Labor Unions
US History & Government
Important Unions
Knights of Labor
Who were
•
the founders
•
of the union?
Who was
•
eligible to
join?
•
What were •
the goals of
the union? •
Uriah Stephens
Terrance Powderly
•
Samuel Gompers
Everyone (except
Chinese)
•
•
•
White
Male
Skilled
•
•
Collective Bargaining
“Bread and Butter
Unionism” (higher
wages; shorter hours;
better working
conditions
8 hour work day
Equal pay for equal
work
End of child labor
and trusts
What were
the methods
used to Favored arbitration
achieve the
goals?
IWW (“Wobblies”)
AFL
•
•
•
Big Bill Haywood
Mary Harris Jones
(Mother Jones)
All (including
African, Asia and
Hispanic-American
workers and women)
•
•
Opposed capitalism
Organize unskilled
labor
•
•
Boycotts
General Strikes
(Lawrence Textile
strike)
Industrial sabotage
Strikes
•
Events in Labor History
Event
Great Railroad
Strike (1877)
Haymarket Riot
(1886)
Homestead
Steel Strike
(1892)
What caused the event?
•
•
•
•
•
Pullman Strike
(1894)
•
•
The second wage cut in two
months
How was the event resolved?
•
President Hayes sent in federal troops
to end the strike
•
Someone tossed a bomb into police
lines.
The police fired on crowd – 7 police
and 1 protester were killed.
8 anarchists were arrested and 4 were
hanged
People gathered in Haymarket
Square to protest police brutality
against the Knights of Labor
•
Wages were cuts by Henry Clay
Frick (Carnegies deputy).
Management hired Pinkerton
guards to lockout workers
•
•
•
Pullman cut wages but would not
•
lower rent or prices in his factory
town.
Eugene V. Debs and American
Railway Union organized a strike.
•
They blocked off the railroads into
Chicago.
Battle led to several police and strikers
being killed.
Strike was broken (steel workers don’t
unionize for 45 years)
President Cleveland orders an end to
the strike and sent in troops (he said
that the strike was interfering with
delivery of the mail).
The strike was broken, and Debs
arrested