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Working Conditions
The industrial growth of the late 1800s created new jobs. Growth also raised the standard of living for many American workers. That is, necessities and luxuries were more available and affordable. Yet workers paid a price for economic progress.
Factories had once been small workplaces where employers and employees knew one another and often worked side by side. As mass production spread, however, factories became larger and less personal.
Industrial laborers:
worked for 10 or 12 hours a day, six days a week.
they could be fired at any time for any reason.
many lost their jobs during business downturns or were replaced by immigrants who were willing to work for lower pay.
Factories and mines were noisy, unhealthy, and unsafe.
Accidents were common. Steel workers suffered burns from spills of hot steel.
Coal miners died in cave-ins and from the effects of gas and coal dust.
Textile workers’ lungs were damaged by airborne lint.
Garment workers toiled in crowded urban factories called sweatshops, where their eyesight was ruined by sewing for hours in poor light.
Filled with flammable materials, the sweatshops were also terrible firetraps.
Women Workers Although the majority of working women in the late 1800s had jobs as domestic servants, women also joined the industrial workforce, especially the textile industry.
By 1900 more than one million women worked in industry. However, because no laws regulated workers’ salaries, women generally received about half of what men earned for the same work. In addition, it was assumed that a woman had a man to support her—either her father or her husband. A man, therefore, needed higher wages because he was supporting a family.
Women Workers
Although the majority of working women in the late 1800s had jobs as domestic servants, women also joined the industrial workforce, especially the textile industry. By 1900 more than one million women worked in industry. However, because no laws regulated workers’ salaries, women generally received about half of what men earned for the same work. In addition, it was assumed that a woman had a man to support her—either her father or her husband. A man, therefore, needed higher wages because he was supporting a family.
Child Labor
Industries also hired children. In 1900 hundreds of thousands of children under 16 years of age worked in factories. Concerned groups brought child labor to the attention of their state legislatures. As a result, many states passed child labor laws. These laws stated that children working in factories had to be at least 12 years old and should not work more than 10 hours a day. Employers widely ignored child labor laws, however. Also, the laws did not apply to agriculture, which employed about one million children.
Labor Unions Form
Workers created labor unions to combat unsafe working conditions in many of the nation’s industries.
Reading Connection:
What do you think should be done about unsafe conditions at businesses and factories?
Dissatisfied workers organized into groups—labor unions—to demand better pay and working conditions from their employers. Earlier in the 1800s, skilled workers had formed unions to represent workers in certain crafts or trades, such as carpentry. These trade unions had little influence because each represented only one trade. By the mid-1800s, labor leaders looked to expand their unions.
labor unions—groups of people who demand better pay, shorter hours and better working conditions from their employers
Noble and Holy Order Knights of Labor.
In 1869 garment cutters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , founded the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. Employers fired workers who joined labor organizations, so the Knights met secretly and used special handshakes to identify each other. Under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, the Knights of Labor became a national labor organization in the 1880s.
Unlike most unions, the Knights recruited people who had been kept out of trade unions, including women, African Americans, immigrants, and unskilled laborers. The Knights of Labor grew rapidly to more than 700,000 members by 1886. However, setbacks in many strikes weakened the unions and resulted in the loss of members and power in the 1890s
American Federation of Labor
In 1881 a group of national trade unions formed a federation that five years later became known as the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The AFL represented skilled workers in various crafts. The AFL was led by Samuel Gompers, the tough, practical-minded president of the Cigar Makers’ Union. The organization pressed for higher wages, shorter working hours, better working conditions, and the right to bargain collectively with employers. In the process of collective bargaining, unions represent workers in bargaining with management.
Although violent strikes turned some people against workers and unions in the late 1880s, the AFL survived and grew. By 1904 the AFL was able to claim more than 1.6 million members.
Women and the Unions
Many unions would not admit women workers, so some women formed their own unions. Mary Harris Jones, better known as Mother Jones, spent 50 years fighting for workers’ rights.
On March 25, 1911, a devastating fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. The fire, which started on the eighth floor, quickly spread to the upper floors of the factory. The fire was so intense that many of the workers, mostly young immigrant women, were trapped. They had no way to escape the flames and smoke, and many died from smoke inhalation or by jumping from the windows to avoid the fire. A total of 146 people died in the fire, making it one of the deadliest industrial disasters in U.S. history.
