Workers in industrial America in the late 19th/early 20th century faced poor working conditions, low wages, and lack of job security. They organized unions to advocate for improved conditions and wages. However, employers opposed unions and used tactics like yellow dog contracts, blacklists, and strikebreakers to discourage union membership. This led to violent clashes between workers and employers. Early unions like the Knights of Labor and AFL focused on craft workers and improving specific issues. The Pullman Strike of 1894 was a major early labor action that was suppressed by the federal government. Over time, with organizations like the Women's Trade Union League and passage of laws like the Wagner Act, unions gained more legitimacy and power to advocate for workers' rights

1. The Rise of Labor Unions

2. Organized Labor Movement
Workers in industrial America faced monotonous work, dangerous working
conditions, and an uneven division of income between the wealthy and the
working class. Workers felt the only way to improve their working environment
was to organize unions.
Conditions that made workers want to reform:
Working conditions were very poor and
factories were often damp, cold, poorly
ventilated, and unsanitary.
Wages were low- $4 or $5 a week.
Men, women, and children often worked 12-16
hour days; 7 days a week.
No job security- Workers lost their jobs during
depressions or injury on the job.

3. Labor Unions
Organizations of workers formed to protect the interests of its members.
Employers hated the unions and often threatened to fire employees who joined
unions or forced them to sign contracts agreeing not to join such organizations.

4. Early Unions
Two types of workers were a part of industrial America.
Craft workers had special skills and were generally paid more. In the 1830s,
craft workers formed trade unions, which were unions limited to people
with specific skills. By 1873 there were 32 trade unions in the United States.
Common laborers had few skills and as a result received lower wages.
Common LaborerCraft Worker

5. Closed Shop
A working establishment where only people belonging to the union are hired.
It was done by the unions to protect their workers from cheap labor.

6. Yellow Dog Contract
A written contract between employers and employees in which the employees
sign an agreement that they will not join a union while working for the
company.

7. Black List
Workers who organized a union or strike were fired and put on a blacklist, a
list of troublemakers. Once blacklisted, a worker could get a job only by
changing trade, residence, or his or her name.

8. Government Views Toward Organized Labor
[Before 1930]
At first, the government was on the side of the businesses. Governors often
sent out the National guard, militia, or allowed the business owners to employ
whatever tactics they wanted to end the strikes. Workers were often severely
injured or often killed. Organized labor leaders were often arrested.

9. Boycotts
People refuse to buy or pay for a company's products or services until the company
meets demands.

10. Strikes
Refusal of employees to work until employers meets certain demands.
Strikes and protests often became violent.

11. Pinkertons
They were a group in Allan Pinkerton’s organization, the National Detective Agency.
They often spied on the unions for the companies. In 1877, when a railroad strike
broke out, they were called in as strikebreakers. In the Homestead Strike, the
Pinkertons fired on the strikers, killing many of them.

12. Homestead Strike
One of the most violent strikes in U.S. history which occurred in 1892. It was
against the Homestead Steel Works, which was part of the Carnegie Steel
Company, in Pennsylvania in retaliation against wage cuts. On July 6, 1892
company guards and Pinkertons opened fire on the strikers after four months
of striking, killing and wounding many strikers. The state militia dispersed the
strikers.

13. American Federation of Labor (AFL)
The most influential labor organization in the late 1800’s led by Samuel
Gompers. The AFL was comprised of only skilled workers, but excluded
women and blacks. Samuel Gompers, who wanted to keep unions out of
politics and to fight for small gains such as higher wages and better working
conditions.
Began in 1886 with about 140,000 members; by
1917 it had 2.5 million members. It is a federation
of different unions.

14. Samuel Gompers
The president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) for over forty
years who stressed cooperation between management and labor instead of
strike actions, as a means of obtaining labor demands. Under Gompers’s
leadership the AFL’s goal was to get companies to recognize unions and
agree to collective bargaining.
Gompers believed unions should stay out of
politics and that they should negotiate rather
than go on strike.

15. American Railway Union
Founded in 1893 by railway workers in Chicago, Illinois the American
Railway Union became under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs.
Unlike the craft unions, the American Railway Union incorporated a policy of
unionizing all railway workers, regardless of craft or service.
Eugene V. Debs

16. Eugene Debs
As the president and the organizer of the American Railway Union, he
helped bring about the shutdown of western railroads with the 1894
Pullman Strike. He was jailed for six months for disobeying a court order
after the strike was over and later became a lecturer and organizer for the
Socialist movement.

17. Pullman Strike
The American Railway Union and Eugene V. Debs led a a strike which
brought about a shutdown of western railroads, which took place against the
Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago in 1894, because of the poor wages
of the Pullman workers. President Grover Cleveland interfered and stopped
the strike by saying that they had interfered with the right of the government
to maintain the uninterrupted transport of mail. Debs was arrested and the
strike was broken up.
Did You Know? During the Pullman strike in July 1894, railroad workers in Chicago went on strike in sympathy with the
employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company. Among the incidents of the strike, strikers burned 600 freight cars in the
Chicago railroad yards. The Governor of Illinois, John Peter Altgeld, was a friend of labor unions and refused to call out the
militia to stop the strike. Over the objections of Governor Altgeld, President Grover Cleveland and his attorney general ordered
2,000 troops to the Chicago area to end the Pullman strike.

18. Knights of Labor
An American labor union originally established as a secret fraternal order
founded in 1869 and noted as the first union of all workers.
The Knights of Labor demanded an eight-hour workday, equal pay for
women, and an end to child labor.

19. Wobblies
The International Workers of the World (Wobblies) were militant and
radical union members who favored socialism and anarchy. They were
disliked by big business and less radical unions.

20. Haymarket Square Riot
A nationwide strike was called to show support of an eight-hour workday. A
meeting at Haymarket Square was scheduled for May 4, 1886 at the
McCormick reaper works in Chicago.
The police were attempting to break up the meeting when a violent gun battle
ensued and several protesters were shot by police. The next day, someone
threw a bomb in which seven police were killed and four more workers were
killed. Although no one ever knew who threw the bomb, one man arrested was
a member of the Knights of Labor. This hurt the reputation of the
organization, and people began dropping out.

21. Women’s Trade Union League
In the early 1900s, women were paid far less than men, and most unions did
not include women.
As a result the Women’s Trade Union League was formed in 1903.
This was the first union organized to address women’s labor issues.

22. Collective Bargaining
Process through which employees negotiate as a united group rather than
individuals, thereby increasing their bargaining power.

23. Mediation
When a neutral third party (in some cases, the government) gets involved to
help negotiate a settlement that is acceptable to both sides.

24. Arbitration
A form of mediation in which the mediating third party is granted authority to
pronounce a finding that both sides consider legally binding.

25. Injunctions
An injunction is a court order generally used against strikers to end a strike
and return to work.

26. Law which guaranteed the right for workers to join unions.
Government views toward organized changed after 1930 as the more public
support for workers increased.
Wagner Act of 1935

27. Improved Labor Laws
Compensation for injury on the job.
Insurance provided for old age, sickness, and illness.
Minimum wage protection
Free medical, dental, and eye care.
Vacation allowance and pay.