American West and Industrialization

Part 2: The Labor Movement

Labor Unions
Labor unions sprang up in
the late 1800s as workers
fought to improve wages
and working conditions in
factories and businesses
across the United States.
Samuel Gompers and
Eugene Debs led
nationwide strikes in major
industries in an effort to
improve pay, hours, and
general working conditions
in the U.S.
 Working Conditions
There were large numbers of
unskilled workers, many of them
immigrants, who were willing to
work for low wages.
Children from poor families skipped
school to work in dangerous
factories for very little money.
Women and children were both
paid significantly less than men.
Factories did not have safety
requirements, and many injuries
occurred on the job.
Working Conditions
Those who sustained injuries were left
to pay their medical bills without any
assistance from their company.
Factories forced their employees to
work twelve, fourteen, and sixteen
hour days or more for at least six
days of the week.
Some factories employed the
sweatshop technique for their
workers.
In sweatshops, people worked long
hours, but instead of being paid by
the hour, they were paid based on
how much work they did.
 Rise of the Labor Unions
These working conditions slowly started to
change as national labor unions
emerged in the late 1800s.
The Knights of Labor was founded in
Philadelphia in 1869, and its goals
included having an eight-hour workday,
improved wages, and an end to child
labor.
In 1886, Samuel Gompers founded the
American Federation of Labor (AFL),
a union made up of *skilled* workers.
Gompers served as the president of the
organization from 1886 to 1895 and
again from 1896 to 1924 and became
the leading spokesman during the
labor movement.
Great Strike
In order to be heard, the
labor unions helped
employees organize
strikes at major
companies in the United
States.
The first of many was The
Great Strike in 1877.
Railroad workers across the
U.S. refused to work in
the first nationwide strike.
 Haymarket Square Riot
In 1886, the Knights of Labor led a strike
against the McCormick Harvesting
Machine Company in Chicago.
The police and the strikers clashed, and a
striker was killed.
The next day, when people gathered to
protest the death of the striker, a group
of anarchists joined in the protest.
Police came to break up the group, and a
bomb was thrown at the police, killing
seven policemen.
Because many people blamed the Knights
of Labor for what is now known as the
Haymarket Square Riot, membership
in the union declined, and its influence
was weakened.
Homestead Strike
In 1892, iron and steel workers who
belonged to the Amalgamated
Association of Iron and Steel Workers
struck the Carnegie Steel Company in
Homestead, Pennsylvania to protest a
proposed wage cut.
The company's manager hired 300
Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant
and the strikebreakers who were still
working.
In an armed battle between the workers
and the detectives, several men were
killed or wounded.
The governor called out the state militia,
and the nonunion workers stayed on the
job, ending the Homestead Strike.
 Pullman Strike
The last major strike of the 1800s
occurred in 1894.
Workers at the Pullman Palace Car
Company in Chicago struck to
protest wage cuts and the firing of
union representatives.
They got help from the American
Railway Union, which had been
founded by Eugene V. Debs in
1893.
The American Railway Union called a
boycott of all Pullman railway cars.
As a result of the Pullman Strike, rail
service in the Midwest was severely
disrupted.
Pullman Strike
The strike went on for two months
until the federal government
issued an injunction to end the
strike because the strike was
interfering with interstate
commerce and was preventing
the delivery of U.S. mail.
Eugene Debs did not end the strike
after the injunction and was
sentenced to six months in jail.
The strike finally ended when
federal troops were sent to
Chicago and other cities to
break up the strike.
 Coal Miners Strike
John L. Lewis was another important leader
of organized labor.
In 1919, he led a strike of 400,000 coal
miners.
The strike ended after President Woodrow
Wilson ordered an injunction to stop the
strike, and Lewis agreed to end it.
He served as the president of the United Mine
Workers from 1920 to 1960, and was one
of the founders of the Congress of
Industrial Organizations (CIO).
The CIO was formed because of a differing
philosophy than that of the American
Federation of Labor.
Leaders of the CIO thought that both skilled
and unskilled workers should be included
in union membership, whereas the AFL
was only for skilled workers.
National Labor Relations Act
In 1935, the Wagner Act, also
known as the National Labor
Relations Act, was passed
by Congress.
This act established the National
Labor Relations Board and
protected the rights of unions
as they organized workers for
collective bargaining.
With the passage of this act,
union membership grew
dramatically.
 United Auto Workers
In 1936, workers at a General
Motors factory in Flint,
Michigan, organized a sit-
down strike.
This meant that they refused to
leave the factory while they
were on strike.
The workers remained in the
factory for 44 days.
At the end of the strike, General
Motors allowed the United
Auto Workers to unionize its
workers.