L13(14): Unionism: Reaction to the Gilded Age1869-early 1900s

AgendaObjective:1.To understand the main

people and events in the history of the American labor movement.

2. To evaluate when unionism was not more successful in the United States.

3.To evaluate the implications of a less than successful labor movement on U.S. history.

Schedule: 4. Lecture5. Discussion

HomeworkNone

Entities in American Society Post-Gilded Age

People

Corporations

Government

Entities in American Society Post-Gilded Age

People

Corporations

Government

Entities in American Society Post-Gilded Age

People

Corporations

Government

Labor Union

Labor Unions Form

• In response to working conditions and attitudes towards labor, labor unions begin to form during the Gilded Age

• What is a labor union?• What advantages does

it confer to workers?• How might

management feel about labor unions?

The Knights of Labor• First major labor union in

the United States• Founded in 1869 by a

group of garment workers.

• Sought to include all workers in one big union.

• Skilled and unskilled, men and women, whites and blacks, were all allowed to join

• Hundreds of thousands of workers in the 1880s were “baptized” in a Knights of Labor initiation ceremony that required the following promises.

What do the Knights of Labor Believe?“In the Beginning . . .” A Knight’s Sacred Oath

In the beginning, God ordained that man should labor, not as a curse, but as a blessing; not as a punishment, but as means of development, physically, mentally, morally, and has set thereunto his seal of approval in the rich increase and reward.

By labor is brought forward the kindly fruits of the earth in rich abundance for our sustenance and comfort; by labor (not exhaustive) is promoted health of the

body and strength of mind, labor garners the priceless stores of wisdom and knowledge.

To glorify God in its exercise, to defend it from degradation, to divest it of the evils to body, mind, and estate, which ignorance and greed have imposed; to

rescue the toiler from the grasp of the selfish is a work worthy of the noblest and best of our race.

You have been selected from among your associates for that exalted purpose. Are you willing to accept the responsibility, and, trusting in the support of pledged

true Knights, labor, with what ability you possess, for the triumph of these principles among men?

HoursWagesConditions

Corporate Industrialization/Capitalism K of L

At the same time…

• At the same time the Knights of Labor are forming, workers are becoming increasingly outraged with their working conditions and are responding with action…

The Railroad Strike of 1877Background• In the wake of the Panic of 1873, bitter antagonism between workers and

leader of industry developed.• The B&O Railroad declared a 10% wage cut for workers. Details • In protest, workers throughout the United States went on strike and refused

to run the trains• First strike in the U.S.• Not organized by a labor union, most were spontaneous• This threw the country into turmoil

– Trains aren’t running; people are protesting

• President Rutherford B. Hayes calls in Federal Troops to take control and open up railroads

– Sent troops from city to city to take down strikers– Strike ends 45 days after it began

• Over 100 people killed across USA

The Railroad Strike of 1877Why did the U.S. government intervene on the side of the railroad owners rather than workers?• Pro-Business Attitudes of the Government Throughout the

Gilded Age • Economic Self-Interest: No trains, no $• Perception of the Strikers

– Germans (Germans immigrants, not real Americans were responsible)– Lazy/Idle (Strikers were lazy vagrants, not people who were willing to work for a living)– Communists (Strikers were communist sympathizers)

The Haymarket Riot of 1886Background• The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions set May 1, 1886 as a day of protest

to demand an 8 hour work day for all workers in America• Thousands of workers went on strike throughout the United States• Workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago are part of this

protest

DetailsMay 2• In Chicago, clashes between strikers and temporary hires (scabs) turns violent• The Chicago Police called in to bring order, but kill several strikersMay 3• Outraged by this act of police violence, local anarchists called for a rally

– Printed fliers in German and English that claimed that the police had murdered the strikers on behalf of business interests and urged the workers to seek justice

• 1,00 to 3,0000 people show up to hear protest speeches• Police show up to control the crowd• Bomb was thrown at police and the police responded by firing on the crowd

– In total, 7 policemen and 4 civilians were killed

The Haymarket Riot 1886Aftermath• Police raided the office of a radical German workers’

newspaper believing that its workers were the likely culprits

• Arrested a total of eight known anarchists– Shady/sparse evidence linking some to bomb-making,

speaking at the Haymarket Rally, or merely being an anarchist

– 6 Germans/ German-Americans– 2 of British heritage– 7 sentenced to death and 1 to a term of 15 years in prison

Significance• Harsh Anti-Union sentiment begin to develop in America• Unions were decried as:

– Violent– Anarchist– German

• Union membership declines in America• Radical workers’ rights activists and anarchists are

catalyzed to greater action• Suggests for some the need for a more moderate

unionism…AFL

The American Federation of Labor• The American Federation of

Labor was founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers as an alliance of craft unions comprised of mostly skilled workers.

• Gompers became synonymous with the union, serving as its President every single year (except one) between 1886 and 1924.

• Unlike the Knights of Labor, the AFL was open to skilled, white men only.

