Workers Fight for Rights
Workers Struggle in the Gilded Age
• While the Carnegies and Rockefellers of the US enjoyed success, many groups felt left out of the success • Workers felt as though they were being used by greedy businessmen with nothing to show for it
• The average workweek was 59 hours, while the average wage as 26¢
an hour • Meanwhile, they worked in unventilated factories with no safety precautions or insurance
Workers Struggle in the Gilded Age
• Three groups hurt worst by the inhumane working conditions: 1. Women 2. Children
3. Immigrants
Triangle Factory Fire
1911: Over 145 workers were killed in one of the worst workplace disasters in US History
Beginning of Workers’ Unions • A Unions is created when workers come together to fight for their rights
• Unions attempted to fix three major problems: 1. Low Wages
2. Working Hours
3. Working Conditions
Employers React to Unions and Strikes
• Employers did not like unions, so they resorted to three primary strategies to stop unions from forming or gaining power
• 1. Blacklist: Anyone involved in a union would have their names added to a list of those who couldn’t be hired
• 2. Lockout: Workers would be locked out of work until they gave in to the boss’ demands
• 3. Strikebreakers: Replacement workers (usually immigrants) were brought in until the strike ended Strikes Create Negative Views of Unions
Many Americans feared unions as communist or anarchistic, especially after the 1886 Haymarket Square Riot
Homestead Strike: Large strike at one of Carnegie’s plants ended when the military stepped in to stop the violence
Pullman Strike: Eugene Debs helped a strike at the Pullman factory where they live in the inhumane factory housing
Coal Creek Labor Saga: Miners in TN revolt after they were replaced by free prison labor; gov’t steps in to stop the violence