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 PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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
For poor, unskilled citizens and newly arrived immigrants, urban life could be hard and challenging
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
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
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
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
Tailoring was the industry that used sweatshops most often
Child Labor
“child labor” means under 14 children poorly paid girls receive much lower wages than
boys
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
Young Driver - West Virginia, September 1909.
Young Miners, South Pittston Pa., January 6, 1911
Adolescent girls from Bibb, Mfg. Co. in Georgia
Mill workers mending broken threads on bobbins.
Young cigar makers in Engelhardt and Co.
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.
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."
“Galley Labor”
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
And after the fire women began to march for a union
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
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.
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.
Labor Unrest
Crossed purposes employees seek to humanize the factory employers try to apply strict laws of the
market
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
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
A Striker Confronts a SCAB!
Labor Strikes, 1870-1890
The “Formul
a”
unions + violence + strikes + socialists + immigrants = anarchists
Business leaders react
Unions were prevented by: Not hiring union workers Banning union meetings Using the courts and troops to stop
unions
Labor Union Membership
Workers Benefits Today
The Rise & Decline of Organized Labor
Right-to-Work States Today