Industrialization during the Gilded Age Transformed Yeoman and Immigrant Farmers into Blue-Collar...

Industrialization during the Gilded Age Transformed Yeoman

and Immigrant Farmers into Blue-Collar Factory and Railroad Workers

The Changing American

Labor Force in the Gilded Age

The Changing American

Labor Force in the Gilded Age

The Work Place

Poor Wages & Long Hours

1. Grueling hard labor

2. Long hours: 12 hour days to 10 hours to 8 hours

3. Long work week: 6 days a week, sometimes 7

4. Low wages:

• Not a living wage so all of the family had to work including the children (under age of 14) – took about $600/year for a family of four to live

• Men paid more (between $400- $500/year); women paid half as much; boys even less; and girls next to nothing

• Immigrant wages were less than native-born wages

• Skilled workers paid 20¢ an hour; unskilled 10¢ an hour

Poor Wages & Long Hours5. Types of jobs:

•Unskilled manual labor in the factories, on the railroads and in the mines

•Piece work

•Sweatshops

6. Safety standards low, accidents common, health jeopardized, and working conditions dangerous

•Accidents more common than any other industrialized nation

7. Work by the clock

8. Strict discipline

9. Impersonal

Why Did American Exploit the Working

Class?1. Social Darwinism

2. Laissez faire economic philosophy

3. American rugged individualism, hard work, upward mobility, and competitiveness

4. American public sided with management in labor disputes

5. Anti-immigrant feelings - immigrants would never assimilate and low paying jobs were what they deserved

6. Labor unions seemed “foreign,” radical, and out-of-step with the American tradition of individual achievement

7. Anti-city attitude

What the Working Man and Woman Wanted?

1. Living wage

2. 8 hour work day

3. 5 day work week

4. Safe working conditions

Exploitative Child LaborExploitative Child Labor

“Galley Labor”“Galley Labor”

Blue Collar Labor Unrest

Labor Unrest, 1870-1900Labor Unrest, 1870-1900

Management vs. LaborManagement vs. Labor

““Tools” of Tools” of ManagementManagement

““Tools” of Tools” of LaborLabor

““Iron Law of Wages”Iron Law of Wages”

PinkertonsPinkertons

LockoutLockout

BlacklistingBlacklisting

““Scabs”Scabs”

Yellow-dog contractsYellow-dog contracts

Court injunctionsCourt injunctions

Open shopOpen shop

BoycottsBoycotts

Sympathy Sympathy demonstrationsdemonstrations

PicketingPicketing

Closed shopsClosed shops

Organized strikesOrganized strikes

““Wildcat” strikesWildcat” strikes

ViolenceViolence

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut wages to give investors a higher dividend. Union struck, closed the B & O, destroyed the Pittsburgh yards, and fought a battle with the militia sent by the governor to break the strike resulting in the death of more than a hundred workers.

Most Violent Strike

Knights of Labor (1869-

1890’s)

Knights of Labor (1869-

1890’s)

Terence V. PowderlyTerence V. Powderly

An injury to one is the concern of An injury to one is the concern of all!all!

Knights of Labor trade Knights of Labor trade cardcard

Knights of Labor CharterKnights of Labor Charter

Goals of the Knights of

Labor

Goals of the Knights of

Laborù Welcomed as members all who “toiled” Welcomed as members all who “toiled” regardless of skill, creed, sex, or colorregardless of skill, creed, sex, or color

ù Eight-hour work dayEight-hour work day

ù Workers’ cooperativesWorkers’ cooperatives

ù Worker-owned factoriesWorker-owned factories

ù Abolition of child laborAbolition of child labor

ù Equal pay for men and womenEqual pay for men and women

ù Safety codes in the workplaceSafety codes in the workplace

ù Prohibition of contract foreign laborProhibition of contract foreign labor

Haymarket Riot of 1876


Chicago police ordered 3,000 McCormick Harvester strikers, peacefully assembled at a rally on Haymarket Square to protest police killing two workers the previous day, to disperse. A bomb was thrown. A policeman and six Chicagoans were fatally wounded. The police fired into the crowd and killed four others.

