The Labor Movement

Standard

• SS.912.A.3.2-Industrial Revolution: Examine the social, political, and economic causes, course, and consequences of the Second Industrial Revolution that began in the late 19th century

• SS.912.A.3.9: Examine causes, course, and consequences of the labor movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Worker Problems

• Impersonal Conditions• Long Hours• Boring, Repetitive tasks• Low wages• Child labor• Periodic unemployment• Lack of opportunity for advancement• Unpleasant living conditions

Workers organize

• Because the work required little skill, workers could easily be replaced

• The only was to achieve better conditions seemed to be through worker organization

• Organizations were called labor unions

Purpose of Labor Unions

• To obtain higher wages and better working conditions

• “Mutual Aid” societies

• To place pressure on Government

National Labor

• As industries nationalized, labor leaders wanted unions to nationalize

• The Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor were two early national labor unions

Knights of Labor

• Founded by Terrence Powederly in 1869

• Both skilled and unskilled workers could join

• African Americans, women, farmers welcomed

Demands

• 8 hour work day

• Higher wages

• Safety codes

• No child labor

• No convict labor

• Equal pay for women

• Restrictions on immigration

• By 1886 they had 700,000 members

• Too big, too loose=not effective

• Unsuccessful strikes led to members leaving

American Federation of Labor

• Founded by Samuel Gompers in 1881

• Network of craft unions, only skilled workers

• No women and a few allowed African A.

• By 1900 it has 1 million members

Demands

• 8 hour workday

• Higher pay

• Better conditions

• Closed shop policy

Tactics of Labor

• Strike

• Picket Line

• Strike Fund

Tactics of Management

• Strike-breakers (scabs)

• Managers-could fire workers

• Lockout

• Yellow dog contracts-not join union

• Blacklisting

• Pinkertons

• Injunction

Role of Government

• Favored management for these reasons:Unions were smallRole was to protect private propertyPublic opinion against unionsUnions seemed dangerous un-AmericanBusiness contributed to campaign Laissez faireAnti-strike

• Great Railroad Strike

• Haymarket Riot

• Homestead Strike

• Pullman Strike

• Ideology-system of related beliefs and ideas about people, society and government

Rise of Ideologies

• Capitalists

• Social Darwinists

• Communist

• Socialists

• Anarchist