Bread And Roses Summary

Bread and Roses is a book based on the true events that occurred in Massachusetts in the early 1900; It recalls the detailed events that took place during the 1012 Lawrence textile strike. This strike is regarded as the longest strike ever taken place, lasting a total of nine weeks. The spark that initiated the strike was the cut the down of the workers ' hours, in addition to a cut in their wages. Back in the 1900’s, the working class was the least paid employees in the Country; not only did they work long hours, but were also paid barely enough to feed and clothe their families. Their living conditions were certainly not ideal. At that time, most of the factory workers were immigrants that came to “La ‘Merica”, as Italian immigrants called

In addition, strikes for better wage usually failed because there were many unemployed willing to do the job. This conditions caused a huge gap between the rich and the poor, in fact, “the richest one percent of Americans held half the nation’s total wealth”. Labor unions were formed to fight this inequality and to help workers obtain only what they deserved — better working conditions, better pay and reasonable working hours. The textile strike in Lawrence, MA, exemplifies how labor unions, without a doubt, helped mill workers achieve this goal. It was with the help of the International Workers of the World (IWW) and leaders such as Joseph Ettor and Arturo Gionvannitti, who played an important role in he success of the strike. They formed a committee and immigrants from different nationalities organized as one to come up with a set of demands for the factory employers, among them were: fifteen percent increase in their salary, double time for overtime work and no retaliation after the strike ended and they would go back to work. Up to this point, many of the initial strikes had failed; they would end as soon a they began because the masses were quickly put to order by the police. Nonetheless, as they organized, they became stronger on account of the amount of people that joined the