Formation of Workers' Unions in America
The economy and labor market of the United States underwent massive changes in the late 1800s. In both the industrial north and the agricultural south, a growing number of men, women, and children of different racial, ethnic, and occupational backgrounds became wage laborers. One of the major issues in this time period was the conflict between these workers and their employers, the struggle between labor and capital. What were some of the major efforts by workers to form unions or political organizations to improve their jobs in the late 1800s? How easy or difficult was it for workers to unite with one another? Why did employers and government officials often resist these efforts and how did it affect the success of these efforts?
Write a 4 to 5-page, double-spaced paper in 12-point font that addresses the questions posed above. Be sure to base your claims on the assigned readings, documents, and other materials covered in class during weeks 1 through 3. You should use some combination of the prologue and the first three chapters of Who Built America volume 2, Alex Gourevitch’s “Our Forgotten Labor Revolution,” Samuel Gompers’s “What Does Labor Want,” Andrew Carnegie’s The Gospel of Wealth chapter 2, and the “Statement of Pullman Strikers.” Your paper should not mention every possible example from these materials, but adequately analyze and discuss the examples you choose.
Alex Gourevitch, “Our Forgotten Labor Revolution,” Jacobin, August 26, 2015, https://www(dot)jacobinmag(dot)com/2015/08/knights-of-labor-jim-crow-labor-populism-reconstruction
Statement From the Pullman Strikers, June 15, 1894, https://www(dot)historyisaweapon(dot)com/defcon1/pullmanstrikersstatement.html
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History of Labor and Work
America's labor market and economy went through drastic changes in the 1800s. The north specialized in industrialization, while the south focused on agriculture. People from different racial, ethnic, racial and economic classes became wage laborers. Soon, conflict emerged between employers and their workers. The results were the formation of workers' unions to champion their rights. This was also met with various challenges. This paper discusses the major efforts by workers to form workers' unions and political organizations to champion better working conditions in the later 1800s and how difficult or easy it was for the employees to unite. These major efforts by workers to unionize included the formation of Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and the Pullman Strike. It was difficult for these workers to unionize because they had no rights, their employers set all the conditions and opposed the formation of workers' unions or political organizations, most states enforced legal restrictions to the formation of workers' unions and political organizations, and these unionization efforts also led to increased violence. Employers and governments resisted these efforts to form workers' unions because they feared it would interfere with their revenue flow and believed in laissez-fair capitalism and that economy should be free from interference
The formation of Knights of Labor contributed greatly to the formation of workers' unions and political organizations championing better working conditions. It was formed in 1869 and became one of the most influential bodies, advocating for 8-hour working time, abolition of child labor and equal pay (Gourevitch, 2015; Lichtenstein & Rosenzweig 94). The Knights of Labor saw a quick fall due to the suppression of 1886.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL), a radically different type of union organization that learned from the mistakes of the Knights, was formed after the collapse of the Knights of labor in 1886. AFL continued with a similar objective as the Knights. The lessons from the collapse of Knights allowed the AFL to persuade moderate businesspeople to embrace collective bargaining as a viable solution in the face of continued labor unrest, which included equipment sabotage, slowdowns, strikes, and other forms of labor unrest. A potential agreement, though, was still over a decade away. Despite their significant autonomy and independence, the national-level craft leaders provided the federation's head, elected for two years by delegates from each union at national meetings, with some ability to speak on their behalf on broad policy concerns. Samuel Gompers, the first president of the federation, who had previously led the cigar producers' organization, held the position from 1886 until he died in 1924, except for two years.
Another effort to form unions and political organizations is the Pullman Strike. It was an 1894 nationwide railway strike in the United States. The genesis of the strike was that the Pullman Palace Car Company, manufacturing railroad cars, slashed employees' wages without reducing their rent, attracting the strike. Led by Eugene v. Debs, the American Railway Union called for a boycott of Pullman's company products. This led to the shutting down of railway traffic across America (Statement from the Pullman Strikers). A similar incident occurred in Chicago in 1896, contributing to the formation of the union and political organizations. This was a workers' riot named the Haymarket Riot. Workers went on strike for eight hours following a bomb thrown during a peaceful rally. The bomb killed many security officers. Following the incident was a widespread crackdown on labor unions and organizations. This became a turning point in America's labor movement history.Top of Form
The workers faced significant challenges uniting with one another to form workers' unions and political organizations to champion better working conditions for several reasons. First is that workers had no rights making it difficult to unite. The employers set conditions often characterized by long working hours, low wages, and poor working environments (Lichtenstein & Rosenzweig 42). The absence of l...