Lesson 9: The Labor Movement

Question 1

AFL (American Federation of Labor) Definition

Answer 1

organization of trade unions that represented skilled workers

Question 2

Anarchist Definition

Answer 2

person who opposes organized government

Question 3

Collective Bargaining Definition

Answer 3

process by which a union representing a group of workers negotiates with management for a contract

Question 4

Haymarket Riot Definition

Answer 4

labor rally in Chicago in 1886 that ended in violence when a bomb exploded

Question 5

ILGWU (International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union) Definition

Answer 5

union of garment workers formed in 1900

Question 6

Knights of Labor Definition

Answer 6

American labor organization founded in 1869 to protect the rights of workers

Question 7

Strikebreaker Definition

Answer 7

replacement for a striking worker

Question 8

Sweatshop Definition

Answer 8

workplace where people labor long hours in poor conditions for low pay

Question 9

Trade Union Definition

Answer 9

an association of trade workers formed to gain higher wages and better working conditions

Question 10

Triangle Fire Definition

Answer 10

fire in 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City that killed nearly 150 workers

Question 11

How were the Pre-Civil War conditions in factories?

Answer 11

Workers had to adjust to the new kinds of factories of the late 1800s. Before the Civil War, most factories were small and family-run. Bosses knew their workers by name and chatted with them about their families. Because most workers had skills that the factory needed, they could bargain with the boss for wages.

Question 12

What was the change in the conditions of factories by 1880?

Answer 12

By the 1880s, the relationship between worker and boss had changed. People worked all day tending machines in a large, crowded, noisy room. Because their skills were easily replaced, many workers were forced to work for low wages. In the garment trade and other industries, sweatshops became common. A sweatshop is a workplace where people labor long hours in poor conditions for low pay. Most sweatshop workers were young women or children.

Question 13

How many children, under age 15, in America were working according to the 1900 census? What conditions did they have to deal with? Why did they have limited education?

Answer 13

The 1900 census reported nearly 2 million children under age 15 at work throughout the country. Boys and girls labored in hazardous textile mills, tobacco factories, and garment sweatshops. In coal mines, they picked stones out of the coal for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Working children had little time for schooling. Lack of education reduced their chance of building a better life as adults.

Question 14

What were the dangers of factories?

Answer 14

Factories were filled with hazards. Lung-damaging dust filled the air of textile mills. Cave-ins and gas explosions plagued mines. In steel mills, vats of molten metal spilled without warning. Some workers had their health destroyed. Others were severely injured or killed in industrial accidents. In one year, 195 workers died in the steel mills of Pittsburgh.

Question 15

Remember: The Stock Handlers Union represented workers who unloaded and fed the cattle in the Chicago Stock Yards.

Answer 15

The Stock Handlers Union represented workers who unloaded and fed the cattle in the Chicago Stock Yards.

Question 16

What were some ways workers fought against their unfair conditions?

Answer 16

Many workers found ways to fight back. Some workers slowed their work pace. Others went on strike. Strikes were usually informal, organized by workers in individual factories. Sometimes workers banded together to win better conditions. However, most early efforts to form unions failed.

Question 17

Who were the Knights of Labor originally opened to when it was formed in 1869? Who was elected their president in 1879, and who did he open the union up to? How did he believe the Union should gain public support? What were the goals of the Knights of Labor?

Answer 17

In 1869, workers formed the Knights of Labor. At first, the union was open to skilled workers only. The members held meetings in secret because employers fired workers who joined unions. In 1879, the Knights of Labor elected Terence Powderly as their president. Powderly worked to strengthen the union by opening its membership to immigrants, African Americans, women, and unskilled workers. Powderly did not believe in strikes. Rather, he relied on rallies and meetings to win public support. Goals of the Knights included a shorter workday, an end to child labor, and equal pay for men and women. Most important, Powderly wanted workers and employers to share ownership and profits.

Question 18

How did the 1885 strike against the Missouri Pacific Railroad to restore wages by the Knights of Labor help the union gain support?

Answer 18

In 1885, some members of the Knights of Labor launched a strike that forced the Missouri Pacific Railroad to restore wages that it had previously cut. The Knights did not officially support the strike. Still, workers everywhere saw the strike as a victory for the union. Membership soared to 700,000, including 60,000 African Americans.

Question 19

How did the Haymarket Riot lower the membership of the Knights of Labor?

Answer 19

The following year, the Knights of Labor ran into serious trouble. Workers at the McCormick Harvester Company in Chicago went on strike. Again, the Knights did not endorse the strike. Like many companies at the time, the McCormick company hired strikebreakers, or replacements for striking workers. On May 3, 1886, workers clashed with strikebreakers outside the factory. Police opened fire, and four workers were killed. The next day, thousands of workers gathered in Haymarket Square to protest the killings. The rally was led by anarchists, people who oppose all forms of organized government. Suddenly, a bomb exploded, killing seven police officers. Eight anarchists were arrested for their part in the Haymarket Riot as the incident was called. No real evidence linked these men to the bombing, but four were tried, convicted, and hanged. A wave of antilabor feeling swept the nation. Many Americans thought that the unions were controlled by anarchists. As a result, membership in the Knights of Labor dropped sharply.

Question 20

In 1886, which union did Samuel Gompers organize? Who was it open to?

Answer 20

Despite the failure of the Knights of Labor, the labor movement continued to grow. In 1886, an immigrant cigar maker named Samuel Gompers organized a new union in Columbus, Ohio. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was open to skilled workers only.

