Wars
What Labor was at stake in the labor wars?
1) Control over the conditions of work
Frederick Winslow Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management
The Principles of Scientific
Management
. . . [I]f you are a high-priced man, you will do exactly as this
man tells you to-morrow, from morning till night. When he tells
you to pick up a pig and walk, you pick it up and you walk, and
when he tells you to sit down and rest, you sit down. You do
that right straight through the day. And whats more, no back
talk. Now a high-priced man does just what hes told to do, and
no back talk. . . .
Taylors logic:
1) Efficiency top priority; management-control increases efficiency
2) Employers reward increased efficiency with increased wages
Pauline Newman
[The owners all watched] to see that you did your work, watching
when you went into the toilet. And if you were two or three
minutes longer than foreman or foreladies thought you should be,
it was deducted from your pay . . . Rubber heels came into use
around that time and our employers were the first to use them; you
never knew when they would sneak up on you, spying to make
sure you did not talk. . . .
Workers response:
1) Workers need to have a say over the conditions in which they
work
2) Employers arent rewarding workplace efficiency with increased
wages
Additional issues
8 hour day Eight hours for
work, eight hours for rest, eight
hours for what we will; Wages;
Safety
The man who works the long
hours has no necessities
except the barest to keep body
and soul together, so he can
work. He goes to sleep and
dreams of work; he rises in the
morning to go to work; he takes
his frugal lunch to work; he
comes home again to throw
himself down on a miserable
apology for a bed so that he
can get that little rest that he
may be able to go to work
again. He is nothing but a
veritable machine. He lives to
work instead of working to live.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911)
Rose Schneiderman
I would be a traitor to those poor burned bodies if I were to
come here to talk good fellowship. We have tried you good
people of the publicand we have found you wanting . . .
[Y]ou have a couple of dollars for the sorrowing mothers and
brothers and sisters by way of a charity gift. But every time
the workers come out in the only way they know to protest . .
. The strong arm of the law is allowed to press down heavily
upon us. I cant talk fellowship to you who are gathered
here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from
experience it is up to the working people to save themselves.
And the only way is through a strong working-class
movement.
Great Uprising of 1877
National depression of 1870s
RR slash wages
Strike begins: July 1877, West Virginia
President Rutherford B. Hayes orders federal troops to break up
insurrection
Strike spreads and becomes violent
Eg. 11 dead, 40 wounded in Baltimore
Pittsburgh
Militia brought in from Philadelphia
Battle between workers and sympathizers vs. militia
Death and destruction
Federal troops end strike in Pittsburgh
Strike spreads further west; ultimately strike is defeated.
Significance of Great Uprising
First national strike in U.S. history
First national time government placed full power on side of
business
Revealed deep class divisions
Workers turn to a national labor organization
Knights of Labor
Founded 1869
Terence V. Powderly (1879)
Broad, radical vision of reform
Abolition of wage labor
Creation of producer-based system of ownership and labor
Worker education
Temperance
Knights of Labor, cont.
Inclusive natureskilled and unskilled, women, African Americans
Exception: exclusion of Chinese
Victories against railroads, early 1880s
million-million workers by 1886
Impact of worker mobilization
Strikes on the rise, especially for 8 hour day
Boycotts introduced
Workers influence politics, raise issues such as child labor, worker
safety, equal pay for women, workers compensation, etc.
Counteroffensive
Court actionworkers are accused of inciting to riot obstructing
the streets intimidation trespass
Yellowdog contracts
Blacklists
Labor spies, eg. Pinkerton Detective agency
Haymarket, 1886
May 1: National one-day strike for 8-hour day
40,000 workers strike in Chicago
May 3: Clash between strikers and strike-breakers
at local Chicago factory. Two workmen killed.
May 4: Protest rally, Haymarket Square, Chicago.
Bombing, shooting, two dead, others wounded
Eight anarchists tried and convicted; sentenced to
death
Significance of Haymarket
Divided and demoralized labor movement
Turned many in middle class against unions due to
association with radicalism and violence.
Emboldened capitalists.
Knights went into decline
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Founded 1886
Skilled tradesmen
Majority white, male
Samuel Gompers, president
Bread and butter issues
Bigger slice of American pie for workers
Homestead
Capitalists confront skilled trades/trade unions
Steel industry
Andrew Carnegie
Homestead Steel works
Town of Homestead, PA
Homestead, cont.
What Carnegie wanted: cheap and docile labor force
Conclusion: need to break the union, Amalgamated Association
Carnegie sails to Scotland, 1892
Carnegie empowers Henry Clay Frick to break the union in his
absence
Homestead, cont.
Homestead becomes a fortress
Pinkertons hired
July 2, Frick closes steel works, shutting out unionized workers
Union prepares for batle
July 5battle between Pinkertons and union supporters
Pinkertons surrender
Initial public opinion favors workers
Governor sends in troops on behalf of Frick/Carnegie
Troops occupy steel works; re-open with non-union workers
Berkman attempts to assassinate Frick
Frick survives: I do not think that I shall die, but whether I do or
not, the Company will pursue the same policy and it will win
Union broken
Homestead typical of defeats suffered by labor/victories of
industrialists in 1890s
Conclusion: Limited
accomplishments for labor
AFL divided skilled and unskilled workers
Divisions of race, gender, ethnicity, and politics among workers
Association of all unions with radicalism, violence
***Strength of forces arrayed against workers: Employers +
government
Some changes for workers
Steps toward 8-hour day in some industries
Steps toward workers compensation for injury and safety
regulations
Steps toward child labor laws