LABOR UNIONS

Workers fight to end exploitation.

THE RISE OF LABOR UNIONS

1st were called trade unions

Began as a way to provide help in bad times

Goals: shortened workdays higher wages better working

conditions End child labor

TOOLS OF THE UNION: Collective Bargaining: negotiations

between representatives of labor and management to reach agreement on wages, benefits and conditions

Arbitration: allowing outside “referee” to decide issues between sides

Strike: refusal to work until demands are met

Labor Unrest: 1870-1900

Labor Unrest: 1870-1900

LABOR UNIONS . . . .

Key Organizations:

KNIGHTS OF LABOR: Opened membership

to all workers Advocated 8 hr. day/

equal pay for equal work

Preferred arbitration to strikes

Under Terence Powderly, expanded membership in 1880’s

Terence Powderly

Workers Organize

Knights of Labor – formed in 1869 as the first labor

union in the nation.

Goal #1:Shorter work day

Goal #2:End child labor

Goal #3:Equal pay for men

and women

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR:

A craft union led by Samuel Gompers

Advocated collective bargaining with threat of strikes

Focused on better pay and benefits

More associated with violence

Samuel Gompers

AF of L Goals AF of L Goals

o Catered to the skilled worker.

o Represented workers in matters of national legislation.

o Maintained a national strike fund.

o Evangelized the cause of unionism.

o Prevented disputes among the many craft unions.

o Mediated disputes between management and labor.

o Pushed for closed shops.

AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION:

Founded by Eugene V. Debs

Included skilled and unskilled workers

Led way to the foundation of the American Socialist Party

Won successful strike in 1894/ then fadedEugene V. Debs

SOME STRIKES TURNED VIOLENT:

Haymarket Square: 1886- confrontation between striking workers and police resulted in several deaths

Homestead Strike: 1892- steel workers against Carnegie

fought hired “thugs” Pullman Strike: 1894-

Debs’ workers were attacked by “strike breakers” resulting in President Cleveland sending out troops

Sketch of tension leading to violence during the Pullman Strike

HAYMARKET RIOT Demonstration in 1886 for an eight-hour workday—

strikes in many cities At Chicago factory, police broke up a fight between

strikers and scabs (workers who replace striking workers)—several workers killed

Led to a protest rallyin Chicago’s HaymarketSquare—bomb thrown atpolice, several killed American public begins to associates unions with violence & radical ideas

HOMESTEAD STRIKE: 1892

Andrew Carnegie’s partner Henry Frick attempted to cut workers’ wages at Carnegie Steel: Union at plant in Homestead, PA called

a strike Frick used the Pinkertons (a private

police force known for their ability to break strikes)—led to shootout with strikers

Following a failed assassination attempt of Frick by radical—union called off the strike

HOMESTEAD STRIKE

Andrew Carnegie and the Homestead Strike — History.com Video

The Corporate “Bully-Boys”:

PinkertonAgents

The Corporate “Bully-Boys”:

PinkertonAgents

PULLMAN STRIKE: 1894 Railway workers’

strike that spread nation-wide

Eugene V. Debs called for a boycott of Pullman cars after company refused to bargain with workers

Marked a shift in the federal government’s involvement with labor –employer relations: federal troops were sent in to end the strike

A “Compan

yTown”:

Pullman, IL

A “Compan

yTown”:

Pullman, IL

Pullman CarsPullman Cars

A Pullman porter

The Pullman Strike of 1894

The Pullman Strike of 1894

Management vs. Labor

Management vs. Labor

“Tools” of Management

“Tools” of Labor

“scabs”

P. R. campaign

Pinkertons

lockout

blacklisting

yellow-dog contracts

court injunctions

open shop

boycotts

sympathy demonstrations

informational picketing

closed shops

organized strikes

“wildcat” strikes

GAINS OF UNIONISM: Limited work hours Regulated work

conditions Preserved rights to

collective bargain Rise of violence led

public to distrust unions and fear threat of communism (Red Scare)