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Wages were so low that everyone in the family had to work (men, women and children)
Factory workers worked twelve to fourteen hours a day, six or seven days a week
Employees were not entitled to vacations, sick leave, unemployment compensation or payment for on the job injuries
Injuries occurred very frequently
Factories were dirty, poorly lit, lacked sufficient ventilation, and had dangerous equipment
"Sweat of the laborer lubricated the vast new industrial machine. Yet the wage workers did not share proportionately with their employers in the benefits of the age of big business."
1. Industrialization radically transformed the practices of labor and the condition of American working people. But despite frequent industrial strife and the efforts of various reformers and unions, workers failed to develop effective labor organizations to match corporate forms of business
2. 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America (generate notes from first 9 minutes - it does a nice job of re-setting the social and economic state of affairs in the U.S. between 1877 and 1900)
Factories first appeared in the United States during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. The owners of the factories required people to work long hours at low pay. Buildings were poorly lighted and heated. Many jobs were dirty, monotonous and dangerous. But is a worker complained, he was quickly replaced by one of the many persons looking for a job.
As time went on, some workers decided to join together and make demands as a group. It would be harder for the factory owner to replace a group of experienced workers than a single worker. Such an organization was called a “labor union”. The union wanted higher wages, fewer hours of work, and better working conditions.
A number of weak local unions appeared during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. But it was not until after the Civil War that stronger national unions were organized. These included the Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor, and Congress of Industrial Organizations. The letter two unions eventually merged in 1955 to form the powerful AFL-CIO.
Labor Management (Tools used by both sides) labor unions had a difficult time achieving their goals of higher pay, shorter hours, and improved working conditions. Factory owners were strongly against the formation of unions
The Nation’s First Labor Conflicts and Strikes
The struggle between labor and management erupted into three bitter strikes during the late 1800’s.
Remember from out discussion that labor unrest was a dis-unifying element during the age of industry in America. This leads to labor conflicts 1880-1890 .These conflicts will disrupt the entire economy
Commonwealth v. Hunt(1842) was a landmark legal decision issued by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the subject of labor unions. Before this decision, labor unions which attempted to 'close' or create a unionized workplace could be charged with conspiracy. However, in March 1842, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that unions were legal organizations and had the right to organize a strike.
Lowell, Massachusetts (1845) Some of the earliest organizing by women occurred in Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1845, the trade union of the Lowell mills sent representatives to speak to the Massachusetts legislature about conditions in the factories, leading to the first governmental investigation into working conditions. The mill strikes of 1834 and 1836, while largely unsuccessful, involved upwards of 2,000 workers and represented a substantial organizational effort Railroad Strike of 1877 This was the first large-scale strike in the United States. Several railroad companies announced a wage cut, prompting the workers to walk off their jobs. Other workers were hired to keep the trains running. Violence broke out between the strikers and the local militia. Considerable property was destroyed before President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops. Order was restored and the trains resumed their schedules. The strikers, fearful of losing their jobs, accepted the pay cut and went back to work.
Haymarket Riot (1886) In 1886, there was a great upheaval of labor and the Knights became involved in several May Day strikes, which included several hundred thousand workers across the country.
On the night of July 5, 1892, hundreds of Pinkerton guards boarded barges 5 miles down the river from Homestead and moved toward the plant, where ten thousand strikers and sympathizers waited. The crowd warned the Pinkertons not to step off the barge. A striker lay down on the gangplank, and when a Pinkerton man tried to shove him aside, he fired, wounding the detective in the thigh. In the gunfire that followed on both sides, seven workers were killed
Pullman Strike (1894) Workers at the Pullman Company’s sleeping car manufacturing plant went on strike rather than accept a 25 percent reduction in wages. They were supported by the American Railway Union. The union disrupted train service across the country and seriously slowed the delivery of the U.S. mail. Public opinion shifted against the Pullman workers. A judge issued an injunction ordering the union to stop interrupting rail service and the delivery of mail. When the strikers ignored the injunction, President Grover Cleveland send in cavalry, infantry, and artillery. Mobs turned to violence as riots broke out in many cities. Several workers were killed and many more wounded before peace was finally restored. The strike leaders were arrested for violating the injunction, and train service returned to normal.
The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Some two dozen people, including women and children, were killed; John D. Rockefeller Jr. , the chief mine owner, was pilloried for what had happened.
The massacre, the culmination of a bloody widespread strike against Colorado coal mines, resulted in the violent deaths of between 19 and 25 people; reported death tolls vary but include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent. The deaths occurred after a daylong fight between militia and camp guards against striking workers. Ludlow was the deadliest single incident in the southern Colorado Coal Strike, lasting from September 1913 through December 1914. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three largest companies involved were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF).
Woody Guthrie – Ludlow Massacre Lyrics
It was early springtime that the strike was on They moved us miners out of doors Out from the houses that the company owned We moved into tents at old Ludlow
I was worried bad about my children Soldiers guarding the railroad bridge Every once in a while a bullet would fly Kick up gravel under my feet We were so afraid they would kill our children We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep Carried our young ones and a pregnant woman Down inside the cave to sleep
That very night you soldier waited Until us miners were asleep You snuck around our little tent town Soaked our tents with your kerosene
You struck a match and the blaze it started You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me Thirteen children died from your guns
I carried my blanket to a wire fence corner Watched the fire till the blaze died down I helped some people grab their belongings While your bullets killed us all around
I will never forget the looks on the faces Of the men and women that awful day When we stood around to preach their funerals And lay the corpses of the dead away
We told the Colorado governor to call the President Tell him to call off his National Guard But the National Guard belong to the governor So he didn't try so very hard
Our women from Trinidad they hauled some potatoes Up to Walsenburg in a little cart They sold their potatoes and brought some guns back And put a gun in every hand
The state soldiers jumped us in a wire fence corner They did not know that we had these guns And the red neck miners mowed down them troopers You should have seen those poor boys run
We took some cement and walled that cave up Where you killed those thirteen children inside I said, "God bless the Mine Workers' Union" And then I hung my head and cried
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