Blue Collar Workers

Blue Collar vs. White Collar Workers

During the Progressive Era, a rift between middle class workers formed when the federal government created a new classification system that differentiated between middle class workers who are paid hourly and middle class workers who had a fixed salary (Diner, p.155). The former group became white collar workers and the later developed into blue collar workers. Both these groups worked hard to get what they wanted and many individuals in these groups were able to succeed in reaching their goal of controlling their lives. When forces, such as gender, education, and big business, impacted their work experience, middle class workers rose above these issues and made a living for themselves. While attempting

to control their destinies, the white collar and blue collar workers made alliances with each other and used similar action, such as labor unions, to help control their lives. These labor unions then proceeded to shape the Progressive era and its agenda for reform during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
White collar workers were people that had jobs in the office. Clerks, secretaries, bookkeepers, salesmen, and telephone operators were all considered to be white collar jobs. The working environments were mostly in office buildings at a desk for white collar workers. They had an annual salary and were economically comfortable due to their job. The job security in white collar jobs caused many to go into that field of work; during this time period clerical work grew faster than any other major occupation in the country (Diner, p.157). A flood of workers caused many businesses to grow; however, this made it difficult for people to be promoted throughout a company. Instead of learning all the parts to the business, which would allow for employee promotions, these growing offices made their workers learn specialized tasks, causing movement in management to diminish (Diner, p.158). The employees were stuck in their same old position and many were lucky to even get a raise. The force of big business threatened many workers that were trying hard to get a promotion or a raise. However, these same workers were able to stick it out and wait for the flow of people in the profession to switch to another profession that needed workers. This threat on their daily lives was countered by other job openings and the workers’ patience in waiting out the flow of new workers.
The opening in these stable jobs led to men and women to work in the same surroundings, which caused even more problems for the white collar workers. Many women took the opportunity to leave the house for the first time and have a job as it was now socially acceptable. These unmarried women tended to work for a few years and then get married, so they could bring in some money to the marriage and thus make them more desirable for suitors. Women rarely got a raise and usually stayed in their position until they looked for another job or quit working entirely (Diner, p.165). Many women tried to stay home and take care of their family, while others fought hard to get a job at a good company. Being in a male-dominated society, these women workers were able to create a woman’s Trade Union League that was composed of middle and upper class women seeking to improve the lives of the women workers who worked as “stenographers, bookkeepers and typists” (Diner, p.162). Gender did not stop these women from going to work and doing a job that men could do without a fuss. Overall, the factor of sex could not change these women’s daily lives and soon men became accustomed to seeing women in the workplace.
The ideal white collar family would have been the working father with the family thriving on his income, allowing his wife and children not to work and instead go to school. This image of the “perfect” middle class differed from that of the Victorian middle class. These white collar workers worked for a boss, and tended to not be self-employed. In the previous Victorian era, however, many tried to be entrepreneurs and sustain by themselves as their own boss. Also, the workers usually worked in much larger workplaces compared to that of Victorian times. During that era, many had chances for upward mobility and independence by being their own employer; by the late nineteenth century, these white collar workers had few opportunities to move upward at their job and many felt confined in their position. As they felt confined, they only learned one specialized task in their job field compared to that of the Victorian era where the employee would know all the steps in the business. These changes from the Victorian era started after the Civil War in America. The many economic changes during the time after the war created many new white collar positions for both men and women. This rapid growth developed in both business and professions. Soon, education became a major factor in getting a white collar job. The federal government saw the huge flow of people going to school and soon started to invest in the public school system. Both political sides at the time saw the need for an educated voter and pushed for more people to be “Americanized.” This was very similar to the Northwest Ordinance of 1783, when the federal government gave public subsidies to states to build and run public school systems because they saw the importance of an educated voter. The government deemed that both sexes should be educated on the emphasis that girls need to be good “republican” wives and raise good “republican” children. This good “republican” family became the backbone of the image of the white collar middle class family. Without education, many found it hard to find a job in the white collar job field. This factor played a major impact in many who worked hard to try an achieve a job that would satisfy their economic need but could not reach it because of their educational status. Many new immigrants found it hard to get a job in the United States because of the criteria needed for that job. However, many rose above this and achieved in getting an education at a high school level, or sometimes even higher, and were able to get the white collar job they fought so hard to get. If not, the other option was a blue collar job.
Blue Collar workers were people that worked with machines or their hands.

