Chapter 24 B Labor
Unions and Strikes
Positive and Negative Effects of
Unionism
Positive:
(1) Standard of living is higher
(2) Jobs are available
Negative:
(1) Rise in immigration (cheap wages)
(2) Job competition (nativism rises)
*Union: a group of workers that fight for a common
cause
*Collective Bargaining:
(1)
(2)
Employers “controlling” Unions / Factors that LIMIT the success
of Labor Unions
• Yellow Dog Contracts / Ironclad Oaths– swearing
an oath they will NOT join a Union
• Blacklist – if you are part of or leader of a union against the
productivity of a business, you are placed on this list / difficult for
you to get a job
• Lockout: owner tells the employees not to bother showing up until
they agree to a pay cut
• Scabs: Strikebreakers (hired to continue economy of
business while strikers are not working)
• Company Towns (used by:
– *SCRIP* = town money used at town store
– Given “EASY CREDIT”…thus keeping workers in debt and can’t get out!
• Interstate Commerce: a company claims strikers are affecting
interstate commerce and the federal government comes running!
Early Labor Unions (Post Civil War)
National Labor Union (NLU) 1866 –
• refused African Americans as members
• Skilled and unskilled (Trade unionism)
• Leader: William Sylvis
Tactics:
• Lobbied Congress, not the Employers
• Used *Arbitration (settled by a mediator / not
injunction (federal government)
• MAIN LEGACY: 8 hours a day (Originally pushed by
Populist…later adopted by Democrats)
Knights of Labor
• Began in secrecy, and then publically emerged in 1882
• Beliefs:
(1) EQUALITY = Equal pay for equal work
(2) ACCEPTED EVERYONE…(women and African Americans) / “skilled AND unskilled”
Leader: Terrence Powderly
(3) DID NOT USE STRIKES – refusal to work, as a LAST resort (favored non-violence)
(4) Practiced Arbitration
“Injury to one is the concern of all”
Haymarket Square Riot
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Chicago, 1886
Anarchists call for change!
Before: American public supported the Labor Movement
After: American public “turned” on the Labor Movement due to: VIOLENCE!
Outcome:
(1) KOL were blamed for the intermingled anarchists’ regime against the federal government
(2) Governor John P. Atgeld “pardoned” the sentenced anarchists (unpopular and cost him reelection)
The AF of L (American Federation of
Labor)
• Leader: Samuel Gompers (1886)
• Main agenda: USE STRIKES ALL THE TIME
• Membership: Housed ONLY skilled workers.
– Justification: unskilled laborers would weaken the
Union
Labor Day (1894) granted, ironically, workers a day
off of work
American Railway Union (ARU) /
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
• Leader - EUGENE V. DEBS (SOCIALIST)
• *STRIKES WERE USED!
“The Strike is the weapon of the oppressed”
Eugene V. Debs
Socialism and I.W.W
Socialism – an economic system in which the government controls business and property / less extreme
version of communism
• Individuals do not work for themselves, but live in corporation of one another
Purpose: Overthrow Capitalism
• Pro: total equality regardless of physical differences
• Con: hard workers get no support
“EQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH”
• INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD (IWW)
****************Example of Socialist Union*********************
Formed in 1905 and used through WWI
• Mostly Unskilled workers
• Leader: Eugene V. Debs
• Nickname: Wobblies
• Used STRIKES….all the time! (USED VIOLENCE)
•
* Socialist Unions – EUGENE V. DEBS!!!!!!!!
Women Organize
Fighting for:
• Better working conditions
• Equality
• End of child labor
****MAIN LEADER: MARY HARRIS JONES (MOTHER)
• To expose the cruelties of child labor – Mary Harris Jones led a march of 80 mill children to
the home of President Teddy Roosevelt….this crusade influenced the passage of Child Labor
Laws
Triangle Shirtwaste Factory Fire
• March 25, 1911 (New York City)
• Oil-drenched machines caught on fire! (conditions)
• Company locked all of the doors *(Crime / force)
• 146 women died (from fire or jumping)
• MAJOR EFFECT/ Public Reaction: a task force was set up
to study working conditions of many industries in New York
* spurred the growth of improved factory conditions and
safety standards