Question 21

How did one join the AFL?

Answer 21

Workers did not join the AFL directly. Rather, they joined a trade union, a union of persons working in the same trade. For example, a typesetter joined a typesetter’s union. The union then joined the AFL. Thus, the AFL was a large organization made up of many different unions.

Question 22

How was the AFL different from the Knights of Labor? How much did the AFL grow from 1886 to 1910 and why?

Answer 22

Unlike the Knights of Labor, the AFL stressed practical goals. It focused on higher wages, shorter hours, and improved working conditions. It led the fight for collective bargaining, the right of unions to negotiate with management for workers as a group. The AFL also supported the use of strikes to achieve its goals. Its practical approach helped the AFL become the most powerful labor organization in the nation. Between 1886 and 1910, membership in the AFL swelled from 150,000 to more than one and a half million. However, because African Americans, immigrants, and unskilled workers were barred from most trade unions, they could not join the AFL.

Question 23

By 1890, how many women were working? Which industries did they work in predominantly? What happened to the unions they formed?

Answer 23

By 1890, one million women worked in American factories. In the textile mills of New England and the tobacco factories of the South, women formed the majority of workers. In New York City, women outnumbered men in the garment industry. During the 1800s, some women formed their own unions. A few, like the all-black Washerwomen’s Association of Atlanta, struck for higher wages. None of these unions succeeded, however.

Question 24

Who was Marry Harris Jones (Mother Jones) and what did she push for?

Answer 24

The best-known woman in the labor movement was Irish-born Mary Harris Jones, known as Mother Jones. Jones devoted much of her adult life to the cause of workers.
Jones spoke out about the hard lives of children in textile mills, “barefoot … reaching thin little hands into the machinery.” By calling attention to such abuses, Mother Jones helped pave the way for reform.

Question 25

Who were the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU)? What did they do?

Answer 25

In 1900, garment workers organized the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). More than 20,000 women and men in the ILGWU walked off their jobs in 1909. After a few weeks, employers met union demands for better pay and shorter hours. The ILGWU became a key member of the AFL. Despite the efforts of the ILGWU and other labor groups, most women with factory jobs did not join unions. They continued to work long hours for low pay. Many labored under unsafe conditions. Then, a tragic event focused attention on the dangers faced by women workers.

Question 26

What was the Triangle Fire? What were its effects?

Answer 26

The workday was just ending on a cool March day in 1911, when a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a sweatshop in New York City. Within minutes, the upper stories were ablaze. Hundreds of workers raced for the exits, only to find them locked. The company had locked the doors to keep workers at their jobs. In their panic, workers ran headlong into the doors, blocking them with their bodies. Fire trucks arrived almost immediately, but their ladders could not reach the upper floors. One after another, workers trying to escape the flames leapt to their deaths.

As I looked up … there, at a window, a young man was helping girls to leap out. Suddenly one of them put her arms around him and kiss[ed] him. Then he held her into space and dropped her. He jumped next. Thud … dead. Thud … dead.

— The New York Times, March 26, 1911

Nearly 150 people, mostly young women, lost their lives in the Triangle Fire. The deaths shocked the public. As a result, New York and other states approved new safety laws to help protect factory workers.

Question 27

How did the economy pose a challenge to workers?

Answer 27

The new era of industry led to vast economic growth. At the same time, it created economic strains. In the rush for profits, many industries expanded too fast. As goods flooded the market, prices dropped. To cut their losses, factory owners often fired workers. As the supply of goods fell, prices rose again. In turn, factories geared up again, and the cycle was repeated. The economy swung wildly between good times and bad. Between 1870 and 1900, two major depressions and three smaller recessions rocked the country. In such hard times, workers lost their jobs or faced pay cuts.

Question 28

How did violent strikes affect labor? What was the Western Federation of Miners?

Answer 28

During a severe depression in the 1870s, railroad workers were forced to take several cuts in pay. In July 1877, workers went on strike, shutting down rail lines across the country. Riots erupted in many cities as workers burned rail yards and ripped up track.
Violent strikes also broke out in the West. In the 1870s, miners in Idaho tried to shut down two large mines. In 1893, after another bitter strike, miners formed the Western Federation of Miners. This union gained great strength in the Rocky Mountain states. Between 1894 and 1904, it organized strike after strike.

Question 29

What were some infamous rulings against unions?

Answer 29

The federal government usually sided with factory owners. Several Presidents sent in troops to end strikes. Courts usually ruled against strikers, too. In 1894, a Chicago court dealt a serious blow to unions. A year earlier, George Pullman had cut the pay of workers at his railroad car factory. Yet, he did not reduce the rents he charged them for company-owned houses. Workers walked off the job in protest. A federal judge ordered the Pullman workers to stop their strike. Leaders of the strike were jailed for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. This act had been meant to keep trusts from limiting free trade. The courts, however, said that the strikers were limiting free trade.

Question 30

What were gains and losses did Unions have?

Answer 30

Union workers staged thousands of strikes during the late 1800s. However, many Americans opposed the strikes. Some were afraid that unions were run by foreign-born radicals. Because unions were unpopular, owners felt free to try to crush them. Workers did make some gains. Overall, wages rose slightly between 1870 and 1900. Still, union growth was slow. In 1910, only one worker in 20 belonged to a union. Some 30 years would pass before large numbers of unskilled workers were able to join unions.