Industrialization and Workers

Ch 6, Sec 3 & 4

Factory Workers

• Boom in workforce mid to late 1800s.– Urbanization and large immigrant population.

• 10-12 hours/day, 6 days/week.• Paid by piecework – paid by number of

completed products.• Worked in sweatshops – long hours, low pay,

poor working conditions.

• Efficiency studies by Frederick Winslow Taylor led to division of labor.– Production divided up into small parts, each

person does on part over and over.– Made businesses very efficient; low skill level, low

pay.• Few safety measures in factories; hot, loud,

dangerous.• Due to low pay, wives and children worked.– 1 in 5 kids aged 10-16 was employed.

Frederick Winslow Taylor

Unions and Strikes• 1890-Richest 9% of Americans held 75% of

wealth.– Led to resentment and anger.

• Many began to support philosophy of Socialism.– Public control of factors of production, not private.– Wealth should be spread evenly to all.

• Socialist ideas led to creation of labor unions.

• Unions formed to help workers in hard times.– Changed to become a way for workers to give

demands to employers.• Higher pay, shorter hours, better conditions, etc.

• 1869, Knights of Labor union formed to organize all into single union.– Wanted equal pay for equal work (women,

minorities), 8-hour workday, no child labor.– Peaked at 700,00 members, then declined and

disappeared in 1890’s.

• 1886, Samuel Gompers founded American Federation of Labor (AFL).– Craft Union – Only skilled workers in a network of

smaller unions, each devoted to a specific craft.• Wanted better wages, hours, conditions.• Used strikes, boycotts, collective bargaining.– Workers negotiate as a group with employers.

• AFL was very effective and successful.

Samuel Gompers

• 1877, railroad workers struck to protest wage cuts and unsafe conditions.– Destroyed railroad property, US president sent

troops to restore order.• Eugene V. Debs organized the American

Railway Union.– Industrial union – workers from all crafts in a

given industry.• Debs was opposed to violent strikes, preferred

peaceful protests.

Eugene V. Debs

Industrial Union

• Employers disliked and feared unions.• Tried to stop unions by:– Forbidding union meetings.– Firing union organizers.– Forcing new employees to sign contracts

promising not to join unions or strike.– Refusing to collectively bargain.– Refusing to recognize unions as workers’

representatives.

• 1881-1900 – 24,000 strikes.• Haymarket Riot, 1886 – national protest for 8

hour workday led to strikes.– Chicago-fight between strikers and scabs led to

union protest in Haymarket Square.– Someone threw a bomb and killed cops, led to

open riot with dozens dead.– Knights of Labor blamed.– 4 anarchists hanged, 1 killed self, 3 let go.

• Homestead Strike, 1892 – Carnegie’s partner Henry Clay Frick tried to cut wages at Homestead, Pennsylvania mill.– Led to huge strike.– Frick sent in Pinkertons to break strike; gunfight,

many killed.– Anarchist Alexander Berkman tried and failed to

kill Frick.• Public opinion turned against strikers.

– Strike ended against workers 3 months after start.

Henry Clay Frick

Alexander Berkman

• Pullman Strike, 1894 – George Pullman built luxury railroad cars, and a town for his workers.– 1893, cut wages 25%, kept rent and food prices

same.– Caused local union to strike.

• Pullman shut down factory, refused to bargain.– ARU led nationwide Pullman strike, 260,000 workers.

• Blocked mail delivery, fed gov’t got involved.– Citing Sherman Anti-Trust Act, railroads got court

order to end strike, President Cleveland sent troops to enforce.

George Pullman

Strikers burned 600 boxcars.