These workers mostly worked in an outdoor environment, and they were paid hourly or by piecework wage. Industrial workers were usually the image that comes to mind when discussing a blue collar job. Other professions that fall under this title were: “skilled craft workers, industrial operatives, and unskilled laborers” (Diner, p.51). Big business played a major power force for many if not all blue collar workers who worked for a corporation. New technology was brought in by many big businesses. These machines could do the same job that many workers did except that the machine did not have to be paid. Many businesses began to undermine the skilled craft workers and they quickly lost their autonomy and their pay declined (Diner, p.54). The great expansion of America’s industrial economy, however, caused these businesses to rely upon the workers once again because the massive increase in need caused the machines to occasionally break. These workers then needed to use their skills once again, and they soon had power and control over their lives. The machines even created a new industry to make parts for itself when it broke, which happened often (Diner, p.53). The factor of big business realized that it still needed its workers and soon gave some power over to them so they could maintain their lives and

families.
Work that fell under the blue collar label was usually associated with men; however, women soon began to take part in the action of working.

Married women from a blue collar family would make clothing, artificial flowers, and other goods in their homes. These activities soon began to be known as homework (Diner, p.69). In this line of work, mothers were able to keep an eye on their children as they worked together to make goods to sell. While working, they were able to have other mothers over and socialize with them while both mothers earned an income by working. More commonly, married women in working-class families earned extra money by taking in “boarders from their own nationality” (Dinner, p.70).The boarders helped the family economically and enabled mothers to watch over their children at home. The force of women working in blue collar middle class families did not play a major factor in the role of men because working class people depended upon their family for economic security. This was a common aspect of blue collar families in which the wife had to do an extra job for money, and in even some cases the children had to work too for economic

security.
As a blue collar worker, being skilled or unskilled played a major part in whether the worker got a job or not. Education in a skill meant that the worker would be a skilled crafter which led to many having “control over the pace of work and the rule of the mill” (Dinner, p. 51). Industry depended heavily on skilled craftsmen because they were the only ones who knew the one way to get the job done. The only way for a worker to know the skill was to be an assistant to a skilled craftsman, and then the worker could get their position. Unions of skilled craftsmen developed a code of “ethical behavior and certain rules for their work;” for instance, they established the amount of pay for their job (Diner, p.52). Having an education in a skill, led to these men having some control in their lives. The factor of education helped improve the power these blue collar workers had over their lives and their families lives. Meanwhile, unskilled laborers were known as “common laborers” or “day laborers” because they worked with their hands and did not operate machinery (Diner, p. 59). Not having an education in a skill, many of these men worked physical tasks such as: “building and repairing train tracks, loading freight in railroad yards and on docks, hauling building materials, digging ditches, paving streets and roads, shoveling coal into industrial furnaces, and moving goods inside factories” (Diner, p.59). These unskilled workers felt the force of education on their backs, and in order to achieve a better economic status or security, they had to learn a skill.
Both white collar and blue collar workers attempted to control their lives from these forces, and they soon allied with each other in order to overcome these obstacles. Even though white collar workers prided themselves on having a greater social status than those who worked with their hands, they soon realized that they had to create a union in order to have a voice in the ever-growing big business that they worked for. White collar workers faced problems such as discourteous treatment, rigid management, work strain, less pay, and limited opportunity for advancement, while blue collar workers dealt with the ever looming threat of losing their job to either a stronger worker or a machine, hard long hours, and less pay (Diner, p. 162). The unions that came out from these problems were the International Association of Machinists and The Bookkeepers and Accountants Union NO. 1 of New York (Diner, p. 54, p.162). Even though both of these unions are for completely separate areas of work, they both came back to the umbrella of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) (Diner, p.54, p.162). Both groups sought help from the AFL, which helped them combat the forces of big business, education, and gender, and thus take back control of their lives. This alliance shaped the Progressive Era reform agenda by highlighting the power behind unions and making them an essential aspect of the work force.
The Progressive Era brought about change to many different places all other the country. A lot of people were affected by those changes, including blue collar and white collar workers. By meeting the forces head-on, both groups were able to overcome these powerful factors and take command of their lives, setting a precedent for the new century.