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Labor Unions form
Industrialization lowered the prices of consumer goods, but most workers still didn’t make enough to buy them
Their complaints usually fell on deaf ears
Early on, factory workers group themselves together in order to try to persuade management to raise wages—collective bargaining
Strikes
One kind of collective bargaining is a strike in which workers agreed to discontinue work until conditions improved
Some were local, but many spread to include entire industries
Had some success—now only 10 hour work days
Knights of Labor
Uriah Smith Stephens founded the Knights of Labor union It was kind of like a secret society
This union did allow African Americans to join
By the 1890s they had fallen out of favor after a series of failed strikes
Labor Unions
1886 Samuel Gompers formed the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
It was a craft union, unlike the Knight of Labor (which included workers from all trades—skilled or unskilled)
He set high dues for membership
Usually excluded African Americans and did not accept women
Haymarket Riot
thousands met to demand an 8 hour workday, strikes occurred in several cities and fights broke out between strikers and strikebreakers
In Chicago, a protester threw a bomb and killed a police officer and several were killed in the riot that ensued
Homestead Strike
1892, at a Carnegie Steel plant in Penn., workers’ wages were cut and the union called for a strike
Pinkertons were brought in to break up the strike—they killed several strikers and wounded many others
The union called off the strike about four months later
Steelworker unions lost power throughout the country as a result
Pullman Strike
1893, the Pullman Palace Car Company laid off workers and reduced wages by 25%, but the cost of living did not decrease
The owner of the company required his employees to live in the company town—he controlled their rent and prices of the local goods
Pullman Strike continued
Workers turned to the American Railway Union (ARU) and Eugene V. Debs—they called for a nationwide strike Halted railway travel and even mail delivery The president had to send in troops to end the
strike Debs refused and was thrown in jail
Life after Pullman
Labor movements split into different faction, becoming increasingly socialist Debs became a Socialist and formed the ASP in
1897
Why would workers turn to strikes as a tactic to win labor gains?
Robber Barons
There was a belief that monopolies, trusts, and cartels gave businessmen an unfair advantage
Many small businesses were pushed out of competition by larger companies who could sell or produce products cheaper
Called Robber Barons- these American businessmen were viewed as having used questionable practices to gain their wealth
Some notable “Robber Barons”
Andrew Carnegie
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Or Captains of Industry
These same men were hailed by others as Captains of Industry and praised for their contributions to industry and the economy
The businesses run by these men provided thousands of jobs and supported innovation and improvements in technology
Many were important philanthropists who donated large amounts of money to different charities and established public institutions like museums, libraries and universities