1) Labor unions began forming in the early 1800s but did not gain significant membership until the 1860s-1870s due to harsh working conditions during industrialization.
2) Two major early unions were the Knights of Labor, founded in 1869, which advocated for broad reforms, and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), founded in 1886, which focused on practical wage and hour issues for skilled workers.
3) Violent strikes in the 1870s-1890s undermined public support for unions and gave companies legal tools to resist organizing, weakening the labor movement for decades until reforms of the 1930s.
The history of trade unions, from the dawn of the labor movement in Great Britain, mainland Europe, and the United States in the 19th century to the successes and challenges in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The history of trade unions, from the dawn of the labor movement in Great Britain, mainland Europe, and the United States in the 19th century to the successes and challenges in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Top of FormExpected OutcomesTo understand the political ec.docxedwardmarivel
Top of Form
Expected Outcomes
To understand the political economy of the United States, and to critically evaluate various theories and approaches regarding the pressing and controversial economic issues of today.
Overview
Politics is partly the business of determining “who gets what, when, and how,” so it is important to consider several macro-economic issues in any introductory course to American government and politics. This area of study can be considered “political economy.” Labor laws, entitlement programs, corporate welfare, globalization and outsourcing are all considered in this lesson.
What can and should the federal government do about these issues?
Labor and Unions
The labor movement is the story of “rise” and “fall.” A century ago, the labor union was in its infancy. While many people associate today’s labor movement with strong unions (and sometimes with unreasonable demands for higher wages and more benefits), the labor movement actually has its origins in fighting for basic work safety. It also fought against child labor.
Eventually, despite local, state and federal obstacles (including several Supreme Court decisions), the labor movement accomplished many of its goals. In fact, some economists argue that the labor movement became too successful as it was able to secure unsustainably-generous contracts from automobile manufacturers, for instance.
Indeed, the “fall” of the labor movement can be seen in the massive layoffs in the industrial sector. General Motors, for example, laid off more than 25,000 employees – largely because GM could no longer afford to pay them the wages and benefits that the United Auto Workers (UAW) had secured in the 1980s and 1990s.
Furthermore, union membership has been continually falling for several decades – measured as a percentage of the labor force. The right to strike is taken as a given. At the outset of the American Industrial Revolution, however, it was often illegal for workers to organize into unions and strike.
In the 1880s, George Pullman built the town of Pullman near Chicago to manufacture his famous railway cars. All buildings in the town were company owned and rented to workers, churches, and stores. The company cut wages a number of times in the 1880s, but it failed to reduce the rent in the company-owned housing. Workers went on strike. Sympathetic railway workers across the country boycotted trains carrying Pullman cars. Federal troops were called in to keep the trains moving and to break the strike, prompting violence and looting in Chicago in 1894. With the arrest of the leaders in Chicago, the strike collapsed.
A demonstration over an 8-hour working day in Chicago drew about 1,500 people in 1886. When police attempted to disperse the meeting, a bomb exploded and rioting ensued. Seven policemen and four other persons were killed, and more than 100 persons were wounded. Eight “anarchist” leaders were convicted of inciting violence. Four were hanged, one comm ...
The Progressive EraTriangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.docxoscars29
The Progressive Era
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Shirtwaists
Factory Work
Horror
Press Accounts
Anger
Union Response
Progressivism
• Influential reform movement – mid 1890s-end of WWI
• Many impulses – both liberal and conservative;
Republican and Democrat
• Desired to soften the harsh impact of industrialization,
urbanization and immigration
• Began in the cities among the middle classes
• First nationwide reform movement
General Middle Class Unease
• America now a world power with an empire
• Most productive industrial nation
• Dramatic economic and demographic changes
• Social Problems
Specific Developments
• Depression of the 1890s
• Emergence of both Populist and
Socialist parties
• Numerous strikes and the rise of
some small, but violent, unions
• Arrogance of large corporations
• The assassination of President
McKinley by an anarchist
Reforms
• Relied on the new social sciences
• Moralistic and optimistic
• Need to reform society and institutions for “social
efficiency”
• But no single motive behind reforms
Social Gospel
• Humanitarian reformers
• A means to translate faith into action
• “ministers of reform” and “reforms of the heart”
• Social justice impulses
Jane Addams and Hull House
Self-Interest
• Middle class feared
possible class warfare or
the rise of socialism
• Believed that reform to
institutions and society
needed
• Worried about widening
gap between the few
“haves” and the many
“have-nots”
• Also feared the rising
immigrant tide as a
“menace” to democracy
Sense of Vulnerability
• Individuals no longer exercised control over their own
destinies
• The powerful corporation, “vested interests,”
“malefactors of great wealth” held the people hostage
• Reforms needed to protect/extend individual rights in the
modern industrial era
Muckrackers
• Articulated the general fears
• Gave focus to anxieties
• Laid bare the “shameful facts”
• Raised public awareness of
specific issues upon which to
focus reform
Women’s Activism
• General Federation of
Women’s Clubs – united white
middle class women’s clubs in
1890
• National Association of
Colored Women – organized
black middle class women’s
clubs in 1896
• Issues: suffrage, libraries,
schools, parks, hospitals,
sanitation, juvenile courts,
public health, pure foods and
drugs, etc.
