The Working Class, Strikes, and Unions

1. Industrial Supremacy The Working Class, Strikes, and Unions

2. The Immigrant Workforce • 25 million immigrants arrived between 1865 and 1915 (4 times as many than the previous 50 years) • These immigrants settled mostly in cities, and had to compete for jobs with not only natives of the cities, but Americans moving from rural areas into the cities • Escaping poverty and oppression in their homelands • Sometimes lured by the false promises by industrial employers • Misleading job ads • Labor Contract Law – employers could pay for immigrants’ passage, then deduct it from their pay • The arrival of new groups of immigrants often heightened ethnic tension as the new groups usually worked for less and displaced the older groups

3. Wages • At the turn of the century $600/year marked the minimum level or reasonable comfort • The average worker earned $400 - $500 • Job security was almost non-existent • Boom and bust cycles • Technological advances • Cyclical/seasonal jobs

4. Working Conditions • The repetitive, monotonous tasks and schedules of industrial labor was a difficult adjustment for a work force mostly accustomed to agrarian life • 10 – 12 hour days, 6 days a week • Accidents were frequent and severe, and compensation to the victims was very limited

5. Women and Work • By 1900, 20% of women (5 million) were in the work force • The “problem” of women in the work force became a significant issue for reformers • 75% of working women were under the age of 25 and were either immigrants or the daughters of immigrants • When generally earned about half of what men did, averaging approximately $300/year

6. Children at Work • 1.7 million children under 16 had jobs in factories or fields in 1900 • 10% of girls 10 – 15 • 20% of all boys • Some families needed more than 2 incomes, some preferred sending children to work over the social stigma of having the mother work • Child Labor laws • 60% of child laborers worked in agriculture, which was often exempt from laws • Children working in factories had to be at least 12 and were limited to 10 hours per day

7. Unions & Public Opinion • Most of middle-class American distrusted unions • When labor disputes turned violent, the middle class was quick to blame the unions • Many believed that the unions were controlled by radicals and anarchists

8. Molly Maguires • A militant labor union based in the coal region of Pennsylvania • Contributed to the belief that all labor unions were controlled by radicals • Used violence (sometimes murder) to intimidate coal operators • While they certainly weren’t innocent, many of the incidents blamed on the Molly Maguires were actually carried out by agents employed by the mine owners, so that they could have an excuse to use ruthless tactics against the union

9. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 • Eastern railroads announced a 10% wage cut • Strikers disrupted rail service, destroyed equipment, and rioted • State militias were called out to break up the strike, and more than 100 people were killed in the conflict • President Hayes ordered federal troops to break up the strike in West Virginia

10. The Knights of Labor • Founded in 1869 under the leadership of Terence Powderly, and open to all who “toiled” • All laborers • Most business professionals • Excluded lawyers, banker, liquor dealers, and professional gamblers • Open to women • Factory workers, domestic servants, and women who worked in their own homes • Included African-Americans • Goals • 8 hour work day • Abolition of child labor • The downfall of the Knights was its poor organization • Mostly independent local assemblies • Vague goals • Loss of the Texas & Pacific Strike

11. The American Federation of Labor • Association of autonomous craft unions, representing mainly skilled workers • Generally hostile toward organizations like the Knights of Labor who organized unskilled labor • Opposed women in the work force, claiming that they drove down wages, but they did seek equal pay for women • Unlike many other early labor leaders, Samuel Gompers did not seek to reform or reject capitalism, rather, he worked to improve the relationship between labor and management so that laborers could secure more of the rewards of capitalism • Supported the 8 hour work day

12. Haymarket Square Riot • During a protest meeting over working conditions at the McCormick Harvesting Company in Chicago, police ordered the crowd to disperse • Someone threw a bomb, killing 7 officers • The police opened fire on the crowd, killing 4 • 4 were also killed by the police the day before • The citizens of Chicago demanded punishment, so 8 anarchists were rounded up and charged with murder based to the assumption that things they said had incited the unknown person to throw the bomb • 7 were sentenced to death • 1 committed suicide • 4 were executed • 2 had their sentences commuted to life • After Haymarket, many Americans feared unions as sources of chaos and anarchy • As a result, unions start trying to distance themselves from radicals

13. Homestead Strike • As technology advanced, reliance on skilled labor decreased • Carnegie and his second in command, Henry Clay Frick, decided that the union at Carnegie’s Homestead plant had to go • Frick announced a wage cut without the unions consent, the union threatened to strike, and Frick shut the plant down • Pinkerton Detective Agency • Well-known (and hated) strikebreakers • Called in to guard the plant to so that non-union workers could be hired • As the Pinkertons crossed to river to the plant on barges, striking workers poured oil in the river, set it on fire, and stormed the docks with guns and dynamite • 3 Pinkertons and 10 strikers were killed, and the Pinkertons eventually surrendered • Pennsylvania’s governor called in the National Guard, and production resumed with non-union workers • Public opinion completely turned against the union when a radical member tried to assassinate Frick

14. Pullman Strike • The Pullman Palace Car Company made sleeper and parlor cars for railroads just outside of Chicago • The Pullman Company built the town of Pullman just outside of the city in which it rented homes to its employees, ran company stores, etc. • In 1894, Pullman cut wages by 25%, but refused to lower rents, which were much higher than surrounding areas • Workers went on strike with the help of the American Railway Union

15. Eugene V. Debs • Leader of the American Railway Union • The union refused to handle any type of Pullman equipment while the strike continued • An association of railroad companies began firing any employee who refused to handle a Pullman car • This led Debs to encourage a strike that reached from Chicago all the way to the Pacific coast • President Cleveland eventually ordered troops to break up the strike, justifying his actions with the Interstate Commerce Act, a law intended to prevent railroad monopolies