Labor In The Late 1800s

Labor Force Distribution

1870-1900

The Changing American

Labor Force

Child Labor

Child Labor

Labor Unrest: 1870-1900

The Molly Maguires(1875) Irish Workers

JamesMcParland

Management vs. Labor“Tools” of

Management“Tools” of

Labor

“scabs”P. R. campaignPinkertonslockoutblacklistingyellow-dog contractscourt injunctionsopen shop

boycotts sympathy

demonstrations informational

picketing closed shops organized

strikes “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

Knights of Labor trade card

For skilled labor only

Goals of the Knights of Laborù 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

McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.

The American Federation

of Labor: 1886

Samuel Gompers

How the AF of L Would Help the

Workersù 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)

The Amalgamated Association of

Iron & Steel Workers

Homestead Steel Works

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 1940s – no one wanted to risk organizing a union.

Attempted Assassination!

Henry Clay FrickAlexander Berkman

Big Corporate Profits!

A “Compan

yTown”:

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 SocialistsEugene V. Debs was a socialist who began theAmerican Railway Union.He believed that the people should controlthe means of production and things should be distributedfairly and workers should notbe 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”

Mary Harris. Organizer for the

United MineWorkers.

Founded the SocialDemocratic Party in 1898.

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