Labor Unions in the Progressive Era

Labor Unions in the Progressive Era

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Overview

• The late 19th century was a boom time for business.
• A wave of technological breakthroughs brought on by the Second Industrial Revolution resulted in a wide variety of new products in the marketplace. It also brought about more efficient means of producing those products.
• Big business, as well as the American consumer, benefited.
• The average worker, however, had to fight for a fair wage and better working conditions.

Forming unions

Labor Unions and leaders

Many employees felt they needed protection from the exploitation of their employers. Understanding the powerlessness of acting alone, workers began to consider the advantages of acting as a unit. They decided that their best chance of having their voices heard was to unite and organize. By joining workers into a formal association of solidarity , they could exert their power and influence as a group. However, this was not as easy as it sounds. Individuals had to agree on terms as a unit. They also had to understand how to deal with their employers in a way that would work in their best interests. The mid-19th century saw a steady increase of local union organizations and a few citywide groups. Labor unions advocated for better pay and working conditions for their workers. They negotiated with management, but when negotiations failed, unions often went on strike.

Samuel Gompers

• 1850–1924
• American cigar maker
• labor union leader
• founder of the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
• member of the Anti-Imperialist League
• opposed the International Workers of the World (IWW) labor movement

Eugene V. Debs

• 1855–1926
• founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), known as the “Wobblies”
• labor union leader socialist candidate for US president five times
• Democratic state senator for 8th district of Indiana (1885–1889)

Labor Unions and leaders (continued)

Congress of Industrial Organizations

• founded in 1938 by John L. Lewis
• supported FDR and the New Deal
• opened membership to African Americans
• merged with the American Federation of Labor in 1955, forming the AFL-CIO

John L. Lewis

• 1880–1969
• served as the president of the United Mine Workers (1920–1960)
• famous for “Crust of Bread” rhetoric
• helped to found

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

• United Steel Workers of America (USWA)

• American Federation of Labor
• founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers
• focused on “bread-and-butter” issues: better pay and working conditions, shorter hours
• only represented skilled workers
• initially prohibited women and African Americans
• became the largest labor organization in the United States

Knights of Labor

• organized in 1869
• first labor union to expand past its native geographic region
• focused on organizing all laborers who were “producers”
• led successful railroad strike against Jay Gould in 1885
• Chicago Haymarket Riot of 1886 was the downfall of the union

Major labor Strikes

One of the most commonly used weapons of the organized groups was the strike. During the 1880s alone, almost 10,000 strikes were carried out.Business owners and management did all that they could to try and break up the labor movements

Coal Strike of 1919

• United Mine Workers walked off the job in November 1, 1919
• 400,000 miners were involved in the strike
• mine owners claimed Lenin and Trotsky ordered the strike
• public called for strong government intervention as coal supplies began running out
• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer used the Lever Act to halt the strike
• the Lever Act made it a crime to interfere with the production and transportation of goods during wartime

Major labor Strikes (continued)

However, their efforts often resulted in violence. An example is the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It resulted in a series of violent altercations between workers and management.

Haymarket Riot

• occurred in Chicago, Illinois (1886)
• began as a peaceful demonstration for a federally mandated eight-hour workday
• a dynamite bomb was thrown into the crowd, killing seven and wounding many others
• eight anarchists convicted of conspiracy
• seven anarchists sentenced to death
• incident cemented public association of labor unions with subversive politics

Bisbee Deportation

Pullman Strike

• was led by the American Railway Union (ARU) in 1894
• 125,000 workers on 29 railways walked off the job
• US Marshalls and 12,000 US Army troops broke the strike after a court injunction
• ARU fell apart because of the legal troubles resulting from the strike

The scandalous episode of the Bisbee Deportation occurred in 1917. The Phelps Dodge Corporation ran Bisbee, Arizona as a company mining town. The company maintained control with its own law-officers.

Bisbee Deportation (continued)

Almost 2,000 workers were arrested at gunpoint by sheriffs’ deputies. More than 1,000 men were detained for deportation. The workers sat in the bleachers of a sports field under the hot sun without water for hours. Later, they were packed into filthy cattle cars and shipped out. The company tried to suppress news of this incident from reaching the public. However, with so many people affected, word eventually got out. The company was prosecuted for its part but suffered few repercussions.