Introduction The struggle for a better pay and less labor in America started on a low note with fewer people having the courage to join in, compared to majority, who remained quiet. Eventually, many people rose up against the employers, riots and collective strikes stroke the country, many people protested against the treatment they got from the capitalists. As Jeremy Brecher explains in The Great Upheaval, it all started in July 1877 when many strikes were held across America. The workers halted the operations of the most important business, the railroads. They fought the police, the state militia, and even the federal troops. Chicago was a major production that attracted people from all parts of the country. The town was, therefore, a good …show more content…
The Haymarket Affair was the beginning to the rise of employee’s rights; All they wanted was a fair pay and less working hours and thus protested against the ten percent pay cut that was proposed by their employers. Nonetheless, this came at a cost following the Haymarket bombing at a labor demonstration in 1866. The Haymarket Affair was a major starting point for the US labor movement creating the pathway that lead to worker’s rights. The Background of the Strikes On Monday July 16th, 1877, in a town called Martinsburg in West Virginia, the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad announced a 10 percent pay cut which was a second one in a period of 8 months. The workers put down their tools and gathered at their offices in protest. The train operators, engineers, and firemen abandoned their work and the rest of the workers declined to replace them. They demanded the pay cut to be rescinded; failure to which no train would be allowed to operate. The mayor who came to assist the B&O officials ordered the arrest of the strike leaders but their supports would not let it happen, so they gave up. The B&O officials with the help of Governor Henry Mathews tried to use the Berkeley Light Guards to restore order …show more content…
The hanging of these seven people brought disunity into the labor movement, and no matter how much their leader Terence V. Powderly tried to disown them, they remained guilty and accused by the general population. Powderly in his disowning speech gave a list of other anarchists and condemned with all words the acts of the ones arrested and defended the intentions of the labor market, a sign of the disunity in the labor movement. This impacted the future, creating a path for workers and highlighting their rights, such as, freedom of speech, and the right to free assembly. This major awakening created a spotlight that exposed poor labor, terrible pay, and long working hours; in hopes to end these terrible ways and to set a future where workers are treated fairly and have a voice; this was the beginning of eight hour working
This strike was a battle over several issues. One factor that escalated the strike intensity was the pensions battle. Billons of dollars in pensions were on the line. The Teamste...
By the summer of 1877, at least three million Americans - an estimated 25 percent of the nation's workforce -were searching for employment. That May, the Pennsylvania Railroad had imposed its second 10 percent wage cut in two years.A few weeks later, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad b and o announced ten percent pay cuts for workers making more than a dollar a day-including comparable cuts for officials-and at about the same time announced payment of a 10 percent dividend. For b and o workers, this was too much-it was the second 10 percent wage cut in a year.On July 16, frustrated workers and sympathizers blocked the movement of b and o trains in Baltimore, Maryland, and one hundred miles west, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Word of the strike action spread quickly. Workers in Philadelphia, Reading, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Columbia, Harrisburg, Altoona, Johnstown, Derry, Washington, Erie, and Pittsburgh halted all commercial train traffic. Strike organizers in Pittsburgh struggled to maintain
Labor’s rights, this issue have been bothering many worker since the 19th century and can still be a problem today. As John L. Lewis has said in his speech “I repeat that labor seeks peace and guarantees its own loyalty, but the voice of labor, insistent upon its rights, should not be annoying to the ears of justice or offensive to the conscience of the American people” (John L. Lewis), which under his words meant that labor is something that can be done right and peacefully but it needs rules and benefits that come with those rules which labor asks for and when labor asks for those rules and benefits it shouldn’t be taken like some annoying kid’s demands but more as something that needs to be done and done with a right mind set. Labor today consists of a man or woman going to work, working their hours, and finally getting paid for those hours at the end of the week, at least a minimum of $7.50 an hour (United States Department of Labor), but before it wasn’t like that before many workers would get paid very poorly even thought they would work for a lot of hours and they wouldn’t get benefits from their work or safety when working such as in the mines like the mine workers, but one man stood up for them and his name was John L. Lewis (John Llewellyn Lewis, Encyclopedia).
They concentrated on higher wages, shorter hours, and personal issues of workers. The American Federation of Labor’s main weapon was walkouts and boycotts to get industries to succeed to better conditions and higher wages. By the early 1900’s, its membership was up to ½ million workers. Through the years since The Great Depression, labor unions were responsible for several benefits for employees. Workers have safer conditions, higher paying jobs to choose from, and better benefits negotiated for them by their collective bargaining unit.
Life in the early 1900’s wasn’t easy. Competition for jobs was at an all time high, especially in New York City. Immigrants were flooding in and needed to find work fast, even if that meant in the hot, overcrowded conditions of garment factories. Conditions were horrid and disaster was inevitable, and disaster did strike in March, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York set on fire, killing 146 workers. This is an important event in US history because it helped accomplish the tasks unions and strikes had tried to accomplish years earlier, It improved working conditions in factories nationwide and set new safety laws and regulations so that nothing as catastrophic would happen again. The workplace struggles became public after this fire, and the work industry would never remain the same again.
