L13(14): Unionism: Reaction to the Gilded Age
1869-early 1900s
Agenda
Objective:
1.To understand the main people
and events in the history of the
American labor movement.
2. To evaluate when unionism
was not more successful in the
United States.
3.To evaluate the implications of a
less than successful labor
movement on U.S. history.
Schedule:
1. Lecture
2. Discussion
Homework
None 
Entities in American Society
Post-Gilded Age
People
Government
Corporations
Entities in American Society
Post-Gilded Age
People
Government
Corporations
Entities in American Society
Post-Gilded Age
Government
Corporations
People
Labor Union
Labor Unions Form
• In response to working
conditions and attitudes
towards labor, labor
unions begin to form
during the Gilded Age
• What is a labor union?
• What advantages does
it confer to workers?
• How might
management feel about
labor unions?
The Knights of Labor
• First major labor union in
the United States
• Founded in 1869 by a group
of garment workers.
• Sought to include all
workers in one big union.
• Skilled and unskilled, men
and women, whites and
blacks, were all allowed to
join
• Hundreds of thousands of
workers in the 1880s were
“baptized” in a Knights of
Labor initiation ceremony
that required the following
promises.
What do the Knights of Labor Believe?
“In the Beginning . . .”
A Knight’s Sacred Oath
In the beginning, God ordained that man should labor, not as a curse, but as a
blessing; not as a punishment, but as means of development, physically, mentally,
morally, and has set thereunto his seal of approval in the rich increase and reward.
By labor is brought forward the kindly fruits of the earth in rich abundance for our
sustenance and comfort; by labor (not exhaustive) is promoted health of the body
and strength of mind, labor garners the priceless stores of wisdom and knowledge.
To glorify God in its exercise, to defend it from degradation, to divest it of the
evils to body, mind, and estate, which ignorance and greed have imposed; to rescue
the toiler from the grasp of the selfish is a work worthy of the noblest and best of
our race.
You have been selected from among your associates for that exalted purpose. Are
you willing to accept the responsibility, and, trusting in the support of pledged true
Knights, labor, with what ability you possess, for the triumph of these principles
among men?
Conditions
Wages
Hours
Corporate Industrialization/Capitalism
K of L
At the same time…
• At the same time the Knights of Labor are
forming, workers are becoming
increasingly outraged with their working
conditions and are responding with
action…
The Railroad Strike of 1877
Background
• In the wake of the Panic of 1873, bitter antagonism between workers and
leader of industry developed.
• The B&O Railroad declared a 10% wage cut for workers.
Details
• In protest, workers throughout the United States went on strike and refused
to run the trains
• First strike in the U.S.
• Not organized by a labor union,
most were spontaneous
• This threw the country into turmoil
– Trains aren’t running; people are
protesting
•
President Rutherford B. Hayes calls in
Federal Troops to take control and
open up railroads
– Sent troops from city to city to take down
strikers
– Strike ends 45 days after it began
•
Over 100 people killed across USA
The Railroad Strike of 1877
Why did the U.S. government intervene on the side of the railroad
owners rather than workers?
• Pro-Business Attitudes of the Government Throughout the Gilded
Age
• Economic Self-Interest: No trains, no $
• Perception of the Strikers
– Germans (Germans
immigrants, not real
Americans were
responsible)
– Lazy/Idle (Strikers
were lazy vagrants, not
people who were
willing to work for a
living)
– Communists (Strikers
were communist
sympathizers)
The Haymarket Riot of 1886
Background
• The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions set May 1, 1886 as a day of protest
to demand an 8 hour work day for all workers in America
• Thousands of workers went on strike throughout the United States
• Workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago are part of this protest
Details
May 2
• In Chicago, clashes between strikers and
temporary hires (scabs) turns violent
• The Chicago Police called in to bring order, but
kill several strikers
May 3
• Outraged by this act of police violence, local anarchists
called for a rally
–
•
•
•
Printed fliers in German and English that claimed that the
police had murdered the strikers on behalf of business
interests and urged the workers to seek justice
1,00 to 3,0000 people show up to hear protest speeches
Police show up to control the crowd
Bomb was thrown at police and the police responded by firing on the crowd
–
In total, 7 policemen and 4 civilians were killed
The Haymarket Riot 1886
Aftermath
• Police raided the office of a radical German workers’
newspaper believing that its workers were the likely culprits
• Arrested a total of eight known anarchists
–
–
–
–
Shady/sparse evidence linking some to bomb-making,
speaking at the Haymarket Rally, or merely being an anarchist
6 Germans/ German-Americans
2 of British heritage
7 sentenced to death and 1 to a term of 15 years in prison
Significance
• Harsh Anti-Union sentiment begin to develop in America
• Unions were decried as:
–
–
–
•
•
•
Violent
Anarchist
German
Union membership declines in America
Radical workers’ rights activists and anarchists are
catalyzed to greater action
Suggests for some the need for a more moderate
unionism…AFL
The American Federation of Labor
•
The American Federation of Labor
was founded in 1886 by Samuel
Gompers as an alliance of craft
unions comprised of mostly skilled
workers.
•
•
•
•
•
Gompers became synonymous with
the union, serving as its President
every single year (except one)
between 1886 and 1924.
Unlike the Knights of Labor, the AFL
was open to skilled, white men only.
By 1904 the AFL had a membership of
1.7 million and by World War One it
had 2 million members
Merged with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations in 1955
Today is the largest federation of
unions in the United States with more
than 11 million members
What Did the AFL believe?
