The Labor Movement

THIS kind of labor…

… not THIS kind!

What was work like for most people?• 10-12 hour days• No sick days or time off• Low pay• Unsafe & unhealthy working

conditions• 6-day weeks• Children in the workforce• No compensation for on-the-

job injuries

How can the labor force protect itself?

Work together! Refuse to work or let

anyone else work!

Gain public sympathy!

…in other

words, form a LABOR

UNION!

Labor Unions

• Unions are organized groups of workers that use their strength in numbers to lobby for various reasons.

Typical Union Goals• Better working conditions

– Safety (standards, inspections)– Comfort (sunlight, fresh air, chairs, etc.)

• Less work time– Weekly days off (began with one, then worked for “weekend”)– Maximum hours per week (8-hour days, 40-hour weeks)

• Higher wages– Minimum wage (set minimum amount a worker can be paid per hour)– Promotion from within

• Special Workers– Child labor (first regulation of hours & types of work, then elimination)– Pregnant women (exposure, physical demands)– Racial/ethnic minorities (Chinese, African-American)

Union Tactics• Collective Bargaining

– ALL workers push for benefits for ALL workers- even across industries or locations

– Replacing one troublesome worker is easy, but replacing everyone at once…

• Labor strikes– Refusal to work until demands are met– Strikebreakers (“scabs”) must also be kept from working

• Appeals to Public– Encourage consumers to boycott products

• Sabotage– Damage to equipment to prevent production

• Violence– Usually directed at scabs

Early UnionsKnights of Labor

• Loose federation of workers from different trades

• Women allowed to join• By 1880, the K of L had led

1,400 strikes involving 600,00 people– Mostly railroad workers

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Craft union (recruited skilled workers)

• Led by Samuel Gompers• Focus on 8-hour day & end of

child labor• Led 37,000 strikes 1881-1905

– Mostly industrial workers

Racism & Unions• African Americans often excluded• Chinese workers paid less; often used as strikebreakers

Radical Unions: the I.W.W. (Wobblies)• Industrial Workers of the World formed 1905• Extreme tactics and socialism

Labor vs. BusinessUnion

demands threaten our

profits and our power!

Unions are anti-American! They’re all

socialists & anarchists!

Fair Pay!

Safe factories!

No child labor!

SocialismFrom the dictionary: a social system in which the means of producing & distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized governmentIn regular words: Everybody (or the government) owns & decides what we make, how we do it, and how we sell it TOGETHER. We all share the profits equally.

AnarchyFrom the dictionary: the absence of all governmental authority or law in a society

Look at it this way: What would school be like if there were no adults here?

Socialism Anarchyversus

You have two cows.

You keep one and give one to your neighbor (or provide your neighbor with free milk). If not, the government will force you to.

You keep both and provide milk at a reasonable price or your neighbors kill you and take the cows.

Who Said This?

B. “To be free, the workers must have choice. To have choice they must retain in their own hands the right to determine under what conditions they will work.”C. “If we take back the labor

unions, the legitimate businesses, eventually they become just another street gang. Spiritually, psychologically, they've always been just a street gang.”

A. “There has never been a free people, a civilized nation, a real republic on this earth. Human society has always consisted of masters and slaves, and the slaves have always been and are today, the foundation stones of the social fabric. Wage-labor is but a name; wage-slavery is the fact.”

• A socialist? • An anarchist? • A

businessman?