Trade Union and Worker Rights Flashcards
What were the problems in 1877?
- major problems on railroads as employers seek to reduce wages by on average 25%- changes in work rules, less predictable schedules, deadheading, longer hours, less job security
- violence at MARTINSBURG (WV) - railroad executive demand troops and Hayes sends int troops and declares strike unlawful
What were the responses to 1877?
Knights of Labor(1869)- Terence Powderly (leader) had not liked the violence of 1877 and opposed strikes, focuses initially on local government
Parallels drawn with Paris Commune- increased state spending on the National Guard and money spent on armouries
What was membership increase of Knights of Labour?
111,000 in 1885 rise to 729,000 in 1886 after defeat of Jay Gould
How many workers went on strike in 1886?
600,000
1,400 separate strikes
11,562 businesses were affected
How many times did governors use the national guard in disputes between 1886-1895?
300
What was the South West Railway Dispute?
1886- Gould wants his revenge- provokes strike by cutting unskilled railroad worker wages and sacking 1 workman
Leads to the Great South West Strike- KOL not institutionally strong
What happened at Haymarket?
1886- 6 workers killed to attack McCormick Plant Strike breakers
300 attend
bomb thrown and 7 police and 5 workers die, dozens wounded
What happened at Homestead?
1892- Andrew Carnegie tried to eliminate competition, protected by the tariffs
- steel workers go on strike- successful
- 4,000 workers - wages tied to price of steel
- 28 June - locks out workers
- anti-union Henry Clayfrick
What happeend in the Pullman Strike?
1894- 400 acres to build model town- controlling and paternalistic
1894- cuts wages, hours and workers but doesn’t reduce rents
90% workers walk out- destruction of property army took control
What happens in early 1900s?
IWW- Industrial Workers of the world- emergence of more radical unionism
have a revolutionary ideology
leaders targeted by vigilants and courts and attacked by the press - destroyed by ww1
ILGWU- International Ladies Garment Workers Union
ACWA- Amalgamated clothing workers of America
1909-10 long and bitter strike in NY
Result was most comprehensive Labor Agreement in History
What was the Bread and Roses strike?
1912- strikes send children to nearby cities
police beat women and children
result- 21% rise and improvement in overtime rates
What was the triangle shirtwaist fire?
1911- 146 young Italian and Jews women and children dies
result- NY legislation to restrict hours and gives women some maternity rights, sprinklers and red lights for emergency exits
no union rights or democracy
What was the impact of WW1?
- rise in prestige and cultural hegemony of capitalist culture
- workers - wages fall against inflation and rights reduced by no strike agreements
What were the labor gains under Wilson?
- 1913- department of labor in cabinet
- seamen’s act- provides minimum standards for maritime safety and ended bondage- like contracts for seamen
- Clayton ant-trust act 1916- protection for unions against injunctions - magna Carta
- Keating Owen child labour act-
- workmen’s compensation 1916
- Adamson’s act- 8 hr a day
- commission on IR 1912-15
What happened in the Great Post War Strike?
- real incomes fell 1915-19 as prices nearly doubled
- major strikes in steel, coal, textiles, telephones, construction, meatpacking and shipbuilding
- steel 1919 - 300,000 workers on strike
- miners with 800,000 try to exert power - govmt plans to bring 10,000 troops into coalfields
- American Legion is created to break strikes
PALMER leads nation-wide attack on ‘alien filth’ - more than 10,000 subversives arrested in 70 cities in 23 states
