Labor Unions

Working conditions• Monotonous• 12 – 16 hour shifts, 6 days a

week• Dangerous• When workers were injured or

too sick to work, they were fired

Child Labor• Factory owners often

hired children because:– Smaller– Cheaper– Easier to intimidate

Craft Unions vs. Trade Unions

Craft Unions• Only allowed

highly skilled craftsmen to join

• Machinists, welders, electricians, etc.

Trade Unions• Designed for

unskilled laborers• General factory

workers, construction workers, etc.

Union Tactics• Strikes: workers walked off the job in

protest• Boycotts: encouraged the public to

not buy goods from companies that would not negotiate with labor

• Collective bargaining: employees negotiate contracts as a group rather than as individuals

• Mediation: allowing a neutral third party to oversee negotiations

• Arbitration: allowing a neutral third party to hear both sides’ arguments and make a final, binding ruling

• Closed shops: agreement where employers could only hire union members, non-union workers were banned from the workplace

Employer Responses• Yellow-dog contracts: contracts

which forbade workers from joining unions

• Blacklists: known union sympathizers were fired

• Lockouts: closing of factories to punish workers for unionizing

• Scabs: replacement workers hired to replace strikers

• Injunctions: sought legal court orders that forbade strikes

• Strikebreakers: hired thugs used to violently attack union leaders, strikers

The Knights of Labor• 1869 – 1949• Workers’ organization

(NOT a labor union)• Wanted:

– 8-hour workday– Equal pay for women– Ban on child labor

• Never well-organized

The Haymarket Riot• May 1886: Unions called for a day of general strike to

promote the 8-hour workday• Result: Knights of Labor lost popularity for being associated

with anarchists

The Homestead Strike• June-July, 1892• Steel workers at Andrew

Carnegie’s mill in Homestead, PA demanded higher wages

• Carnegie responded by:– Locking out workers– High fences and guard towers – Hiring scabs

The Pullman Strike• May 1894• Members of the American Railway Union refused to work on Pullman-built

cars to show support for the strikers• Pres. Grover Cleveland ordered US troops to enforce a court injunction, ending

the strike of Pullman workers

Eugene V. Debs• 1855 – 1926• Helped to form the American

Railway Union• Debs was sent to prison for failing

to obey the court injunction ordering the end to the Pullman Strike

• While incarcerated, Debs became a socialist

Support for Unions damaged by:

• Marxists: believed that labor should own and operate factories communally (socialism)

• Anarchists: opposed all government, were willing to use violence to achieve their ends (essentially terrorists)

• Nativism: anti-immigration sentiments were fed by the number of immigrants who were Marxists, anarchists

Homestead Strike Timeline

Where: Homestead, PennsylvaniaUnion: Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel WorkersCompany: Carnegie Steel Company

1876: Amalgamated Association, union for iron and steel workers, forms.1881: Carnegie put Frick in charge of the Homestead factory.1882 and 1889: Amalgamated Association won two big strikes against the Carnegie Company. After 1889, the union became very powerful and organized. They had a very strong union contract.February 1892: Amalgamated Association asked for a wage increase. Frick responded with a wage decrease.June 29, 1892: The old contract expired without the two sides reaching an agreement. Frick locked the workers out of the plant, using a high fence topped with barbed wire.June 30, 1892: Workers decided to strike and they surrounded the plant to make sure that no strikebreakers would enter.July 6,1892: After the local sheriff was unable to control the strikers, Frick hired guards from the National Pinkerton Detective Agency to secure the factory so that strikebreakers could enter.

The Pinkertons arrived by boat in the middle of the night, hoping to surround the factory unnoticed.

The strikers knew they were coming. Shots were fired and peoplekilled on both sides

Why Did the Homestead Strike Turn Violent?

• After reading the documents answer the following questions: 1. Summarize Goldman and Frick’s claims 2. How are Goldman and Frick’s claims about the

Homestead strike different?3. Whose claim is more believable? Why?

• Discussion Questions– Why did the Homestead Strike turn violent? – What are the differences between Goldman’s

account and Frick’s account? – Which account do you find more believable?

Why? – Can we ever know what happened? – What other materials would you want to look at in

order to try to figure out what happened at Homestead?

Why Did the Homestead Strike Turn Violent?