populism and protest:

Populism and Protest:

Section 4.3Labor Violence

Review

• What characterizes a market economy?

• What characterizes a command economy?

• What is social Darwinism?

• What is a monopoly?

• What is horizontal integration?

• What is vertical integration?

Factory Work

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Explain why laborers organized by identifying the condition under which they worked.

• Identify the significant labor unions, people who led them, and analyze their impact on the labor movement.

• Explain how several violent confrontations gave labor a bad and radical image and created a backlash against the movement.

Describe the working conditions endured by factory workers.

• Dangerous• 12-14 hour workday• 6 days a week.• Women received ½ pay

of men• Can be fired for any

reason• No sick days, health

insurance, workers compensation

• Employed children from age 5 and up

What options did the workers have? • Can they appeal to

their bosses?

• Protest?

• Go on strike?

• Vote with ONE voice

• Can they petition the government?

• NO!!!

• They can UNITE

What are unions?

• Union= Organization in which workers band together to form a collective voice to gain better pay, conditions, etc.

• Called guilds in Middle Ages

What methods do unions and employees use to fight each other?

• Strike= a work stoppage

• Boycott= organized agreement not to buy from certain company

• Lockout= when the employee closes his business to force workers to abide by his rule

• Scab= worker hired to break a strike

Who were the Knights of Labor?

• Labor union made up of various skilled and unskilled workers

• Wanted – shorter work day (8

hours)

– Equal pay for women

What was the American Federation of Labor (AFL)?

• Less radical labor union

• Accepted capitalism• Wanted “Piece of the

Pie”• Led by Samuel

Gompers• Used non violent

methods• Strikes and boycotts

Where would the AFL fall on the political spectrum?

Haymarket Riot

Presentation

What happened at the Haymarket Riot (1886)?• American Unions sought to

gain 8 hour workday• Called for general strike on

May 1• striking workers in Chicago

met near the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. to harass “scabs” who had taken their jobs

• 6 workers shot by Pinkerton guards

How do you think the public viewed labor unions at this point?

What happened at the Haymarket Riot (1886)?

1 thousand workers held rally at Haymarket square to protest murder of workers by policeBomb thrownkilled 7 cops, injured dozensCops killed 10 protesters, injured dozens4 radical leaders hanged (with little evidence)Began image that unions are led by violent revolutionaries

Homestead Presentation

• Steel prices/demand were steady rising in 1892

• Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) asked for wage increases

• Henry Clay Frick offered union a 22% decrease

Describe the Homestead Strike (1892).

Frick

Steel workers at Carnegie’s mill went on strike after wages were loweredFrick countered with a lockout

hired 300 Pinkerton guards to protect scab workers

Shots rang out as guards arrived at plantKilled several workersStrike failedTarnished Carnegie’s image Reinforced image that unions were violent

Describe the Homestead Strike.

Eugene V. Debs and the Pullman

Strike Presentation

Describe the Pullman strike.• George Pullman

– A welfare capitalist• controlled all facets of his workers lives

– Wages, homes, stores, school, church, and the press

– We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shop, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman church, and when we die we shall be buried in the Pullman cemetery and go to the Pullman Hell.[3]

– Cut wages (by 33%) during Panic of 1893

Where is Cleveland on the political spectrum?

Eugene V. DebsLeader of American Railway Union Ordered workers not to connect Pullman carsAFL refused to join them

Grover Cleveland issued an injunction (order to stop strike)

Sent US army to violently put down strike

Big Bill Haywood & IWW Presentation

Who was Big Bill Haywood?• Labor leader of the

IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) or the Wobblies

• A radical socialist• Called for “One Big

Union”• "Eight hours of work,

eight hours of play, eight hours of sleep-- eight hours a day!"

• Fled US in 1921 during espionage trial to Russia

Which side of the economic spectrum is Haywood?

• Fellow Workers, this is the Continental Congress of the working-class. We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working-class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working-class from the slave bondage of capitalism. The aims and objects of this organization shall be to put the working-class in possession of the economic power, the means of life, in control of the machinery of production and distribution, without regard to capitalist masters.

What factors are keeping unions from gaining power?

• Government

–Laissez faire

• Public opinion

–Viewed as violent radicals

• Exclusion of minorities

• Women, African Americans, immigrants, unskilled workers