Labor’s
Response to
Industrialism
Wealth
• Industrialism created problems as well
as millionaires.
• The attempt to lower production cost and
maximize profits =
low pay and long hours for workers
Ex. Homestead Plant
12 hour days/ 6 days a week
1907 – Steel makers made 16
cents an hour
Homestead Plant –
Carnegie’s Steel Mill
Company towns
– employer owned villages
+ for owners = immediately available
work force and rent
-
for workers = effects of pollution,
isolation from community
Employers paid company–town workers
in scrip (a form of currency that could
be used to buy goods in employer
owned stores at inflated prices)
Town of Pullman
Workers made up from a variety of
backgrounds
majority white American men who had left
rural areas in search of better jobs
small # of workers were black
By 1870 – 1/3 were foreign born working for
almost half the pay
By 1890 – 1 million women were working for
less than ½ of the wages men earned
Safety and Child Labor
• Facing stiff prices owners
refused to pay for expensive
safety features
• most factories were badly
lighted, poorly ventilated, and
hazardous
• 1900 – almost 2 million
American Children between the
ages of 10 & 15 were at work
Factors such as
low wages, long
hours, and
dangerous
working
conditions
helped lead
workers to band
together and
create workers
organizations.
Ex. Knights of Labor (1869)
• goals: 8 hour work day, safer working
conditions, compensation for job injury
& equal pay for men and women
• open to men, women, blacks,
immigrants and unskilled workers
• By 1886 – 700,000 members
Ex. American Federation of Labor (1881)
• goals: 8 hour work day & the right to
represent workers in collective
bargaining with employees
• By 1904 – 1,000,000 members
The reaction against
the unions by the
industrialist – and
the government –
was usually
violent
Strikes
Pullman Strike
Great Railroad Strike - 1877
Haymarket Riot - Chicago
Pullman Strike
3 Examples:
Haymarket Riot
• In 1886, 8,000 workers in Chicago, including
members of the Knights of Labor, went on
strike to demand an 8 hour working day.
Several workers were killed by police. Soon
after, at a rally to protest the killings, a bomb
was thrown at policeman as they tried to
break up the meeting. In the ensuing riot, 7
police officers and 4 civilians were killed.
Employers used the event to turn public
opinion against the labor movement,
particularly the Knights of Labor, and within
a few years the organization disbanded.
Homestead Strike
• In 1892, at Carnegie’s Homestead plant, AFL
workers struck in reaction to a surprise wage
cut. The manager closed the plant and hired
300 guards to protect it against the workers.
When the guards arrived they were attacked ,
leaving 16 guards and workers dead. The
manager asked the governor to send in the
Pennsylvania National Guard to quell the riot.
The workers were surrounded and arrested,
many lost their jobs, and those who returned
did so at a 50% pay cut.
Pullman Strike
• In 1894, workers for the Pullman Railway Car
Company went on strike protesting
continued high prices and rent in the
company town after their wages had been
cut. The strike spread to railway workers
throughout the West, paralyzing the railroad
industry. Railway owners asked the Attorney
General to send federal troops to get the
trains rolling. When the workers resisted,
President Grover Cleveland sent in more
troops to clear out the workers, move the
trains, and effectively end the strike.
Public Reaction
• Public begin to
associate strikes to
anarchy
• Unions are seen as
evil
• Strikes are
unsuccessful and do
not accomplish their
goals