Organized Labor
Movement
Time Period: 1820-1914
Essential Question:
• How did the rise of labor unions shape relations among workers,
big business, and government?
Terms and People:
• AFL
• Collective bargaining
• Company town
• Eugene V. Debs
• Haymarket Riot
• Homestead Strike
• Knights of Labor
• Pullman Strike
• Sweatshop
• Samuel Gompers
• Socialism
• Terence v. Powderly
Typical Day in a Factory
• 12 hour days
• 6 days per week
• Small, hot, dark and dirty
sweatshops
• Owners ensured productivity
by strictly regulating hours –
lunches, breaks
• Workers paid fines for
breaking rules or working
too slowly
• Noisy machines – workers
lost hearing
• Faulty equipment/lack of
training = tons of accidents
Child Labor
• Workers were paid very
little; parents brought
children to work to keep
them off the streets and to
earn a small wage.
• Late 1800s - one in five
children between 10 and 16
worked in a factory rather
than attending school!
• 1890s – Social Workers push
to get children out of
factories; states begin
passing child labor laws.
Company Towns
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Business owner rents houses to laborers.
Laborers forced to shop at company owned store.
Sold on credit; high interest!
Forced into wage slavery
HC Frick Coke Company Town, Shoaf, PA
Think about it…
• What were working conditions like?
• How did working conditions affect
families?
Early Labor Protests
• Collective Bargaining – Negotiating as a group for higher
wages or better working conditions.
• First national labor union was founded in 1834 – National
Trades Union, open to workers from all trades. Only lasted a
few years.
• Successfully negotiated slightly shorter work days in New
England – 10 hour workday became standard.
What is Socialism?
• Economic and political philosophy that favors public, instead of
private, control of property and income. Wealth should be
distributed equally to everyone.
• This idea spread through Europe in the 1830s.
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto, denounced
capitalism and predicted workers would overturn it.
Knights of Labor (1869)
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Founded by Uriah Smith
Included workers from all trades
Actively recruited African Americans
Secret society devoted to broad social change
Sought to replace capitalism with workers cooperatives
Uriah Smith Stephens
Knights of Labor Seal
The Knight’s Constitution
“The recent alarming development and aggression
of aggregated wealth, which, unless checked, will
inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless
degradation of the toiling masses, render it
imperative, if we desire to enjoy the blessings of
life, that a check should be placed upon its
power…and a system adopted which will secure to
the laborer the fruits of his toil.”
-Preamble to Knight’s Constitution, 1878
Knights of Labor Expands…
• Began leading the Knights of
Labor in 1881.
• Moved the secretive Knights
of Labor into the
mainstream; focused on
wide social change.
• By 1885, Membership grew
to over 700,000 men and
women nationwide.
• Organization died out during
the 1890s due to several
failed strikes.
Terence V. Powderly
American Federation of Labor
• Formed by Samuel Gompers
in 1886.
• Focused on specific workers’
issues: wages, working hours
and conditions.
• Charged high membership
fees and created a strike and
pension fund for workers in
need.
• Opposed women members
because Gompers thought
their presence in workplace
would drive wages down
• African Americans were
usually excluded.
Samuel Gompers, 1902
Think About It…
How were these two labor unions
different?
Major Strikes of the Late 1800s
Strike
Cause
Effect
Railroad Strike,
1877
Response to cuts in workers’
wages
Set the scene for violent
strikes to come
Haymarket
Square, 1886
Part of a campaign to achieve
an eight-hour workday
Americans became wary of
labor unions; the Knights of
Labor were blamed for the
riot and membership
declined
Homestead
Strike, 1892
Economic depression led to
cuts in steelworkers’ wages
After losing the standoff,
steelworker unions lost
power throughout the
country
Pullman Strike,
1893
Wages cut without a
decrease in the cost of living
in the company town
Employers used the courts to
limit the influence of unions
Eugene V. Debs
• The son of poor immigrants,
eventually worked his way up to
become the head of the American
Railway Union.
• Imprisoned for his role in the
Pullman Strike; read the works of
Karl Marx and eventually became a
socialist.
• Ran for President five times
between 1900 and 1920 on the
Socialist Party ticket.
• Pacifist who opposed US
participation in World War I.
• Imprisoned for opposing the
government; received one million
votes in the 1920 election while in
prison!
Eugene V. Debs
Effects of the Labor Movement
• Employers appealed frequently for court orders against unions
and the government approved the appeals; denying unions
recognition as legally protected organizations.
• Government severely limited union power for 30+ years.
• Industrialists, workers and government agencies battled over
labor issues during the start of the 20th century.
• Strikes, contract negotiations, and legislation very common.
• Debs – Socialist Party – Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
– Violent protests – What until you see what happens next…
Free Write:
• In your notebooks (I will look for it during the Notebook check!!),
please write two concise paragraphs discussing the relationship
between the following terms:
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AFL
Collective bargaining
Company town
Eugene V. Debs
Haymarket Riot
Homestead Strike
Knights of Labor
Pullman Strike
Sweatshop
Samuel Gompers
Socialism
Terence v. Powderly
Try to use at least 8 of the terms!
Circle the key terms!!