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Importance of labor unions
Labor union effects on workers'lives
The effects of working conditions and wages in the industrial revolution
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As darkness fell over the city of Pittsburgh on July 21, 1877, an enormous failing. The Pennsylvania Railroad's PRR massive railroad yards were engulfed by a sea of fire. "Strong men halted with fear," one witness later recalled, "while others ran to and fro trampling upon the killed and wounded." The conflagration that raged that hot summer night was the result of a long-simmering crisis in the lives of American working men and women.The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the angry response of railroad workers to wage reductions, job cuts, and the profiteering by the huge railroad corporations that had risen to dominance after the Civil War. Millions of Americans had become wage workers when businesses boomed, but a bank panic partly sparked by the instability caused by railroads' rate wars in 1873 sent the nation into an …show more content…
By the summer of 1877, at least three million Americans - an estimated 25 percent of the nation's workforce -were searching for employment. That May, the Pennsylvania Railroad had imposed its second 10 percent wage cut in two years.A few weeks later, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad b and o announced ten percent pay cuts for workers making more than a dollar a day-including comparable cuts for officials-and at about the same time announced payment of a 10 percent dividend. For b and o workers, this was too much-it was the second 10 percent wage cut in a year.On July 16, frustrated workers and sympathizers blocked the movement of b and o trains in Baltimore, Maryland, and one hundred miles west, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Word of the strike action spread quickly. Workers in Philadelphia, Reading, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Columbia, Harrisburg, Altoona, Johnstown, Derry, Washington, Erie, and Pittsburgh halted all commercial train traffic. Strike organizers in Pittsburgh struggled to maintain
Tensions between union supporters and management began mounting in the years preceding the strike. In April of 1994, the International Union led a three-week strike against major tracking companies in the freight hauling industry in attempts to stop management from creating $9 per hour part-time positions. This would only foreshadow battles to come between management and union. Later, in 1995, teamsters mounted an unprecedented national union campaign in attempts to defeat the labor-management “cooperation” scheme that UPS management tried to establish in order to weaken the union before contract talks (Witt, Wilson). This strike was distinguished from other strikes of recent years in that it was an offensive strike, not a defensive one. It was a struggle in which the union was prepared, fought over issues which it defined, and one which relied overwhelmingly on the efforts of the members themselves (http://www.igc.org/dbacon/Strikes/07ups.htm).
After the Civil War, it became evident that changes in the South had to be made. The old way had certainly not worked, and it was time for variation. Therefore, there was much political, economic, and social reforms introduced in the South between 1864 and 1877. After 1877, many of the changes stayed with the exception of Civil Rights.
The Transportation Revolution in the 1800s, sparked up industrialization and the building of railroads that stimulated every other industry causing an economic boom known as the Gilded Age. From the outside, America seemed like the place to go to make all your dreams come true. But in reality, in was an era of serious social problems mainly caused by an economy with a free market policy, low tariffs, low taxes, less spending, and a hands-off government. This type of economy would eventually lead to the development of monopolies. These monopolies would then, in turn, lead to worker uprisings ‒caused by the suppression of unions created mostly by unskilled workers‒ that would contribute to the rapid rise and downfall of America. An example of this suppression is the Homestead Strike of 1892; due to hostility created by the unions, the employer fired all the workers, and rehired them on the basis that there would not be any more unions. After the workers started working again, the conditions were still unbearable, so the workers shut down the facility. The police got involved, the workers were pushed back, and the facility was reopened union free.
WriteWork. "The 19th Century 'Railroad Boom.'" WriteWork . N.p., 1 May 2003. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
In document C., a tribune describes a situation in Chicago that occurred in 1894, during the time that the union started to change the free market. Rioters destroyed many freight cars that were loaded with costly track property. Everything went to waste because the Union led strikers to sweep many yards in fire, instead of allowing businesses to put the goods to use.