Types of Reform
• Four broad categories
– To make the government more efficient, honest and
responsive to the popular will
– More stringent regulation of business to protect
consumers, workers and small businesses
– Efforts to improve the quality of life in the cities
– Use of the coercive power of government to impose
middle class standards on personal behavior and
morality
Moral “Reforms”
• Prohibition, anti-gambling, close dance halls
• Mandatory sterilization of sex offenders, certain criminals
and mentally deficient persons
• “Americanizing” immigrants
Grass-.
Top of FormLesson 7 Public PolicyExpected Outcomes.docxedwardmarivel
Top of Form
Lesson 7: Public Policy
Expected Outcomes
To understand the political economy of the United States, and to critically evaluate various theories and approaches regarding the pressing and controversial economic issues of today.
Overview
Politics is partly the business of determining “who gets what, when, and how,” so it is important to consider several macro-economic issues in any introductory course to American government and politics. This area of study can be considered “political economy.” Labor laws, entitlement programs, corporate welfare, globalization and outsourcing are all considered in this lesson.
What can and should the federal government do about these issues?
Labor and Unions
The labor movement is the story of “rise” and “fall.” A century ago, the labor union was in its infancy. While many people associate today’s labor movement with strong unions (and sometimes with unreasonable demands for higher wages and more benefits), the labor movement actually has its origins in fighting for basic work safety. It also fought against child labor.
Eventually, despite local, state and federal obstacles (including several Supreme Court decisions), the labor movement accomplished many of its goals. In fact, some economists argue that the labor movement became too successful as it was able to secure unsustainably-generous contracts from automobile manufacturers, for instance.
Indeed, the “fall” of the labor movement can be seen in the massive layoffs in the industrial sector. General Motors, for example, laid off more than 25,000 employees – largely because GM could no longer afford to pay them the wages and benefits that the United Auto Workers (UAW) had secured in the 1980s and 1990s.
Furthermore, union membership has been continually falling for several decades – measured as a percentage of the labor force. The right to strike is taken as a given. At the outset of the American Industrial Revolution, however, it was often illegal for workers to organize into unions and strike.
In the 1880s, George Pullman built the town of Pullman near Chicago to manufacture his famous railway cars. All buildings in the town were company owned and rented to workers, churches, and stores. The company cut wages a number of times in the 1880s, but it failed to reduce the rent in the company-owned housing. Workers went on strike. Sympathetic railway workers across the country boycotted trains carrying Pullman cars. Federal troops were called in to keep the trains moving and to break the strike, prompting violence and looting in Chicago in 1894. With the arrest of the leaders in Chicago, the strike collapsed.
A demonstration over an 8-hour working day in Chicago drew about 1,500 people in 1886. When police attempted to disperse the meeting, a bomb exploded and rioting ensued. Seven policemen and four other persons were killed, and more than 100 persons were wounded. Eight “anarchist” leaders were convicted of inciting violence. ...
2. Labor Unions
• Although labor unions
began forming in the early
1800s, they did not gain
any significant member-ship
base or bargaining
power until the 1860s and
1870s. The harsh, even
hazardous, working
conditions arising from
industrialization drove
laborers to organize into
unions.
3. Management vs. Labor
““Tools”” of
Management
““Tools”” of
Labor
““scabs””
P. R. campaign
Pinkertons
lockout
blacklisting
yellow-dog contracts
court injunctions
open shop
boycotts
sympathy
demonstrations
informational
picketing
closed shops
organized
strikes
““wildcat”” strikes
4. Knights of Labor
• One of the first major
unions was the Knights of
Labor, founded in 1869.
• Under the leadership of
Terrence G. Powderly,
the Knights demanded
sweeping reforms:
• Equal pay for women
• An end to child labor
• A progressive income tax
• The union claimed a
substantial membership,
including women, blacks,
and immigrants.
