Chapter 19, Section 3Industrial Workers

Decline of Working Conditions

• Machines run by unskilled workers were eliminating the jobs of many skilled craftspeople

• Low paid workers could be easily replaced

• Specialization made workers tired, bored and more likely to be injured

Knights of Labor• Who? – members included all

factory workers (skilled and unskilled); founded by Terence Powderly

• What? – first national labor union which pushed for equal work, end to child labor, and govt. regulation of trusts

• When? – 1870s• Where? – US (cities)• Why important? – first national

attempt to improve working conditions for industrial workers

GOSPEL OF THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR:“We work not selfishly alone, but extend the hand of fellowship to all mankind” -- Terence Powderly

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American Federation of Labor• Who? – members included skilled

workers only; founded by Samuel Gompers

• What? – early national labor union that linked smaller crafts unions for different trades together into one national organization

• When? – late 1800s• Where? – US (cities)• Why Important? – tried to get skilled

workers better working conditions, hours, and working conditions

Collective Bargaining

• Who? – workers and management

• What? – workers get to negotiate with management as a group instead of individually to hopefully improve their working conditions

• When? – began in late 1800s• Where? – US• Why Important? –

Private sector workers have this right. Should public workers, too?

Mary Harris Jones• She was an Irish immigrant who

became a well-known speaker for workers rights

• She was a dressmaker and after her husband and three children died of yellow fever and her workshop burned down she became an organizer for the Knights of Labor

• Later she helped organize miners strikes and educate workers

• She gained the nickname “Mother Jones” when she was still organizing workers well into her 60s

Haymarket Riot • Workers at the McCormack Harvester Company in Chicago went on strike for an 8 hour day

• 2 strikers were killed by police at the strike

• The next day a workers rally was held to support the strike at Haymarket Square

• A bomb exploded killing some police officers

• The police opened fire on the people at the rally

• People connected this kind of labor to the Knights of Labor, and membership in that union sharply declined

Homestead Strike• Workers at Andrew Carnegie’s

steel mill at Homestead, PA protested a company plan to buy new machinery to cut jobs

• The company hired strikebreakers to take the place of striking workers

• The workers seized the plant and shot at the Pinkerton agents hired to take back the plant

• The Governor of PA called in the state militia to restore order

• Fighting took place for months, but the union was defeated

Pullman Strike • Workers in the company town for George Pullman’s railroad car factory went on strike

• They were protesting the lay off of half of the workers and the lowering of pay for the remaining workers

• Workers stopped traffic on railroad lines

• Federal courts ordered workers to return to their jobs, but they refused

• President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to Chicago to stop the strike