Worst Strike



McCormick Harvesting Machine Company Union RallyMcCormick Harvesting Machine Company Union Rally

The “Formula”

The “Formula”

Unions Unions + Violence + Strikes + Socialists Violence + Strikes + Socialists + Immigrant = Anarchists+ Immigrant = Anarchists

Haymarket MartyrsHaymarket MartyrsEight known anarchists were rounded up – no evidence of guilt or whether they were present at the rally – and four were hanged. One committed suicide. Three remained in jail until the governor pardoned them.

Governor John Peter Altgeld

Governor John Peter Altgeld

The Haymarket Riot linked anarchism and labor in the public mind, thereby weakening the national labor movement.

The American Federation

of Labor: 1886

The American Federation

of Labor: 1886

Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers

Goals of the American

Federation of Labor

Goals of the American

Federation of Labor

ù Catered to the skilled workerCatered to the skilled worker

ù Worked to get laws passed by Congress Worked to get laws passed by Congress favorable to workers and labor unionsfavorable to workers and labor unions

ù Maintained a national strike fundMaintained a national strike fund

ù Mediated disputes between management and Mediated disputes between management and laborlabor

ù Pushed for closed shopsPushed for closed shops

ù Negotiated labor contracts – collective Negotiated labor contracts – collective bargaining – for labor union membersbargaining – for labor union members

Carnegie Steel’s Corporate Profits!

Carnegie Steel’s Corporate Profits!

Homestead Steel Strike (1892)


Amalgamated Association of Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel WorkersIron & Steel Workers

Andrew Carnegie and Henry Frick set out to break the union by cutting wages 20% and locking the workers out of the plant when the union struck. The Pinkertons, hired to drive the workers off, were pinned down in a gun battle with the union men. Men were killed.

Homestead Steel Works

Corporate “Bully-Boys”Corporate “Bully-Boys”

1. The Pinkertons

2. Presidents and governors

3. Militia and army

4. Police

5. Scabs

Attempted Assassination!

Attempted Assassination!

Henry Clay FrickHenry Clay Frick

Alexander Alexander BerkmanBerkman

The Pennsylvania governor sent the militia in to impose peace. To retaliate, an anarchist tried to assassinate Frick. That broke the steel union for 30 years.

“Company Town,” Pullman, Illinois

“Company Town,” Pullman, Illinois

George Pullman of the Pullman Chair Car Works built a complete town for his employees: Parks, a miniature lake, schools, a theater, a church, an arcade (mall), bank, homes, and sidewalks. The town had sanitary water, an athletic program, and a town band. George Pullman expected only loyalty.

Pullman CarsPullman Cars

The Pullman Strike of 1894


Pullman laid off workers during the Panic of 1893 and cut wages by 25%, but kept rent and food prices in his town at the same levels. Protests arose. Three workers were fired so the union went on strike. Workers turned to Eugene Debs, socialist labor leader of the American Railway Union, for support.



20,000 members of the ARU joined the Pullman strike, stopped all rail traffic – including delivery of the mail – on the western railroads, and paralyzed the western half of the nation. Mobs of non-strikers overturned freight cars, looted, and burned.

President Grover Cleveland

President Grover Cleveland

If it takes the entire army and navy to If it takes the entire army and navy to deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card

will be delivered!will be delivered!

Grover ClevelandRailroad owners got a federal injunction against the ARU – arguing the mail had too get through – and Grover Cleveland sent in the army to reopen the railroads.

The SocialistsThe Socialists

Eugene DebsEugene Debs

Socialism, a reformist political philosophy, grew dramatically before World War I. More moderate than European socialists who called for workers to join a world wide revolution and overthrow capitalism, socialists like Debs joined labor unions, attacked the injustices of capitalism and urged a workers’ republic.

