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LABOR, UNIONS, & STRIKES in the GILDED

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LABOR, UNIONS, & STRIKES in the GILDED LABOR, UNIONS, & STRIKES in the GILDED AGE EXPLAIN THE SOCIOECONOMIC CONTINUITIES/CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM FROM 1865 TO 1877 [TOPIC 6.7] Dangerous factory conditions Plight of ◦ Dangerous machinery Labor ◦ Unhealthy ◦ Seasonal layoffs and boom/bust cycles ◦ Long hours and low wages ◦ 10-12 hrs/day 6 days a week ◦ Hired women & children for less Poor Standard of Living Attempts to organize difficult ◦ Mobile work force ◦ Large number of immigrants ◦ Divisions within work force ◦ Represented only a small % of workers ◦ Excluded women, blacks, immigrants ◦ Opposition from wealthy & powerful corporations who had support from governments 1 1.7 million children under age of 16 working 10 hours a day 38 states will enact compulsory education laws to stop child labor 2 Management vs. Labor “Tools” of “Tools” of Labor Management boycotts “scabs” closed shops Pinkertons organized lockout strikes blacklisting “wildcat” strikes court injunctions open shop Knights of Labor 1869 An injury to one is the concern of all! Uriah Stephens Terence V. Powderly - Open membership: women, racial minorities, unskilled workers - 8-hr workday, abolition of child labor - Replace wage system with a cooperative system 3 The American Federation of Labor: 1886 Catered to the skilled worker Pushed for closed shops: excluded unskilled, women & racial minorities Concentrated on wages, hours & working conditions By 1904, membership reached 1.7 million Samuel Gompers The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 •Nation’s first national labor conflict, triggered by Panic of 1873 •Caused mass hysteria as strikers disrupted rail service, destroyed equipment and rioted in the streets •Pres. Hayes called in state militias & federal troops were sent in to suppress the uprising in Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia 4 Haymarket Riot (1886) •Coincided with a general strike called by AFL On May 1, 1886 •7 police are killed in a bomb •8 “anarchists” are arrested & charged with murder •Unions became associated with chaos, radicalism and anarchism •Continued violent strikes of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. 1890s did little to diminish this image • Homestead Strike 1892 • Pullman Strike 1894 Homestead Steel Strike (1892) oSkilled work declined as Carnegie streamlined production and cut wages by 20%. Strike was called. oPlant was closed and 300 Pinkertons sent in to protect scab workers oStrikers & Pinkertons clashed oStrike was broken by National Guard and public opinion turned against the union oMembership declined 2/3 in a decade The Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers (AFL 5 The Pullman Strike Wages slashed by 25% but refused of 1894 to cuts prices in the company town Pullman workers went on strike and convinced American Railway Union to join them paralyzing rail transportation nationwide (27 states/territories) President Cleveland ordered 2,000 federal troops to Chicago using pretext of the halt of mail delivery Eugene Debs and other Union leaders arrested – organizes Socialist party New workers hired Strike collapsed 6.
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