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)
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