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Labor Movement

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Labor Movement. Labor Force Distribution 1870-1900. The Changing American Labor Force. Living and Working conditions. While industrialization brought with it a number of innovations and increased job opportunities It also produced problems within the cities - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Labor Movement

Labor Movement

Page 2: Labor Movement

Labor Force Distribution

1870-1900

Page 3: Labor Movement

The Changing American

Labor Force

Page 4: Labor Movement

Living and Working conditions While industrialization brought with it

a number of innovations and increased job opportunities

It also produced problems within the cities

For poor, unskilled citizens and newly arrived immigrants, urban life could be hard and challenging

Page 5: Labor Movement

Over and over and over for 12-14 hours a day Working conditions were often

difficult for everyone involved. Factories relied on the work of

specialized laborers with machines that performed the same task over and over and over

Work was really monotonous and left employees feeling very little sense of pride

Page 6: Labor Movement

And you thought you had it bad!!! Whole families tended to work because

wages were low and no one person could make enough to support a whole household

Men, women, and children worked in mills and factories

Usually at least twelve hours a day Women tended to be limited to running

simple machines and were given almost no opportunity at all for advancement

Page 7: Labor Movement

The Workers

Chronically low wages average wages $400-500 per year salary required for decent living $600

per year Dangerous working conditions

railroad injury rate 1 in 26, death rate 1 in 399

factory workers suffer chronic illness from pollutants

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Oooo sweat! Sweatshops were also hazardous These were makeshift factories set up by

private contractors in small apartments or unused buildings

Since factories often needed more production than they had room to produce, they would hire these contractors and then pay them by production

Often poorly lit, poorly ventilated and unsafe, sweatshops relied on poor workers, usually immigrants, who worked long hours for very little pay

Page 10: Labor Movement

Tailoring was the industry that used sweatshops most often

Page 11: Labor Movement

Child Labor

“child labor” means under 14 children poorly paid girls receive much lower wages than

boys

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Can you imagine? Children, some as young as five years old-

had to leave school in order to work This not only meant that they missed out

on a childhood But without education they were

inevitably caught in an endless cycle of poverty as well

Page 14: Labor Movement

Young Driver - West Virginia, September 1909.

Young Miners, South Pittston Pa., January 6, 1911

Page 15: Labor Movement

Adolescent girls from Bibb, Mfg. Co. in Georgia

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Mill workers mending broken threads on bobbins.

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Young cigar makers in Engelhardt and Co.

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Child Labor To keep them awake, their bosses beat

them. Their tiny hands could fix broken bobbins

and thread the machines. The dangerous machinery injured many of

the children. The fluff from the cloth would fill their

lungs. Many of them were victims of stunted

growth because they were never outside in the sunshine.

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And I Quote:"The spinning-room overseer had the task of maintaining production. He did it by instilling fear and inflicting pain - children were beaten simply to keep them awake towards the end of their 14 or 15-hour day."

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“Galley Labor”

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Can you believe this? One event that highlighted how dangerous

industrial work could be was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911

On March 25 of that year, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City

Many of the exit doors to the factory were locked to keep employees from stealing

The fire killed 146 people and led to increased demands for safer working conditions

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And after the fire women began to march for a union

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Labor Unions Knights of Labor: 1st industrial union

unskilled/skilled workers demanded reforms in child labor, safety, hours (8 hr day), equal pay for women (Radical)

1886--Samuel Gompers founds American Federation of Labor A.F.L. seeks practical improvements for

wages, working conditions▪ focus on skilled workers▪ ignores women, African Americans

Page 34: Labor Movement

Goals of the Knights of Laborù Eight-hour workday.

ù Workers’ cooperatives.ù Worker-owned factories.ù Abolition of child and prison labor.ù Increased circulation of greenbacks.ù Equal pay for men and women.ù Safety codes in the workplace.ù Prohibition of contract foreign labor.ù Abolition of the National Bank.

Page 35: Labor Movement

How the AF of L Would Help the

Workersù Catered to the skilled worker.ù Represented workers in matters of

national legislation.ù Maintained a national strike fund.ù Evangelized the cause of unionism.ù Prevented disputes among the many

craft unions.ù Mediated disputes between

management and labor.ù Pushed for closed shops.

Page 36: Labor Movement

Labor Unrest

Crossed purposes employees seek to humanize the factory employers try to apply strict laws of the

market

Page 37: Labor Movement

An era of strikes Great RR Strike of 1877: RR shut down, Hayes

used army to end strike Haymarket Square Riot: bomb killed 7

policeman, police fired on strikers Homestead Strike: Carnegie hired Pinkertons to

violently end strike Pullman Strike: RR shut down, federal troops

brought in and people get hurt and lose their jobs.

Bread and Roses: Lawrence ,MA, habeas corpus denied, military law declared, favored workers

Page 38: Labor Movement

Management vs. Labor

“Tools” of Management

“Tools” of Labor

“scabs” P. R. campaign Pinkertons lockout blacklisting yellow-dog

contracts court injunctions open shop

boycotts sympathy

demonstrations informational

picketing closed shops organized

strikes “wildcat” strikes

Page 39: Labor Movement

A Striker Confronts a SCAB!

Page 40: Labor Movement

Labor Strikes, 1870-1890

Page 41: Labor Movement

The “Formul

a”

unions + violence + strikes + socialists + immigrants = anarchists

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Business leaders react

Unions were prevented by: Not hiring union workers Banning union meetings Using the courts and troops to stop

unions

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Labor Union Membership

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Workers Benefits Today

Page 45: Labor Movement

The Rise & Decline of Organized Labor

Page 46: Labor Movement

Right-to-Work States Today