Organized Labor Struggles
Period 6: 1865-1898
 Do Now
 HIPP these cartoons with your partner:
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 Labor Unions
 Pre-Civil War: labor unions __________ & for _________________________ only (ex. Philadelphia
shoemakers, New York printers)
 Post-Civil War: ____________________________________________________________________
 Attempts to Organize
1. NATIONAL LABOR UNION (NLU)
 1866: ________________________________________ all workers in all states (skilled & unskilled,
agricultural & industrial)
 Leader: William Sylvis
 Gained 640,000 members in 2 years
 Goals: __________________________________________________________________________,
monetary reform & worker cooperatives
 Victory: won 8-hour day for federal employees
 Lost support after a depression began in 1873 & after the unsuccessful strikes of 1877
2. KNIGHTS OF LABOR
 1869: 2nd national labor union began as a secret society in order to avoid detection by employers
 Leader: ______________________________________
 1881: Opened membership to include blacks & women
 Goals: __________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________, rather than strikes
 Loosely organized  could not control local units
 Grew rapidly in early 1880s, peak membership 730,000
 _______________________________________ in Chicago turned public opinion against the union
3. AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (AF o L)
 1886: association of 25 craft unions
 Concentrated on economic goals
 Leader: _____________________________
 Goals: “Bread and Butter”; __________________________________________________________
(directed unions of skilled workers to walk out until employer agreed to negotiate new contract
through ______________________________________)
 1901: the nation's largest union with 1 million members
 Did not achieve major successes until early 20th century  still exists today!
 Employer Tactics
 _________________: Closing the factory to break a labor movement before it could get organized
 ________________________________: Names of pro-union workers circulated among employers
 YELLOW-DOG CONTRACTS: Workers told, as a condition for employment, they must sign an
agreement not to join a union
 PRIVATE GUARDS & STATE MILITIA: Called in to put down strikes
 COURT INJUNCTIONS: Obtained to stop strikes
 Industrial Warfare
 With a surplus of cheap labor, _______________________________________________________
in its struggles with organized labor
 Strikers could easily be replaced by bringing in strikebreakers (“___________”) who were
unemployed, desperate for jobs
 Analysis of Labor Strikes
 With your partner, analyze and discuss the “Major Labor Strikes: 1877-1894”:
Similarities/Differences?
How did the government respond?
Result of each strike? Pattern?
 Pattern of Strikes
 Finish this sentence:
 Increasing tensions between workers & employers led to _________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
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