The Labor
Movement
THIS kind
of labor…
… not THIS kind!
What was work like for
most people?
•
•
•
•
10-12 hour days
No sick days or time off
Low pay
Unsafe & unhealthy working
conditions
• 6-day weeks
• Children in the workforce
• No compensation for on-thejob injuries
How can the labor force
protect itself?
Work
together!
Refuse to work or let
anyone else work!
Gain public
sympathy!
…in
other
words,
form a
LABOR
UNION!
Labor Unions
• Unions are organized groups of workers that
use their strength in numbers to lobby for
various reasons.
Typical Union Goals
• Better working conditions
– Safety (standards, inspections)
– Comfort (sunlight, fresh air, chairs, etc.)
• Less work time
– Weekly days off (began with one, then worked for “weekend”)
– Maximum hours per week (8-hour days, 40-hour weeks)
• Higher wages
– Minimum wage (set minimum amount a worker can be paid per hour)
– Promotion from within
• Special Workers
– Child labor (first regulation of hours & types of work, then elimination)
– Pregnant women (exposure, physical demands)
– Racial/ethnic minorities (Chinese, African-American)
Union Tactics
• Collective Bargaining
– ALL workers push for benefits for ALL workers- even across
industries or locations
– Replacing one troublesome worker is easy, but replacing
everyone at once…
• Labor strikes
– Refusal to work until demands are met
– Strikebreakers (“scabs”) must also be kept from working
• Appeals to Public
– Encourage consumers to boycott products
• Sabotage
– Damage to equipment to prevent production
• Violence
– Usually directed at scabs
Early Unions
Knights of Labor
• Loose federation of workers
from different trades
• Women allowed to join
• By 1880, the K of L had led
1,400 strikes involving
600,00 people
– Mostly railroad workers
American Federation
of Labor (AFL)
• Craft union (recruited skilled
workers)
• Led by Samuel Gompers
• Focus on 8-hour day & end
of child labor
• Led 37,000 strikes 18811905
– Mostly industrial workers
Racism & Unions
• African Americans often excluded
• Chinese workers paid less; often used as strikebreakers
Radical Unions: the I.W.W. (Wobblies)
• Industrial Workers of the World formed 1905
• Extreme tactics and socialism
Labor vs. Business
Unions are antiAmerican! They’re
all socialists &
anarchists!
Safe factories!
Fair Pay!
No
child
labor!
Union
demands
threaten
our profits
and our
power!
Socialism
From the dictionary: a social system in which the
means of producing & distributing goods is owned
collectively or by a centralized government
In regular words: Everybody (or the government) owns
& decides what we make, how we do it, and how we
sell it TOGETHER. We all share the profits equally.
Anarchy
From the dictionary: the absence of all governmental
authority or law in a society
Look at it this way: What would school be like if there
were no adults here?
Socialism
versus
Anarchy
You have two cows.
You keep one and
give one to your
neighbor (or
provide your
neighbor with
free milk). If not,
the government
will force you to.
You keep both
and provide
milk at a
reasonable price
or your
neighbors kill
you and take
the cows.
Who Said This?
A. “There has never
been a free people, a
civilized nation, a real
republic on this
earth. Human society
has always consisted
of masters and
slaves, and the slaves
have always been and
are today, the
foundation stones of
the social fabric.
Wage-labor is but a
name; wage-slavery
is the fact.”
• A socialist?
• An anarchist?
• A businessman?
B. “To be free, the workers must have
choice. To have choice they must retain in
their own hands the right to determine
under what conditions they will work.”
C. “If we take back the labor
unions, the legitimate businesses,
eventually they become just another
street gang. Spiritually,
psychologically, they've always been
just a street gang.”