Warm-up 2/3/15
1. What kinds of conditions do workers face in the
Gilded Age?
2. What was the Populist Movement and what
were their goals?
3. What was the Gold V. Silver Standard debate
about? How does this help us understand
monetary policy today?
4. Do the Populists succeed in changing the
conditions of society? Do they change the
Gold Standard? Why?
Pt. 3: Labor Unions
What is a Labor Union?
• An organization of wage earners
formed for the purpose of serving
the members' interests with
respect to wages and working
conditions.
Labor Union
Labor Strike
Boycott
Scab Worker
Workers who organize against their employers
to seek better wages and working conditions
for wage earners.
One method for having demands met. Workers
stop working until the conditions are met. It is
a very effective form of attack.
People refuse to buy a company's
product until the company meets
demands.
New immigrants who would replace strikers
and work for less pay. Often violence would
erupt between strikers and scabs who were
trying to cross picket lines to work.
Closed Shop
A working establishment where only people
belonging to the union are hired. It was done by the
unions to protect their workers from cheap labor.
Black List
List of people disliked by business
owners because they were leaders
in the Union. Often would lose their
jobs, beaten up or even killed.
Collective
Bargaining
Type of negotiation between an
employer and labor union where they
sit down face to face and discuss
better wages, etc.
Yellow Dog
Contracts
A written contract between employers and
employees in which the employees sign an
agreement that they will not join a union
while working for the company
Lock Out
Cooperatives
Owner of industry would “lock out”
workers who were trying to form a
union and replace them with “scabs”.
Industry or business organization
owned by and operated for the benefit
of those using its services—non-profit
Why unions???
Labor Unites
• Industrialization
• Urbanization
• Immigration
Leads to…
Large
disenfranchised
population
Populist Movement: First attempt of the people to
reform capital and labor relationship.
Present Day Labor Reform
Read article and answer questions
“Solidarity Forever!”
by Ralph Chapin (1915)
When the union's inspiration
through the workers‘ blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker
than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong!
CHORUS:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union
makes us strong!
YouTube Clip
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCnEAH5wCzo
• Think this is ancient history?
• THINK AGAIN!
• LOOK TO NORTH CAROLINA IN 2013!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvD0DTqcvVM
Unionization in 20th Century America
An organized association of workers
formed to protect and further their
rights and interests.
► In 1900, 1 in 12 workers unionized.
►
Bricklayers Union, PA, 1900
Haymarket
Riot
•Americans were suspicious of labor unions because they tended to go against
laissez faire and capitalism. Labor strikes were often ended in violence
National Labor
Union
•William Sylvis, 1866
•Skilled, unskilled,
farmers but
excluded Chinese…
•Cooperatives, 8 hr.
work day, against
labor strikes
•Founded a political
party in 1872
•Involved in the
Chinese Exclusion
Act.
•Lost election, faded
away
•Replaced by
Knights of Labor.
Knights of Labor
•Terrence Powderly
American Federation
of Labor or AFL
•All workers except
Chinese
•Samuel Gompers,
1881
•8 hr. day,
cooperatives,
prohibition, end child
labor
•Skilled workers in
separate unions.
•Several strikes won
some wage gains 1885
to 1886
•Unrealistic and vague
goals
•Loss of important
strikes and failure of
cooperatives
•Haymarket Riot—1886
•Work within political
system for change.
•Closed shop and
collective bargaining
•Over 1 million
workers joined and
won several strikes
•Small part of work
force eligible to join.
• Knights of Labor
• Labor union, sought to organize workers
• Goals were:
• end of land grants to the railroads
• prohibition of child laborers under 14
• gender equality in pay
American Federation
of Labor (AFL)
• Founded by Samuel
Gompers
• Organized skilled
workers in a specific
trade
The Growth of Unions
In 1882, on average, 675 laborers were killed in work-related accidents
each WEEK!
• American Federation of Labor (AFL)
• Samuel Gompers
► Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
 Advocated socialism: government control of business and
equal distribution of wealth.
Pt. 4: Major Labor Conflicts
of the 1880s & 1890s
-Founder of the Socialist Party
in the U.S.
-Overthrow the existing laissez
faire system
-Believes in government
ownership of business and
capital (money, natural
resources)
-Government controls
production, sets wages, prices
and distributes the goods. No
profit or competition.
-Runs for the presidency several
times & loses. (won 6% of
popular vote at one point)
The Incredible Hulk (Actor Mark
Ruffalo) reads a speech by Debs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=zuGp-0G1p4M
MORRILL TARIFF ACT, 1862
To protect and encourage American industry, Congress
passed this tariff after the South seceded from the Union.
NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM, 1863
To stimulate the economy and set up a banking system,
Congress passed this act which was a significant step
towards a unified, national banking system until replaced
by the Federal Reserve in 1913.
MORRILL ACT, 1862
To promote education, Congress provided grants of public
lands to the states for support of education. “Land-grant
colleges”
LAND GRANTS TO RAILROADS
US Govt. donated land to railroad companies to encourage
growth of this mode of transportation. US Govt. donated
approx. 160 million acres of land…….
Railroad Workers Organize
The Great Railroad
Strike of 1877
• Railway workers protested unfair
wage cuts and unsafe working
conditions.
• The strike was violent and
unorganized.
• President Hayes sent federal
troops to put down the strikes.
−From then on, employers relied on federal and state
troops to repress labor unrest.
