Workers Organize
An Industrial Society1860-1914
Chapter 20, Section 4
Essential Questions
• What are the responsibilities of business leaders who own companies to their employees (workers)?
• How have the rights and benefits gained by unions during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s benefited workers in the United States today?
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones
• Labor Leader!– Fought for Workers
Rights!
• Organized Meetings, Gave Speeches, Helped Striking Workers
• Lost Her Family to Yellow Fever, Then Her Business Years Later to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871
Keeping High Profits $$$• Business Owners Ran
Their Factories as CHEAPLYCHEAPLY as Possible:
• Required Workers to Buy Their Own Tools & Bring Their Own Coal to Stay Warm (Wouldn’t Turn on Heat in Factories) Save $$$
• Refused to Buy Safety Equipment– No Air Brakes– 30,000 People Injured– 2,000 Killed Per Year
Sweatshops• Places Where
Workers Worked Long Hours
• Poor Working Conditions (Unsafe) & Low Wages
• Children & Adults Worked in Sweatshops
Factory Workers in 1880’s
• Workers Did the Same Job All Day Long!
• Grew Bored = DANGEROUS
• Workers Got Paid Less Than $10 Per Week– What’s WRONG with
This?
• If Worker Was Sick or Injured on the Job, FIRED!
What’s Wrong Here?
The Birth of Labor Unions
• Unhappy Workers Started to Join Together to Improve Their Lives
• Formed Labor Unions
• Negotiated/Fought with Business Owners to Obtain Better Pay & Safer Working Conditions
The Knights of Labor• One of the 1st Labor
Unions Ever to Fight for Workers Rights
• Allowed Women & African Americans into the Union
• Didn’t Care About Gender or Race, Just Workers Rights!
• Inspired People to Join!
U.S. Depression of 1873
• U.S. Went Through a Depression for 44 Years
• Millions of Workers Had Their Wages Cut
• 1/5th (20%) of Workers Lost Their Jobs!
The B & O Railroad Strike (The Railroad Strike of
1877)• In 1877, The B & O
Railroad Company Cut Workers Wages by 10%
• The B & O Railroad Workers Went on Strike
• No Railroads Operated!
• Other Railroad Workers Heard About the Strike & Went on Strike Too!– The Country Came to a
Halt!
The Railroad Strike of 1877
• All Railroads Came to a Halt in the United States!
• No Railroads = No Transportation = No Trade = No $$$
• September 11th Phone Calls
• What Did President Rutherford B. Hayes Do?
Railroad Strike of 1884-1885
• In 1884-1885, Railroad Workers Went on Strike Against the Union Pacific Railroads
• Workers Were Members of the Knights of Labor
• The Union Won Better Wages for Workers!
• As a Result, Union Membership Increased!
Socialism• An Economic System in
Which ALL Members of a Country are Equal Owners of All the Businesses!
• Everyone Gets Paid Equal! – Doesn’t Matter What Type
of Job You Have!
• Everyone Shares the Work & the Profits:– No Rich, No Poor, No
Middle Class!
Anarchy/Anarchists
• Anarchists Want No Government at ALL!
• They Want to Abolish All Governments!
• Very Extreme!
Fear of Socialism/Anarchy
• If YOU Owned Your Own Business/ Factory, Why Would You Be Afraid of Unions???
• Strikes???
• Socialism???
The Haymarket Affair• In Chicago (1886),
The McCormick Harvester Company Fired Striking Workers
• Hired Strikebreakers (Non Union Workers) (Scabs) to Work
• Union Members (Strikers) & Strikebreakers & Police Fought! 1 Person Was Killed!
The Haymarket Affair• The Next Day, Union
Members Called for a Huge Rally to Protest the Scabs!
• Police Moved in to End the Rally!
• Someone Threw a Bomb! 77 Cops Were Killed, 60 People Wounded
• Police Opened Fire on the Crowd!
Results of the Haymarket Affair
• After the Haymarket Affair, Police Arrested Hundreds of Union Leaders, Socialists & Anarchists
• People Hated Unions! Blamed Them for the Violence!
• Union Membership Decreased!
The Homestead Strike• In 1892, Andrew
Carnegie Cut Wages at Steel Mill in Homestead, Penn.
• Union Did Not Accept the Pay Cut!
• Carnegie Locked Out the Workers:– Hired Strikebreakers!
• Hired 300 Armed Guards to Protect the Scabs!
The Homestead Strike• Locked Out Workers
Went Home & Came Back with Weapons!
• Battle Broke Out! 10 People Were Killed!
• Penn. State Troopers Had to Escort Scabs into the Steel Mill for 44 Months. – Protect Scabs from the
Locked Out Workers
• Strike Failed! Union Looked Weak!
The Pullman Strike• In 1894, The Pullman
Palace Car Company (Railroad Co.) Cut Workers Pay 25%
• The Company Did Not Lower Rent for Workers Staying in Company Apartment Buildings
• Workers Made Almost Nothing After Paying Rent!
• Workers Went on Strike!
The Pullman Strike• In 1894, Eugene Debs
(Union President), Called for All Railroad Workers to go on Strike!
• Shut Down the Country!
• Workers Used Violence!
• President Grover Cleveland Had to Call Out the U.S. Army to End the Strike– Debs Was Thrown in
Jail!
Proctor & Gamble
• Proctor & Gamble Took a Different Approach:– Gave Employees
an Extra ½ Day Off– Started a Profit
Sharing Plan with Employees
– Gave Employees Some of Their Salary in Shares of Stock
– WHY???
Samuel Gompers• Samueal Gompers
– Founder of the AFL (American Federation of Labor)
• AFL Fought For Improved Working Conditions!– Achieved Shorter
Working Hours & Better Pay
• Used Methods Such As:– Strikes– Boycotts– Negotiations– ALL PEACEFUL!
Essential Questions
• What are the responsibilities of business leaders who own companies to their employees (workers)?
• How have the rights and benefits gained by unions during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s benefited workers in the United States today?