Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The rise of organised
labour, 1877 -90
- Early Unions
- 1877: Union
membership
falls to 50,000
- Before 1877
- 1873: Economic
depression
makes millions
unemployed
- 1866: National Labor Union
formed with 60,000
workers and 77 delegates
- Focused on securing 8-hour-day
- 1872: Union
membership
peaks at
300,000
- Unions are
sporadic and local
Small craft unions
- Unions struggled to
get the right to exist
and be recognised
by business owners
- National railroad Strike, 1877
- Key events
- B&O Railroad
company cut pay
- Workers to strike
- Other railroad workers and
sypathisers from different
industries join in
- The striking workers mass
to attack railroad yards.
- This was worst in Pittsburgh
- 5,000 workers fought 650
police troops and destroyed
500 cars, 104 locomotives
and 39 buildings.
- The military came to
support the police and 25
people died as they
opened fire on the crowd
- The military
restored but the
damage was done.
- Outcomes
- Desire for stronger unions
- The prevention of businesses labour suppression
- A shocked America and a terrified middle/upper class
- $10 million worth of damage done
- Felt they were in
a power struggle
against business
and governemnt
- The issue of this being
that it was the fourth
in as many years
- Key people
- S.D. Cashman
- August 1877: released a
call to arms encouraging
the people to rise up
against big bussinesses
- The owners of the
Baltimore and Ohio (B&O)
Railroad company
- Knights of Labour
- Life cycle
- Formed in 1869
- Growth
- 1885: Wabash Railroad (part
of the Southwest System)
try to break a local union.
- Knights sympathy strike freezing
the whole Southwest System and
forcing Wabush to negotiate.
- By 1866: 750,000 members
- Decline
- By 1885: 10,000 members.
- No united
support
meant most
actions
resulted in
failure.
- Haymarket
bomb outrage
was blamed on
the Knights,
destroying them
- The
organisation
became all
but extinct
by 1882
- Goals
- 8-hour-days
- Child labour restrictions
- Initiative and referendum
- Cooperative labour-management relations
- Democratic enterprises
- All races, genders,
ethnicities and occupatons.
- Haymarket Bomb Outrage
- May 1886: McCormick Harvester Works
- Battle between
strikers vs strike
breakers and police
- Several died
and more were
injured when
police fired on
the crowd
- Black International
(formed 1881)
anarchists call
meeting in
Haymarket Square.
- Though the meeting
was peaceful, upon
its conclusion one
anarchist threw a
bomb which killed a
policeman and
injured 60 people of
whom 6 died.
- The public
turned on the
anarchists
resulting in the
execution of
seven
members in
1887
- Police retaliation ended
in them firing into the
crowd wounding
hundreds, some fatally.
- As a result of the
event, the 1886
8-hour movement
failed and all but
15,000 people lost
their labour gains.
- Existing
organised
labour was
destroyed
- American Federation of Labor (AFL)
- Samuel Gompers
founded AFL and was
voted its first
president (1896-1924)
- 1892: over 250,000
members
- Founded in 1885, the
AFL was central to
the labour movement
after the fall of the
Knights of Labor.
- 1892: over 250,000 members
- Policy: secure recognition and
agreements with employers
through collective bargaining
and hard strikes.
- Aimed for higher wages
and shorter hours
- Focused on higher wages
and shorter workdays.
- Non-interference policy
with member unions
- Was a federation of semi-independent
craft associations
- Only skilled
white men
- Taxed member unions to raise a strike
fund and maintain a secretariat
- Paid for a network of state
federations which acted as
central points for the member
unions under the AFL