Labor Union

During the Gilded Age activists tried improving the conditions of workers and the poor in many ways. In a few ways they were moderately successful but mostly philanthropists didn’t succeed. Between 1875 and 1900 the organized labor, overall, didn’t improve the position of the workers, making them unsuccessful.
The organized labor was unsuccessful because many of the workers went on strike or were killed and didn’t get what they wanted. On July 7, 1892 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, there were ten people reported dead and more that had no official notification of death (Document G). These people died because they participated in the Homestead Strike. Even after this gruesome strike Homestead did not give into their demands and remained a nonunion for a while after. This proves that even though they held a strike against the factory, the workers conditions did not improve at all and many people died making the Homestead Strike unsuccessful. On July 18, 1877 there was an editorial about the Railroad Strike of 1877. It stated that “The strike is apparently hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and spiteful demonstration of resentment by men too ignorant… to understand their own interests.” (Document B). This document proves that the Railroad Strike was not making a dent in the workers conditions. The strikers are the workers and because they are on strike they are not working which means no income. They do all this and they get nothing out of the strike, again proving that the labor union was unsuccessful. Since many of the organized strikes turned out not to do anything, in some cases death, the labor union failed to improve the workers conditions.
Another reason why they were not successful was because industriali...

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...d knight of labor. When they are all fighting the workers are still in bad conditions and nothing gets done. In 1895, the Supreme Court declared that the government has power from the Constitution to remover obstruction from the highway (Document H). This really tells us that the government has all the power and can replace the strikers when they get in the way. Since the government is more powerful, they have more control over the activists outweighing them all. So, because the activists are busy fighting, the government can take over and so the poor are left where they are.
During the Gilded Age many people who were rich became philanthropists in order to give back to the poor. Many of them also became activists to further help the working class. Although through their efforts, the organized labor was unsuccessful from 1875 to 1900 to improve the workers rights.