worker’s plight
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Worker’s PlightAmerican History 11th Grade
Industrialization Affected various aspects of
workers lives- where they worked -where they lived-the size of the workforce-nature of the workWorkers were forced to make
the transition from skilled to semi or unskilled labor.
It took little training to tend a machine
Problems Work became monotonousUnfair Conditions of Employment- long workdays 10-14 hours -average income inadequateHealth and Safety Hazards-miners breathed coal dust Factory workers breathed sawdust, stone dust,
cotton dust, or toxic fumesVery high injury rateChild Labor Job insecurity
Company townsBuilt and run by the
companies Usual practice was for
companies to deduct money from the workers’ pay for rent and advances to the company store as well as medical and fuel fees
Some companies paid workers a “SCRIP” or company money that could only be redeemed at the company store
Workers remained in constant debt
Labor UnionsHard to organizeMobility and diversity of American labor forceDifferences in language, religion and customs among
immigrants made it hard to unite them Different union leaders had different goalsStrong opposition from employers Blacklists (records of troublemakers) hard to get a job
elsewhere if blacklistedLockout- factory was shut down or union members firedScabs- replacement workers Collective bargaining- negotiation between an employer
and a labor union
Railroad Strike of 1877Following the depression of 1873, 5, 000 businesses closed,
causing widespread unemployment and homelessness3 million workers were unemployed- no unemployment
benefits or relief from state or fed. Gov’t B&O workers held a work stoppage as a result of wage cuts.
Troops went to Martinsburg WVA to bring order to the town many more clashes between workers and employers followed- Pittsburgh, Buffalo, San Francisco etc.
Workers killed in Phila. and Reading In the end 76,000 miles of track stopped running, 100
people were dead, 1,000 jailed and 100,000 workers had gone on strike
ImmigrationOld immigration- German Jews
seeking religious freedom, Germans leaving crop failures, Irish escaping potato famine, Chinese came for gold during gold rush
New Immigration- people coming from Southern and Eastern Europe- Italians escaping unemployment and economic misfortune, Eastern European Jews escaping religious persecution. Slavs Eastern Europe left Russia and Poland to escape economic woes and looking for political freedom
City LifeUrbanization- more and more people moved
into citiesLack of Social Services- shortage of police
and firefighters, City water was impure and sewers were often clogged. Garbage collection was sporadic and there were no attempts at city planning. Rivers and harbors were polluted by sewage and factory wastes.
Increase in crime
Cultural LifeEducation improved- lengthened school year,
grade schools developed, free secondary education in 1900 the average child received only 5 years of schooling.
Mark Twain, Penny Newspapers, Dime novelsSports and Entertainment
Farmers struggledPlague of grasshoppers took over the Great
Plains region-ate everything in sight. Also the threat of prairie fires, dust storms
and drought Railroads would take advantage of their
hauling monopoly and charge high prices for short trips.
Reform MovementsTemperance Movement –favored prohibition
and pushed for it politicallyWoman Suffrage-Susan B. Anthony- by 1900
four states-CO, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho had granted women the right to vote
Women and Union- not uncommon for women to work in sweatshops for very little money
Experiments in SocialismSomething seemed wrong with a society that
had the idle rich, who lived in mansions and the unemployed poor who lived in slums.
Socialists communities developed didn’t want to change policies politically (New Harmony 1820’s)
Karl Marx and socialists in the late nineteenth century were dedicated to changing the entire social and political system.
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