Railroad Workers Organize
Debs and the
American Railway
Union
–At the time of the 1877 strike,
railroad workers mainly
organized into various
“brotherhoods,” which were
basically craft unions.
–Eugene V. Debs proposed a
new industrial union for all
railway workers called the
American Railway Union
(A.R.U.).
–The A.R.U. would replace all
of the brotherhoods and unite
all railroad workers, skilled and
unskilled.
THE GREAT RAILROAD
STRIKE OF 1877
A picture of burned railroad cars during
the mass strike
The great Railroad Strike of
1877 began on July 16,
when railroad workers for
the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad staged a
spontaneous strike after
yet another wage cut.
After President
Rutherford Hayes sent
federal troops to West
Virginia to save the
nation from
“insurrection,” the strike
spread across the nation.
Haymarket Square: Chicago 1886
= workers from McCormick Harvesting Machine Company struck
for an 8 hour day (They wanted a reduction in the amount of
hours they worked in a given day). However, the Knights of
Labor (union) did not support their actions.
= police came - four strikers killed and several wounded.
= next day at a rally in Haymarket Square- anarchists spoke up
against police & treatment of workers.
= Thousands protest the killings and during the rally the police
break up the meeting - someone threw a bomb at police - 7
police die. In response the police spray the crowd with bullets
and 10 more workers die with another 50 injured.
Result: Anti-Labor feelings sweep the nation and
membership in the Knights of Labor Union fell drastically!
• Haymarket Riot
• 1886: Chicago, Illinois
• Workers went on strike
for an 8-hour workday
• Action of Industry?
Tried to break the strikes,
fights eventually broke out
between strikers &
strikebreakers
• Action of government?
• Police intervention, some tried for murder
• Effect?
• Americans become wary of labor unions
• Knights of Labor blamed
Homestead Steel Strike:
Workers went on strike for higher wages. Management refused to negotiate and
locked out the workers, however the workers broke in and took control of the mill.
Management hired the Pinkerton Police, which is a private security force, to take
control back. 300 Pinkertons arrived by barge and were greeted by the workers. For
12 hours a battle ensued. The end result was the Pinkertonssurrendered.
Carnegie then requested help from the Pennsylvania National
Guard to restore control over the strikers after the Pinkertons had
failed. Carnegie replaced 1700 strikers with new workers called
strike breakers (scabs).
• Homestead Strike
• 1892, in Pennsylvania
• Wages of steelworkers
cut
• Action of Labor
Union?
• Calls for a strike
• Action of Industry?
Police force called the “Pinkertons”
brought in to break up the strike
• Action of Government?
• Troops & local militia sent in to calm the
situation
• Effect?
• Steelworkers lose
power after calling
off the strike
•Carnegie successfully broke
up the attempt to organize a
union.
•No labor unions in steel
industry until the 1920’s.
•Carnegie would be
remembered for events at
Homestead.
•His public image suffered
• Pullman Strike
• 1893, in Chicago
• Wages of employees
cut without a decrease
in living costs in the company town
• Action of Labor Union?
• Called Eugene V. Debs & the American
Railway Union (ARU)
• Nationwide strike, halting railroad traffic
Strikes Rock the Nation
Pullman, 1893
• Eugene Debs instructed strikers not to interfere with the
nation’s mail.
• Railway owners turned to the government for help. The judge
cited the Sherman Antitrust Act and won a court order
forbidding all union activity that halted railroad traffic.
• Court orders against unions continued, limiting union gains for
the next 30 years.
• Origin of Labor Day.
• Actions of Industry?
• Argued that the labor union was destroying
free trade
• Actions of Government?
• President Grover Cleveland sends in federal
troops; Eugene V. Debs is arrested
• Effect?
• Use of court
system and
military to limit
power of labor
unions
The Supreme Court Upholds
Laissez-faire
► Lochner v. New York – 1905
• New York state passed the “Bakeshop Act” limiting the hours
a bakery employee could work in one week to 60.
• Lochner, a bakery owner, was fined for allowing employees
to exceed limitation.
• He sued protesting the constitutionality of the law under the
14th Amendment and his liberty of contract.
• Supreme Court overturned his conviction stating:
• …this law interfered "with the right of contract between the
employer and employees.“ To the Court, the right to buy and sell
labor through contract was a "liberty of the individual" protected
under the 14th amendment .
14th amend
“All persons born in the U.S. are citizens of
this country and the state they reside in.
No state shall make or enforce any law
which deprives any person of life, liberty,
or property, without due process of law,
nor deny to any person with its jurisdiction
to the equal protection of the laws.”
Industrialists would use the 14th
Amendment as a way to defend a
corporation from the Sherman Anti-Trust
Act.
The Fourteenth Amendment
• In your opinion, what values are reflected in the Fourteenth
Amendment? Are these values compatible with your ideas about
a democracy? Why was this made in the first place?
• Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
• Section. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Back
Reaction of Employers
Employers hated & feared unions. Why?
-European influences of socialism
-Labor strikes always tended to be violent.
Some took steps to stop unions, such as:
-forbidding union meetings
-firing union organizers
-forcing new employees to sign “yellow dog”
contracts, making them promise never to join a
union or participate in a strike
-refusing to bargain collectively when strikes
did occur
-refusing to recognize unions as their workers’
legitimate representatives
Evaluation: (Giving your point of view on something and
providing reasons why you think that way!)
What was the role of labor unions in trying to solve the
problems of workers during industrialization?
Give your point of view of the helpfulness of unions
during industrialization and in making changes for
workers