Industrial Workers of the World (“Wobblies”)

Industrial Workers of the World (“Wobblies”)

“Big Bill” Hayward

Industrial Workers of the World (“Wobblies”)Industrial Workers of

the World (“Wobblies”) Believed violence – world social revolution and Believed violence – world social revolution and

sabotage – was justified to overthrow capitalism sabotage – was justified to overthrow capitalism and the capitalist bossesand the capitalist bosses

Welcomed everyone as members regardless of race Welcomed everyone as members regardless of race or genderor gender

Stressed solidarity and aimed to unite the working Stressed solidarity and aimed to unite the working class into a mammoth union to promote labor’s class into a mammoth union to promote labor’s interestsinterests

Unlike the AFL, it organized the unskilled and Unlike the AFL, it organized the unskilled and foreign-born laborers who worked in mass foreign-born laborers who worked in mass production industriesproduction industries

Motto: An injury to one is an injury to all

“Mother Jones” The Miner’s Angel“Mother Jones”

The Miner’s Angel

Mary Harris.Mary Harris.

Organizer for theOrganizer for theUnited MineUnited MineWorkersWorkers

Founded the SocialFounded the SocialDemocratic Party Democratic Party in 1898in 1898

One of the founding One of the founding members of the I. W. W. members of the I. W. W. in 1905in 1905

The Hand That Will Rule the World One Big

Union

The Hand That Will Rule the World One Big

Union

“Bread and Roses” Strike“Bread and Roses” Strike

Strike led by women and won by women

A new Massachusetts law reduced the maximum A new Massachusetts law reduced the maximum workweek from 56 to 54 hours. Factory owners responded workweek from 56 to 54 hours. Factory owners responded by speeding up production and cutting workers' pay. The by speeding up production and cutting workers' pay. The women shut down their looms and left the mill. women shut down their looms and left the mill. Increasingly violent methods were used to suppress the Increasingly violent methods were used to suppress the protest, but the strikers maintained their solidarity. The protest, but the strikers maintained their solidarity. The mill owners, anxious to avoid bad publicity, settled with mill owners, anxious to avoid bad publicity, settled with the strikers.the strikers.

“Bread and Roses” Strike

“Bread and Roses” Strike

Labor Union MembershipLabor Union Membership

Come On and Come On and Sing the Union Song!Sing the Union Song!

Come On and Come On and Sing the Union Song!Sing the Union Song!

“Solidarity Forever!”by Ralph Chapin (1915)“Solidarity Forever!”

by Ralph Chapin (1915)When the union's inspiration When the union's inspiration through the workers‘ blood shall run, through the workers‘ blood shall run,There can be no power greater There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun; anywhere beneath the sun;Yet what force on earth is weaker Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one, than the feeble strength of one,But the union makes us strong! But the union makes us strong!

CHORUS:CHORUS:Solidarity forever,Solidarity forever,Solidarity forever,Solidarity forever,Solidarity forever,Solidarity forever,For the union For the union makes us strong! makes us strong!

“Solidarity Forever!”“Solidarity Forever!”

Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?For the union makes us strong!


“Solidarity Forever!”“Solidarity Forever!”

Through our sisters and our brothersThrough our sisters and our brothers we can make our union strong, we can make our union strong,For respect and equal value, For respect and equal value, we have done without too long. we have done without too long.We no longer have to tolerate We no longer have to tolerate injustices and wrongs, injustices and wrongs,Yes, the union makes us strong!Yes, the union makes us strong!


The Blessings of the Labor Unions

Workers Benefits Today

Workers Benefits Today

The Rise & Decline of Organized Labor

The Rise & Decline of Organized Labor

Right-to-Work States Today

Right-to-Work States Today

Unionism & Globalization?

Unionism & Globalization?

Industrialization during the Gilded Age Transformed Yeoman and Immigrant Farmers into Blue-Collar...

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