Labor and Violence in the Late 19th Century

							The Tournament of Today:
A Set-to Between Labor and
         Monopoly
 The  late 19th century witnessed the most
  violent labor conflicts in the nations history.
 So common were the reports of striking
  workers battling police that many feared the
  country was heading toward open class
  warfare between capital and labor.
 Management vs. Labor
  “Tools” of                “Tools” of
 Management                   Labor


 “scabs”                 boycotts
 P. R. campaign          sympathy
                           demonstrations
 Pinkertons
                          informational
 lockout
                           picketing
 blacklisting
                          closed shops
 yellow-dog contracts
                          organized
 court injunctions        strikes
 open shop               “wildcat” strikes
         The Corporate
“Bully-Boys”: Pinkerton
                 Agents
A Striker Confronts a
               SCAB!
 Railroad   companies cut wages to reduce
  costs
 Strike quickly spread to 11 states and shut
  down 2/3 of the countries railways.
 500,000 workers from other industries
  quickly joined the railway workers.
 President Hayes sent in Federal troops to
  break up the strike, but not before over 100
  people had been killed.
The Great Railroad Strike
        of 1877
 National   Labor Union
   The first attempt to organize all workers in all
   states, both skilled and unskilled
  Had 640,000 members by 1870
  Wanted higher wages, 8 hour work day
  Also championed equal rights for women and
   African Americans
  Did get 8 hour workday for federal employees,
   but lost power when the panic of 1873 began,
   and after the railroad strike ended so violently.
        Knights of Labor




Terence V. Powderly



 An injury to one is the concern of all!
    Goals of the Knights of
ù   Eight-hour workday. Labor
ù Worker-owned factories.
ù Abolition of child and prison labor.
ù Began as a secret organization.
ù Equal pay for men and women.
ù Safety codes in the workplace.
ù Prohibition of contract foreign labor.
ù Allowed women and African Americans to
  join.
Knights of Labor




       Knights of Labor trade card
The American Federation
    of Labor: 1886




      Samuel Gompers
       How the AF of L
    Would Help the Workers
ù   Catered to the skilled worker.
 Maintained a national strike fund (to pay
  striking workers)
ù   Evangelized the cause of unionism. (said
    God liked unions)
ù   Mediated disputes between management
    and labor.
ù   Pushed for closed shops. (only hire union
    workers)
International Workers of the
    World (“Wobblies”)
“Big Bill” Haywood of the
                    IWW




    Violence was justified to
     overthrow capitalism.
The Hand That Will Rule the
  World One Big Union
1. Create a chart of the pros and cons of each
  of the four unions.
2. Which of these four would you have been
  most likely to join? Why?
Labor Union Membership
Lawrence, MA Strike:
              1912
 The “Bread & Roses”
        Strike
DEMANDS:
 ù 15¢/hr. wage increase.
 ù Double pay for overtime.
 ù No discrimination against strikers.
 ù An end to “speed-up” on the
   assembly line.
 ù An end to discrimination against
   foreign immigrant workers.
Lawrence, MA Strike: 1912
                                  The
                               “Formula”


unions + violence + strikes + socialists + immigrants =
                                             anarchists
      “Solidarity Forever!”
           by Ralph Chapin (1915)
When the union's inspiration
    through the workers‘ blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
    anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker
    than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong!




     CHORUS:
     Solidarity forever,
     Solidarity forever,
     Solidarity forever,
     For the union
         makes us strong!
     “Solidarity Forever!”
Is there aught we hold in common
    with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom
    and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us
    but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong!




   CHORUS:
   Solidarity forever,
   Solidarity forever,
   Solidarity forever,
   For the union
        makes us strong!
     “Solidarity Forever!”
          * * * *
Through our sisters and our brothers
    we can make our union strong,
For respect and equal value,
    we have done without too long.
We no longer have to tolerate
    injustices and wrongs,
Yes, the union makes us strong!




   CHORUS:
   Solidarity forever,
   Solidarity forever,
   Solidarity forever,
   For the union
        makes us strong!
Anarchists Meet on the
 Lake Front in 1886
 May  Day 1886.
 80,000 members of the Knights of Labor
  along with 200 anarchists called for a
  general strike to push for an 8 hour
  workday.
 On May 4, workers held a public meeting
  in Haymarket Square, and as police
  attempted to break up the meeting,
  someone threw a bomb killing 7 police
  officers.
 The bomb thrower was never caught,
  however 8 anarchists were put on trial
  and 7 were sentenced to die.
Haymarket Riot (1886)




 McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.
Haymarket Martyrs
   convinced many Americans that the Union
 It
  movement was radical and violent.
 Henry  Clay Frick, the manager of Andrew
  Carnegie’s Steel Plant near Pittsburg,
  precipitated a strike in 1892 by cutting
  wages nearly 20 percent.
 Carnegie called in strike breakers, who
  were attacked by the strikers with rifles
  and dynamite.
 10 people were killed, and the strike was
  broken with the pay cuts still in place.
 This failure will set back the Union
  movement in the steel industry until the
  New Deal in the 1930’s
Attempted Assassination!




 Henry Clay Frick
                    Alexander Berkman
The Pullman Strike of 1894
 Pullman   manufactured railroad sleeping
  cars.
 In 1894, Pullman cut wages and fired the
  workers who came to try and negotiate
  with him.
 The workers at Pullman refused to work
  and asked for help from the American
  Railroad Union, whose leader Eugene
  Debs, directed railroad workers not to
  handle any trains with Pullman cars.
 The Unions tactics tied up rail
  transportation across the country.
 Railroad  owners linked Pullman cars to mail
  trains, and then had President Grover
  Cleveland issue an injunction that made it
  illegal to interfere with the operation of the
  mail.
 Debs was arrested for ignoring the
  injunction.
 The Supreme Court upheld employers rights
  to use injunctions to break strikes.
President Grover Cleveland




    If it takes the entire army and navy to
   deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card
                will be delivered!
          will be delivered!