• Emerges as industries rise
• Made up of individuals who work administrative jobs for companies
• Salaried employees
• Higher demand for products and services

• Usually worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a week
• Wages determined by supply and demand
• Lots of job competition with immigrants so wages remained low
• Most families depended on income of women and children to survive

• Most women expected to stay home
• Some did factory work that was an extension of the home- textiles, garments, food, etc.
• Women became clerical workers for businesses

• Workers had transitioned from artisans to a step on an assembly line
• Low wages
• Dangerous conditions that sometimes caused chronic illness and death
• Some joined labor unions

In order to break strikes, business owners would
– bringing in more workers
– The lockout: closing the factory
– Blacklists: names of prounion workers distributed
– Yellow-dog contracts: workers signing an agreement not to join a union
– Hire private guards and state militia
– Obtain court injunctions against strikers

• RR companies cut wages to reduce costs
• RR workers were joined by 500,000 industrial workers
• President Hayes sent federal troops to end violence
• Over 100 people killed
• Some conditions improved while some became worse

• National Labor Union
– Organized skilled and unskilled workers
– 640,000 members
– Wanted higher wages and eight hour day plus equal rights for women and African Americans, monetary reform, and worker cooperatives

• Knights of Labor
– Started in 1869 as a secret society
– Led by Terence V. Powderly
– Accepted all groups of people for membership
– Wanted to settle labor disputes by arbitration instead of strikes
• Some still participated in strikes
– Haymarket riot turned public against them

• Chicago
– Also home to 200 anarchists
• Workers held public meeting in Haymarket
Square
• Police attempted to break up the meeting
• Someone threw a bomb and killed 7 officers
• 8 anarchists tried for crime and 7 executed
• Many Americans thought unions were too radical

• American Federation of Labor
– Led by Samuel Gompers
– Wanted higher wages and improved conditions
– Coached people to walk out of work until employer agreed to negotiate (collective bargaining)
– Largest union with 1 million members

• Caused by Henry Frick cutting steel workers’ wages by 20%
• Strike was ultimately unsuccessful after 4 months
– Frick called in Pinkerton army, a private militia, to clear the entrance to the factory
• Fighting lasted 14 hours; 16 people dead

• Pullman had cut wages and fired leaders who tried to bargain with him.
• Workers appealed to American RR Union, led by Eugene V. Debs
– Instructed RR workers not to handle Pullman cars
– Pullman cars pulled by mail trains
• Federal court issued injunction forbidding mail trains to be disrupted
• Debs ignored injunction; gets arrested

• In your groups, read the source of your document found on the last page.
• Next, read your document. As you are reading, underline/circle any biased language you see.
• When all members of your group are finished, discuss this language in your groups.

• In your groups, decide the following:
– 1 thing in the article you agree with
– 1 thing you would like to argue
– 1 assumption the author makes
– 1 idea you would aspire to

• 1. How are Goldman and Frick’s claims about the
Homestead Strike different? List at least 3 differences.
• 2. Whose claim is more believable? Why? (2 sentences)
• 3. Whose side would you have taken if you lived during the Homestead Strike? Why? (2 sentences)

• Task: Create a short recruitment “speech” for your labor union that could be given in the time of an elevator ride. Your “pitch” should last about 30 seconds and explain the following things:
– Who can be a part of your union?
– What are some things your union wants to achieve for the working class?
– What are your main means of achieving these goals?
– Be creative and tell us the time and location of your next meeting.