Labor Unions Fight Back!

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Labor Unions Fight Back!
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Tuesday Warm-Up

• Begin completing your vocabulary and essential
  question from your Unit 5 syllabus.
• You have 10 minutes
• If you are finished, begin reviewing your old
  syllabus for your mid-term

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Conditions of the Worker

• Working conditionsunsanitary, dangerous
• Wagestoo low
• Hourstoo long, 14 hour days
• Child Laborno school, cruelty (low pay, long
  hours)

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The Changing American Labor Force
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Child Labor - Early 1800s ages 7-12 made up
1/3 of workforce in US factories - 1848
Pennsylvania establishes age of 12 to work in
silk, cotton, wool mills - 1853 Many states
adopt 10 hr. workday for children - 1900 1/5
of all American children were employed - 1924
Congress prohibits labor under 18
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Child Labor
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Galley Labor
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Rise of Labor Unions

• It was under these conditions that labor unions
  arose.
• Unions are organizations of workers formed to
  protect their rights

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Trade Unions vs. Craft Unions

• Craft Unions- open to people with a particular
  skill like carpentry or masonry
• Trade Union- open to less skilled workers.

trade
craft
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The Knights of Labor

• A Giant union that organized trade and craft
  unions into one powerful force.
• They were the first integrated union and they
  included African Americans

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American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Union led by Samuel Gompers
• Used strikes to force companies to give better
  wages, hours, and working conditions

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Bosses Respond to Unions

• Yellow-Dog Contracts Employers require that
  workers sign a contract promising not to strike
  to get hired
• Blacklist Bosses would prevent workers who went
  on strike from getting another job
• Scabs Workers who were hired to take the place
  of striking workers

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STRIKES!!!

• With your group read about your strike and right
  down what happened and a once sentence
  significance.
• Be ready to share this with the class.
• Homestead Strike Pg. 453
• The Great Strike Pg. 453
• The Haymarket Affair Pg. 453
• The Pullman Strike Pg. 454

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The Socialists

• Socialists believe that the means of production
  should be owned by the workers, not the rich
  minority

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Eugene V. Debs

• Organized American Railway Union
• He was a Socialist
• Ran for President many times
• Ran for President from prison and received
  millions of votes.

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International Workers of the World (Wobblies)
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Big Bill Haywood of theIWW

• Violence was justified to overthrow capitalism.

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The Hand That Will Rule the World? One Big Union
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Mother Jones The Miners Angel

• Mary Harris.
• Organizer for theUnited MineWorkers.
• Founded the SocialDemocratic Party in 1898.
• 1903, led 80 mill children to home of T.
  Roosevelt demanding child labor laws.