“The United States emerged from a virulent, intense, and inhumane civil war and evolved into a new nation during this period. This transition was the culmination of political, economic, social, and cultural movements which transformed the nation. E Pluribus Unum - out of many United States, one nation; the United States was forged in the cauldron of these revolutions." -Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the country's first major rail strike and witnessed the first general strike in the nation's history. In 1877, northern railroads, still suffering from the Financial Panic of 1873, began cutting salaries and wages. The cutbacks prompted strikes and violence with lasting consequences. In May the Pennsylvania Railroad, the nation's largest railroad company, cut wages
The Coal Strike of 1902 occurred as a result of many problems that were faced by miners. At the time of the coal strike there were 150,000 miners working in the mines (Grossman) Due to the depression of 1893, miners had their wages cut and were living in poverty (Grossman). Many miners were dissatisfied and looked to the United Mine Workers for support in raising their standard of living. This proved difficult since employers refused to recognize labor unions for fear of giving them significant control over the industry. In most instances of employee demands before 1902, employers would use government troops or hire immigrants to take the jobs of the strikers (David Kennedy).
The workers who had the wages cut lived in a model town that Pullman had built, but while they now had smaller wages the rent in their apartments stayed the same. Consequently, the workers could no longer afford to live in the town, so they began to strike. Workers convinced the American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, to strike with them by refusing to handle the Pullman Cars. In turn, thousands of Railroad workers over the span of 27 states supported the strike. This caused transportation from Chicago to the Pacific Coast to halt. The state governor of Illinois was sympathetic toward unions and refused to call the militia. However, when the Pullman Company appealed to the Federal Government President Grover Cleveland ordered 2000 troops to Chicago to either stop the strike sending workers back, or run the rails themselves. The reasoning for President Cleveland to send troops was due to Federal mail being interfered with. The Federal Courts also sided with the Pullman Company and filed an injunction that forbid union workers to continue striking. Eugene Debs defied the injunction and in turn was sent to prison, which caused the strike too soon collapse due to their lack of
Before the crisis was over, nine out of ten railroad concerns had failed. Millions of dollars were lost on defaulted debt. Unemployment reached about 30% in the cities. Every sector from manufacturing to farming was affected. The Panic of 1873 resulted in labor unrest, huge concentrations of wealth, and desperate migrations to Indian- populated parts of the West, and effectively ended the Reconstruction-Era protections for blacks in the South.
The Homestead Strike of 1892, started when the workers of the Carnegie steel mill wanted better working condition and protection after the death of one of their coworkers. Carnegie went to Europe to avoid any backlash that may come from the strike. Carnegie placed his overseer Henry Frick in charge of bringing order back to the mill. Frick stated that he would single handily UN-unionize the steel union. Frick then hired ex-Civil war veterans to help him remove the worker form the mill. There was an altercation between the mill workers, Frick and the militia and bring the altercation shots were fired a dozen men were killed. Upon Carnegie’s return from Europe, he fired the union workers and replaced them with non-union workers; most of the union workers got their jobs back.
During the summer of 1874, the U. S. Army launched a campaign to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indian tribes from the Southern Plains and enforce their relocation to reservations in Indian Territory. The actions of 1874 were unlike any prior attempts by the Army to pacify this area of the western frontier. The Red River War led to the end of an entire way of life for the Southern Plains tribes and brought about a new chapter in Texas history.
George Pullman was not always believed to be a cruel boss. George Pullman started off believing that anyone could be successful if they worked hard enough. But as his business grew, he took this belief too far, furthering his own company by working his employees hard, treating his employees like slaves. There were many factors included in how the Pullman strike started. George Pullman and the company’s treatment of employees, how the town of Pullman, Illinois reacted to their treatment, other strikes that led up to the Pullman employee unhappiness and their reaction, the Pullman Strike.
The Winnipeg General Strike The year of 1919 has been one of the most influential years of strikes
patroonship - Dutch land in the Hudson River Bay that was granted to promoters who agreed to settle 50 people on them.