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
against their employers, employees were able to go on strike and prove a point. Some
This suggests that they had negative relations with the government and authorities because their voices were not being listened to and they weren’t equally represented in the government’s policy decisions. Riot was a tactic employed to get their voices heard but there was a fine line between being listened to and retribution for their actions. For example, before the Oxfordshire rising in 1596, the people of Oxfordshire appealed to Lord Norris and other members of authority to help resolve the issue of dearth in the area. However, Lord Norris did little to help improve the situation and further appeals took place until the rebels resulted to riot in the hope of change. However, the rising against enclosure largely failed due to the lack of support, as only a handful of men turned up to support the rebels cause. Additionally, what gave rebellions the scale and force they had, such as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was the combination of supressed local grievances which had built up over time as they had not been effectively dealt with. For example, if someone heard a rumour about a potential uprising they may have become involved to express their personal grievances which may have been repressed in the past but had not achieved the outcome the rebels wanted. The Pilgrimage of Grace was caused by a combination of factors,
In 1893 the U.S went through a depression that might have been more of a panic. The depression was led by a series of shock that undermined public confidence and brought the economy down. For instant the Amalgamated Association unions contract that skilled iron – and steelworker among a complex of 3,800 people. The chapters state that, “the union gave the Amalgamated Association a considerable say in their operation, including the right to approve the hiring of new workers and to regulate the pace of work”. It’s clear that the union is giving the owners and the employee’s rights to and for work. However when the union came on board the both Henry Clay Frick and Carnegie secure the surroundings of homestead and fire they entire work force
The early 1900s was a time of many movements, from the cities to the rural farms; people were uniting for various causes. One of the most widespread was the labor movement, which affected people far and wide. Conditions in the nation’s workplaces were notoriously poor, but New York City fostered the worst. Factories had started out in the city’s tenements, which were extremely cramped, poorly ventilated, and thoroughly unsanitary. With the advent of skyscrapers, factories were moved out of the tenements and into slightly larger buildings, which still had terrible conditions. Workers were forced to work long hours (around 12 hours long) six hours a day, often for extremely low pay. The pay was also extremely lower for women, who made up a large portion of the shirtwaist industry. If a worker were to openly contest an employer’s rule, they would be promptly fired and replaced immediately. Also, strength in numbers did not always work. Managers often hired brutal strikebreakers to shut movements down. The local police and justice were often of no help to the workers, even when women were being beaten. At the time, the workers needs were not taken seriously and profit was placed ahead of human life. This was not just a struggle for workers’ rights; it was also a movement for the working class’ freedom.
were put to death. Even though the original opinion of the people about the uprising wasn’t in favor of it, after the death of the leaders they were outraged. (Coogan,”Troubles” pgs. 19-25)
The owner of the town and company George Pullman had workers’ wages get cut in addition to workers getting leadoff. Many people who worked for the company whose wages got cut had trouble affording the standard living costs in Pullman and were given “starvation wages.” The organization of the pissed off workers followed. The workers would go on a nationwide strike organized by the American Railway Union and was led by a man named Eugene debs. Eugene and his union was so powerful because they possessed the ability to paralyze the production of the railroad industry.
While Rudolph Schnaubelt threw the bomb, and August Spies and Adolph Fischer were accomplices to the act. The Haymarket debate, springs from well entrenched political views. Everyone agrees that a bomb went off in the middle of the police assembly. However, the disagreement stems from whether the anarchists were guilty or innocent. To the political left the Haymarket incident demonstrates the cruel ruling of the business elite and one the worst “miscarriages” of American law. The general public at the time believed the anarchists were criminals who were rightfully executed. After 130 years the Haymarket incident is still important, for many reasons. It is a symbol of the clash between working class and business elite and the justice system of the late 19th century. Some historians remain convinced that the men convicted were innocent, largely because of their indoctrinated education and their political agenda. At their universities, the future historians were taught that the men at Haymarket were innocent, until it became well entrenched into their viewpoint. It’s important to realize that our own bias can distort the facts of history. When we allow our emotional bias to cloud our thinking, our information becomes tainted with
Zinn, Howard. "The Great Railroad Strike, 1877." A People's History of the United States (2006). Article. 30 March 2014.
The changes after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire involved 4 main groups and public voters. No single group alone had the far reaching effects like the progressive movement, politically liberal and socially democratic. Without all four groups putting pressure on the legal system, the media exposing the flaws of the current industrial, political system along with the uprising that is the beginning of women’s suffrage, the labor laws would not have undergone the radical changes that are the backbone of modern day labor laws. The fact all doors must remain open and unlocked during business hours, in 21st century America, arose from the ashes of the fatal Triangle Shirtwaist fire, To the deceased, American manufacturing employees are grateful, though they may not be entirely knowledgeable about the origins of their current labor laws.