediated disputes between management and labor. ù Pushed for closed shops.

Homestead Steel Strike (1892) Homestead Steel Works The Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers

Homestead Steel Strike • At the steel plant owned by Andrew Carnegie • He brought in Pinkerton Agency detectives to try to end it • Had enough money to wait them out until they had to go back to work in order to care for their families • 2 people killed • Significant to the labor movement because it hampered unionization until the 1940 s – no one wanted to risk organizing a union.

Attempted Assassination! Henry Clay Frick Alexander Berkman

Big Corporate Profits!

A “Company Town”: Pullman, IL

Pullman Strike • Occurred in 1894 • Company laid people off and cut pay but refused to lower rents • When the Panic was over and people went back to work the company refused to restore the pay to the pre-Panic level • The workers called for a strike • The strike was organized by Eugene V. Debs the leader of the American Railway Union

The Socialists Eugene V. Debs was a socialist who began the American Railway Union. He believed that the people should control the means of production and things should be distributed fairly and workers should not be taken advantage of. He ran for president 5 times but always lost

Pullman Cars A Pullman porter

The Hand That Will Rule the World One Big Union

International Workers of the World (“Wobblies”)

Mother Jones: “The Miner’s Angel” M Mary Harris. M Organizer for the United Mine Workers. M Founded the Social Democratic Party in 1898. M One of the founding members of the I. W. W. in 1905.

Lawrence, MA Strike: 1912

The “Formula” unions + violence + strikes + socialists + immigrants = anarchists

Labor Union Membership

The Rise & Decline of Organized Labor