5. Goals of the Knights of
ù Eight-hour workday. Labor
ù Workers’’ cooperatives.
ù Worker-owned factories.
ù Abolition of child and prison labor.
ù Increased circulation of greenbacks.
ù Equal pay for men and women.
ù Safety codes in the workplace.
ù Prohibition of contract foreign labor.
ù Abolition of the National Bank.
6. Railroad Strike
• In 1885, the Knights of Labor
staged a successful strike against
railroad “robber baron” Jay Gould.
The strike so severely crippled
Gould’s operation that he had no
choice but to fold.
• On the strength of this victory, the
Knights’ membership and political
power grew. The Knights
successfully supported a number
of politicians for election and
forced laws favorable to workers
through Congress.
7. Haymarket Riot
• The Knights’ power
waned after a series of
unauthorized strikes
became violent.
• The Haymarket Riot in
Chicago in 1886 was
intended to protest
police brutality but it got
out of hand.
• Someone threw a bomb
into the crowd, killing a
police officer. In the
resulting chaos, nine
people were killed and
close to sixty injured.
• Prominent leaders of the Knights
of Labor were convicted of
inciting the riot, and public
support for the union declined.
8. American Federation of Labor
• To salvage the labor movement,
craft laborers who had been
members of the Knights of Labor
broke off and formed the American
Federation of Labor (AFL).
Whereas the Knights of Labor had
an open membership policy and
called for sweeping reforms, the
AFL, under the leadership of
Samuel Gompers, catered
exclusively to skilled laborers and
focused on smaller, more practical
issues:
• Increasing wages
• Reducing hours
• Imposing safety measures.
9. How the AF of L
Would Help the Workers
ù Catered to the skilled worker.
ù Represented workers in matters of national
legislation.
ù Maintained a national strike fund.
ù Evangelized the cause of unionism.
ù Prevented disputes among the many craft
unions.
ù Mediated disputes between management
and labor.
ù Pushed for closed shops.
10. Industrial Workers of the World
• More radical labor
organizations also emerged,
most notably the Industrial
Workers of the World,
nicknamed the Wobblies,
founded in 1905. More
famous for their militant anti-capitalism
than for being
large or influential, the
Wobblies never grew to
more than 30,000 members
before fading away in about
1920.
14. Mother Jones:
“The Miner’s Angel”
Mary Harris.
Organizer for the
United Mine
Workers.
Founded the Social
Democratic Party
in 1898.
One of the
founding members
of the I. W. W. in
1905.
15. Labor Strikes
• Between 1880
and 1905, union
activity in the
United States led
to well over
35,000 strikes.
• As evidenced by
the Haymarket
riot, these
demonstrations
at times erupted
into violence.
16. Strike-Related Violence
• Major strikes and
outbreaks of strike-related
violence during
the later nineteenth
century tended to impair
the labor cause instead
of advance it. Public
sympathy for unions
plummeted, companies
imposed anti-union
hiring policies, and the
Supreme Court
authorized the use of
injunctions against
strikers.
17. Railroad Strike of 1877
• The Railroad Strike followed the
onset of a national economic
recession in 1877. Railroad
workers for nearly every rail line
struck, provoking widespread
violence and requiring federal
troops to subdue the angry mobs.
The strike prompted many
employers to get tough on labor by
imposing an anti-union policy: they
required workers to sign contracts
barring them from striking or joining
a union. Some employers even
hired private detectives to root out
labor agitators and private armies
to suppress strikes.
18. Homestead Strike of 1892
• Workers staged the 1892
Homestead Strike against
Carnegie Steel Company to
protest a pay cut and
seventy-hour workweek. Ten
workers were killed in the
riot. Federal troops were
called in to suppress the
violence, and non-union
workers were hired to break
the strike.
19. The Pullman Strike of 1894
• In the 1894 Pullman Strike, Eugene Debs led thousands of
workers in a strike against the Pullman Palace Car
Company after wages were slashed. The courts ruled that
the strikers violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and issued
an injunction against them.
20. Eugene Debs
• When the strikers
refused to obey the
injunction, Debs was
arrested and federal
troops marched in to
crush the strike. In
the ensuing frenzy,
thirteen died and
fifty-three were
injured.
21. Organized Labor Lost Strength
• The Supreme Court
later upheld the use
of injunctions against
labor unions, giving
businesses a
powerful new
weapon to suppress
strikes. Organized
labor began to fade
in strength, and did
not resurge until the
1930s.