Consider the following quotes from Gompers…
•
•
“[I]f you wish to improve the condition of the people, you must improve their
habits and customs. The reduction of the hours of labor reaches the very
root of society. It gives the workingman better conditions and better
opportunities and makes of him what has been too long neglected -- a
consumer instead of a mere producer. . . . A man who goes to his work
before the dawn of day requires no clean shirt to go to work in, but is
content to go in any old overall . . . but a man who goes to work at 8 o'clock
in the morning wants a clean shirt; he is afraid his friends will see him, so he
does not want to be dirty. He also requires a newspaper; while a man who
goes to work early in the morning and stays late at night does not need a
newspaper, for he has no time to read it, requiring all the time he has to
recuperate his strength sufficiently to get ready for his next day's work.”
“The Trade Unions…regard the workman as the producer of the wealth of
the world and demands that wages, shall be sufficient to enable him to
support his family in a manner consistent with existing civilization and all
that is required for maintaining and improving physical and mental health
and the self respect of human beings.”
What the AFL believed
•
•
•
•
The group from the outset concentrated upon
the income and working conditions of its
membership as its almost sole focus.
Fundamentally conservative "pure and simple"
approach
Favored pursuit of workers' immediate
demands rather than challenging the property
rights of owners, and took a pragmatic view of
politics which favored tactical support for
particular politicians over formation of a party
devoted to workers’ interests.
The AFL's leadership believed the expansion
of the capitalist system was seen as the path
to betterment of labor, an orientation making it
possible for the AFL to present itself as what
one historian has called "the conservative
alternative to working class radicalism."
Conditions
Wages
Hours
AFL
Corporate Industrialization/Capitalism
K of L
Question Activists Are Asking:
Is Corporate Industrialization Here to Stay?
Reactionaries: No!
Reformers: Yes!
(Populists & AFL)
(Progressives & AFL)
• Go back to the way life was before the
creation of corporations!
• Uproot the system and go back!
• Union: Knights of Labor
• Political Movement/Ideology: Populism
• We have to accept the existence of corporate
industrialization, but we can reform it to
make it better for the people
• The roots of the system are here to stay, but
we can pick the weeds!
• Union: American Federation of Labor
• Political Movement/Ideology: Progressivism
Revolutionaries: No!
(Socialists)
• Destroy the capitalist system and create a
new system predicated on workers rights and
primacy in society
• Union: None
• Political Movement/Ideology: Socialism
The Homestead Strike of 1892
Background
• Unionized workers at Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, PA sought a new contract with
their employer
–
Union = Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
• Plant manager Henry Clay Frick refused to renegotiate a new union contract
• Frick, backed by Carnegie, cut wages in response to their asking for a new contract
Details
• In an effort to break the union, Frick locks out the workers
–
•
•
•
In response, the workers declare a strike
Frick hires replacement workers (scabs) and a private security force (Pinkertons) to protect them
Strikers and and the Pinkertons clash and exchange gun fire and violence…things get crazy….
–
–
–
•
•
Pinkertons trying to land by barge were shot at
Strikers attempted to burn the barges and threw dynamite at them
Strikers lit railroad cars in the mill on fire
Pennsylvania Governor calls in the state militia
to restore order
–
–
•
•
He seals the plant to workers by edging it with barbed wires, sniper towers, and high-pressure water
cannons
Militia was successful at getting scabs into the mill to work
Were able to restore the factory to full capacity
Anarchist attempt to assassinate Frick
AFL chose to ignore the unions pleas for help,
the strike broke down
Union voted to return to work on Carnegie’s terms
The Homestead Strike 1892
Result:
• Workers wages dropped from an
average of $2.25/day to $1.89/day
• Would be 45 years before Carnegie
Steel Mill would do business with
unionized workers
Significance:
• Broke the AA as a force in the
American labor movement
• Showed that labor movements would
be minimally effective so long as:
– There was a steady stream of scabs
willing to cross picket lines
– The government would use its power
to defeat labor and prop up business
The Pullman Strike of 1894
Background
• Pullman company made railroad cars
• Founded by George Pullman
• Most of the workers lived in the company town
of Pullman, Il
• When his company laid off workers and lowered
wages it did not reduce rent in the town, and
the workers called for a strike.
• Most workers were not unionized, so they reached out to
Eugene Debs the President of the American Railway
Union to sign up.
• The Pullman Company refused to negotiate with the
ARU
Details
• Debs decides that:
– Workers should strike
– There should be a massive boycott against all trains that
carried the Pullman car
– Within four days, 125,000 workers on 29 railroads had walked
off the job rather than handle Pullman cars
– Wanted a general strike of all union members in Chicago by
Gompers, head of the AFL, said no
The Pullman Strike 1894
Details (continued…)
• Under direction from President Grover Cleveland, U.S. Attorney General issued an injunction
demanding that the strikers cease their activities
• Debs ignored the injunction
• Cleveland sent federal troops to various cities in the U.S. to use force to get the strikers back
to work
• Cleveland calls for Debs arrest on federal charges of obstructing the U.S. Mail
–
–
SCOTUS rules in In Re Debs that the federal government had the right to issue the injunction
Deb sentenced to six months in prison
Public Opinion of the Strike
• Media coverage was extensive and negative
• Media depicted the boycotters as foreigners who were
trying to sabotage America
Aftermath
• Debs’ time in prison radicalizes him. There he reads
Marx and decides to dedicate his life to socialism
• After his release from jail he becomes the leading
socialist figure in the United States
• Runs for president 5 times as the head of the Socialist
Party
• In an effort to placate organized labor after the strike,
Cleveland and Congress created Labor Day as a
federal holiday.
Concluding Thoughts
• How would you characterize the nature of
unionism in the United States?
• Why wasn’t unionism more successful?
• What has been the effect of an
unsuccessful labor movement in the
United States?