CH. 14-3 WORKERS
ORGANIZE
AMERICAN HISTORY
GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS
 Late 1800s Government maintained a hands-off
attitude to business
 Government became uneasy about the power
giant businesses had
 1890—Congress passes the SHERMAN ANTITRUST ACT
 Illegal to form trusts that interfered with free
trade
 Prohibited monopolies and activities that
hindered competition
 1890-1901—only 18 lawsuits were brought under
this law
 1890—10% of the population controlled 75% of the
national wealth
 The rich were exceedingly rich with many
industrial workers had to survive on $500 per
year
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS
 THE WORKFORCE
 Many factory workers were immigrants
 Others were rural Americans that moved to cities
to earn a living
 Best factory jobs went to native-born whites
 African-Americans found work as laborers or
household help
 Many industrial workers were children
 By 1900—1/6 of children aged 10-15 held a job
outside the home
 Some as young as age 5 worked to help the family
 WORKING CONDITIONS
 10-hour work days, 6 days a week
 No paid vacation, no sick leave, and no
compensation for injuries suffered on the job
 Employers pressured workers to work as fast as
they could
 This led to terrible accidents
 SWEATSHOPS—cramped workshops set up in
shabby tenement buildings
 Common in the garment industry
WORKERS SEEK CHANGE
 Late 1800s—terrible working conditions
prompted workers to organize
 EARLY ORGANIZING
 Labor movement started in the 1700s
 1794—Philadelphia shoemakers formed a trade
union to protect their interests
 Other workers organized over the next few
decades—carpenters, blacksmiths, printers, etc.
 These unions remained small and local
 NATIONAL UNIONS
 The National Labor Union (NLU) organized in
1866
 Federation of small, local unions
 Pushed for shorter 8-hour work day
 NLU folded in 1872
 Knights of Labor (Philadelphia-1869) was more
effective
 Leader—Terence V. Powderly
 1880s—accepted unskilled workers, women,
African Americans and even employers
 It excluded bankers, gamblers, lawyers, liquor
sellers, physicians, and stockholders
 1886-- >700,000 members
 “An injury to one is a concern to all”
 Proposals—8-hour workday; end of child labor;
equal pay for equal work
 Early years—discouraged strikes, preferring
boycotts, and negotiation with employers
 THE GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE
 First major railroad strike happened in 1877
 Times were tough and northern railroads cut
wages
 Workers for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
walked of the job and blocked several freight
trains
 Pennsylvania Railroad blocked all trains on their
lines
 Strike spread to other railroads, stopping most
freight traffic for more than a week
 Several governors called out their state militias to
put down the strikes
 Baltimore—militia fired into the crowd killing 10
 Troops in Pittsburgh killed 20 including 3 children
 Mobs in Pittsburgh set trains, buildings, and
equipment on fire causing $4 million damage
 US Army finally ended the strike that caused 100+
deaths
 THE HAYMARKET RIOT
 1886—more intense strikes
 Wage cuts in many industries forced workers to go
on strike
 Haymarket Square (Chicago)—crowds gathered to
protest violent police action at a strike the
previous day
 Someone threw a bomb into the crowd
 People panicked and gunfire rang out
 When order was restored, 11 people died and over
100 were injured
 Police immediately blamed foreign-born unionists
 XENOPHOBIA—fear of foreigners
 Police arrested numerous suspects—many with
foreign sounding names
 8 people were charged with conspiracy and
murder
 No evidence existed to connect these people to the
crimes
 5 of the suspects weren’t even in Haymarket
Square at the time of the incident
 All 8 were convicted and sentenced to death
 4 were hanged and 1 killed himself in prison
 1893—the new Illinois governor pardoned the
remaining 3 because of lack of evidence
 THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR
 Employers struck back at workers forcing them to
sign contracts saying they would not join a union
 Employers kept and shared BLACKLISTS (people
perceived as troublemakers)
 These people would not be hired
 If workers went on strike, employers replaced
them with “scabs” or strikebreakers
 Scabs were often African Americans or others
excluded from the unions
 1886—a group of skilled workers led by Samuel
Gompers formed the AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
LABOR (AFL)
 Strikes and other tactics won them wage increases
and shorter work weeks
 THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE
 1892—workers at Carnegie Steel Company in
Homestead, PA protested at an increase in
production
 The refused to work faster
 The manager tried to lock them out
 The workers seized the plant
 Days later gunfire erupted when the company’s
private guards tried to re-take the plant
 Fierce battle raged for 14 hours
 16 people died
 The governor called out the state militia and
within months the steelworkers’ union withered
 THE PULLMAN STRIKE
 1893—Pullman company laid off 1/3 of its workers
 It cut wages of remaining workers by 25% but
rent was not lowered
 Workers went on strike with the support of
EUGENE V. DEBS (leader-American Railway
Union (ARU))
 He urged workers not to work on any train that
contained Pullman cars
 The government stepped in and ordered an end to
the strike because US mail was disrupted
 ARU officials refused and were jailed
 President Grover Cleveland called in federal
troops and the strike collapsed
 Workers who didn’t quit the ARU were blacklisted
or fired
 The next several decades saw unions struggle for
progress
 Unions would eventually gain considerable power
 THE END