The fire exposed serious flaws in the factory's safety measures. The doors to the stairwells and exits were locked, preventing workers from escaping. There were also no sprinklers in the building, and the fire escape was inadequate. The fire also highlighted the dangerous working conditions that many factory workers faced at the time. Workers were often forced to work long hours for low wages in unsafe environments. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was no exception, with workers often working 13-hour shifts for only $6 a week.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire had a profound impact on the labor movement and workplace safety regulations. The tragedy sparked public outrage and led to calls for reform. In the aftermath of the fire, New York State passed a series of laws aimed at improving factory safety standards. These laws included requirements for fire escapes, sprinklers, and other safety measures. The fire also helped to fuel the growth of labor unions, which fought for better working conditions for factory workers.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is a reminder of the importance of workplace safety and the need to protect workers from dangerous conditions. The fire also serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made by workers who fought for better working conditions. The tragedy continues to be remembered as a symbol of the dangers of industrialism and the need for worker rights. The fire also led to changes in building codes and fire safety regulations, which helped to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.
The disaster led the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) to push for a safer working environment.
On December 27, twenty-three days after the trial had started, a jury acquitted Blanck and Harris of any wrong doing. The task of the jurors had been to determine whether the owners knew that the doors were locked at the time of the fire.
The Unions Act
Strikes often ended in violence, causing some people to turn against labor unions.
Do you know anyone who was laid off from a job or whose wages were lowered due to economic downturns? How did these people cope with their loss of wages?
Strikes and Strikebreakers
Economic depressions in the 1870s and the 1890s led companies to fire workers and lower wages. Unions responded with large strikes that sometimes sparked violence. Economic depression hit the nation following a financial panic in 1873. To cut costs, companies forced their workers to take pay cuts.
In July 1877, as the depression continued, several railroads announced another round of wage cuts. This triggered the first nationwide labor protest. Angry strikers smashed equipment; tore up tracks; and blocked rail service in New York, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and other cities. The companies hired strikebreakers to replace the striking workers. State militia or federal troops restored order in different places. By the time the strike ended, however, more than 100 people lay dead, and millions of dollars of property had been destroyed.
Major Strikes
Anti-labor feeling grew stronger after events in Chicago’s Haymarket Square in May 1886. Striking workers from the McCormick Harvester Company gathered to protest the killings of four strikers the previous day. When police ordered the crowd to break up, an unidentified person threw a bomb that killed a police officer. Several more were killed in a riot that followed.
Following the Haymarket Riot, some Americans associated the labor movement with violence and disorder.
In 1892 workers went on strike at Andrew Carnegie’s steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Homestead managers hired nonunion workers and brought in 300 armed guards to protect them. A fierce battle left at least 10 people dead. The plant reopened with nonunion workers, protected by the troops. After the failure of the Homestead Strike, the steelworkers’ union dwindled.
After employees of George Pullman’s railway-car plant near Chicago went on strike in May 1894, Pullman closed the plant. One month later, workers in the American Railway Union supported the strikers by refusing to handle Pullman cars, paralyzing rail traffic. Pullman and the railroad owners fought back. They persuaded U.S. Attorney General Richard Olney to obtain an injunction or court order, to stop the union from “obstructing the railways and holding up the mails.” The workers and their leader, Eugene V. Debs), refused to end the strike. Debs was arrested for interfering with the mail. President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to Chicago, and soon the strike was over. The failure of the Pullman Strike dealt another blow to the union movement. Despite these setbacks, workers continued to organize to work for better wages and working conditions.
The power came from the United Farm Workers, the first successful farmworkers union in the nation’s history.
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones was born in Ireland and moved to the United States with her family. In 1867 her husband George and their four children died from yellow fever. Widowed and childless, Jones moved to Chicago and opened a dressmaker’s shop. By the 1880s, Jones was fully involved in the union movement and became one of its most important leaders. For the next 50 years, she traveled around the country speaking to workers and promoting unions. She said, “My address is like my shoes: it travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong.” She told her listeners to “look on yourselves, and upon each other. Let us consider this together for I am one of you, and I know what it is to suffer.”
MARY HARRIS JONES
1830–1930
César Chávez knew the suffering of farmworkers. He had labored in the fields since age 10, when his family lost their Arizona farm during the Great Depression. Like thousands of other farmers, the Chávez family became migrant workers. Chávez attended some 65 schools before dropping out at the end of eighth grade. After serving in World War II, Chávez took a paid job to win greater rights for Mexican Americans. In 1962 with the support of his wife Helen Fabela Chávez, he returned to the fields and his dream of organizing farmworkers into a union. In 1965 Chávez launched La Huelga—“the strike.” He asked Americans to boycott grapes until growers in the San Joaquin Valley signed union contracts. Some 17 million Americans responded. “For the first time,” Chávez said, “the farmworker got some power.”
CÉSAR ESTRADA CHÁVEZ
1927–1993
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