• By 1904 the AFL had a membership of 1.7 million and by World War One it had 2 million members

• Merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955

• Today is the largest federation of unions in the United States with more than 11 million members

What Did the AFL believe? Consider the following quotes from

Gompers…• “[I]f you wish to improve the condition of the people, you must

improve their habits and customs.  The reduction of the hours of labor reaches the very root of society.  It gives the workingman better conditions and better opportunities and makes of him what has been too long neglected -- a consumer instead of a mere producer. . . .  A man who goes to his work before the dawn of day requires no clean shirt to go to work in, but is content to go in any old overall . . . but a man who goes to work at 8 o'clock in the morning wants a clean shirt; he is afraid his friends will see him, so he does not want to be dirty.  He also requires a newspaper; while a man who goes to work early in the morning and stays late at night does not need a newspaper, for he has no time to read it, requiring all the time he has to recuperate his strength sufficiently to get ready for his next day's work.”

• “The Trade Unions…regard the workman as the producer of the wealth of the world and demands that wages, shall be sufficient to enable him to support his family in a manner consistent with existing civilization and all that is required for maintaining and improving physical and mental health and the self respect of human beings.”

What the AFL believed• The group from the outset concentrated

upon the income and working conditions of its membership as its almost sole focus.

• Fundamentally conservative "pure and simple" approach

• Favored pursuit of workers' immediate demands rather than challenging the property rights of owners, and took a pragmatic view of politics which favored tactical support for particular politicians over formation of a party devoted to workers’ interests.

• The AFL's leadership believed the expansion of the capitalist system was seen as the path to betterment of labor, an orientation making it possible for the AFL to present itself as what one historian has called "the conservative alternative to working class radicalism."

HoursWagesConditions

Corporate Industrialization/Capitalism

AFL

K of L

Question Activists Are Asking:Is Corporate Industrialization Here to Stay?

Reactionaries: No! (Populists & AFL)

• Go back to the way life was before the creation of corporations!

• Uproot the system and go back!• Union: Knights of Labor• Political Movement/Ideology: Populism

Reformers: Yes!(Progressives & AFL)

• We have to accept the existence of corporate industrialization, but we can reform it to make it better for the people

• The roots of the system are here to stay, but we can pick the weeds!

• Union: American Federation of Labor• Political Movement/Ideology:

Progressivism

Revolutionaries: No!(Socialists)

• Destroy the capitalist system and create a new system predicated on workers rights and primacy in society

• Union: None• Political Movement/Ideology: Socialism

The Homestead Strike of 1892

Background• Unionized workers at Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, PA sought a new contract with

their employer – Union = Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers

• Plant manager Henry Clay Frick refused to renegotiate a new union contract• Frick, backed by Carnegie, cut wages in response to their asking for a new contractDetails• In an effort to break the union, Frick locks out the workers

– He seals the plant to workers by edging it with barbed wires, sniper towers, and high-pressure water cannons

• In response, the workers declare a strike• Frick hires replacement workers (scabs) and a private security force (Pinkertons) to protect

them • Strikers and and the Pinkertons clash and exchange gun fire and violence…things get crazy….

– Pinkertons trying to land by barge were shot at– Strikers attempted to burn the barges and threw dynamite at them– Strikers lit railroad cars in the mill on fire

• Pennsylvania Governor calls in the state militia to restore order

– Militia was successful at getting scabs into the mill to work– Were able to restore the factory to full capacity

• Anarchist attempt to assassinate Frick• AFL chose to ignore the unions pleas for help, the strike broke down• Union voted to return to work on Carnegie’s terms

The Homestead Strike 1892

Result:• Workers wages dropped from an

average of $2.25/day to $1.89/day• Would be 45 years before Carnegie

Steel Mill would do business with unionized workers

Significance: • Broke the AA as a force in the

American labor movement• Showed that labor movements

would be minimally effective so long as:– There was a steady stream of scabs

willing to cross picket lines– The government would use its power

to defeat labor and prop up business

The Pullman Strike of 1894Background• Pullman company made railroad cars • Founded by George Pullman• Most of the workers lived in the company town of Pullman, Il• When his company laid off workers and lowered wages it did not reduce rent in the town, and the workers called for a strike.• Most workers were not unionized, so they reached

out to Eugene Debs the President of the American Railway Union to sign up.

• The Pullman Company refused to negotiate with the ARU

Details• Debs decides that:

– Workers should strike– There should be a massive boycott against all trains that

carried the Pullman car– Within four days, 125,000 workers on 29 railroads had

walked off the job rather than handle Pullman cars– Wanted a general strike of all union members in Chicago

by Gompers, head of the AFL, said no

The Pullman Strike 1894Details (continued…)• Under direction from President Grover Cleveland, U.S. Attorney General issued an

injunction demanding that the strikers cease their activities• Debs ignored the injunction• Cleveland sent federal troops to various cities in the U.S. to use force to get the

strikers back to work• Cleveland calls for Debs arrest on federal charges of obstructing the U.S. Mail

– SCOTUS rules in In Re Debs that the federal government had the right to issue the injunction– Deb sentenced to six months in prison

Public Opinion of the Strike• Media coverage was extensive and negative• Media depicted the boycotters as foreigners who were trying to sabotage AmericaAftermath• Debs’ time in prison radicalizes him. There he reads Marx and decides to dedicate his life to socialism• After his release from jail he becomes the leading socialist figure in the United States• Runs for president 5 times as the head of the Socialist Party• In an effort to placate organized labor after the strike, Cleveland and Congress created Labor Day as a federal holiday.

Concluding Thoughts

• How would you characterize the nature of unionism in the United States?

• Why wasn’t unionism more successful?

• What has been the effect of an unsuccessful labor movement in the United States?