Labor Unions Dbq

Labor Unions in America have had a history of being messy and relatively unsuccessful. One of their biggest problems were the wages and hours that the workers had worked, this continued from 1875-1900 when they only saw slight changes in the average daily wages, and average daily hours (Document A). Workers found themselves facing a negative general consensus from the American public due to perceived anarchist and socialist relations. Conflict among different labor unions, violence of some labor strikes, and the availability of scrub workers led to unsuccessful strikes and weaker unions. These weak unions, caused foor many many problems for the time being.
There were a good number of labor unions during the late 19th century and they all

seemed to have different needs. This disunity within the labor movement was extremely detrimental and is without a doubt one of the reasons why organized labor was not successful in improving the position of workers. Discrimination based on race or gender within labor unions fueled much of the disunity in the labor movement of the late 19th century. Almost every major labor union in the US during this time discriminated against some group. The Molly Maguires, AFL, American Railway Union, and National Labor Union all refused to grant membership regardless of race, gender or skill level. If these labor unions were to grant membership to all workers, their movements would have a lot more support and they might have achieved something in their many strikes. When only one group of people was protesting for better working conditions, the power of the protest was inherently lower than a strike that included all workers. Most labor unions consisted of white men from different ethnic backgrounds. As seen in Document G, those who protested in the Homestead Strike were white immigrants from different parts of Europe. Having men who did not share a common identity and were from various European backgrounds also lead to disunity within labor groups and further hurt the labor movement.
The labor movement of the late 19th century also included too many individual labor unions each fighting for individual gains. The presence of so many unions hurt the unity of the labor movement as a whole and led to unsuccessful strikes and protests. In the cartoon of Document F, the disunity of the labor movement is shown and the point that having too many labor unions fighting for their own individual interests hurts the overall interests of the labor movement is emphasized. The cartoon shows different groups such as the Knights of Labor, “communists”, “anarchists” and labor unions fighting for their own interests instead of fighting for the betterment of working conditions in general. The Knights of Labor searched for utopian ideals while groups such as the AFL focused on “bread and butter” issues. The labor movement had disunity both within and between labor groups and as a result, the labor movement did not achieve much.
The organized labor movement was not popular with all American citizens and in fact there was a growing concern for the rise of organized labor throughout the country.

As strikes and protests became more violent, more people started to see these movements as radical. The newspapers had a pivotal role in the labeling of labor movements as radical. In Document B, a New York Times article claims that the strike “is nothing more than a rash and spiteful demonstration of resentment by men too ignorant or too reckless to understand their own interests.” The Great Railroad Strike and the Haymarket Riot were both strikes that ended in the deaths of protesters and government officials. These protests sparked public contempt towards organized labor and solidified the radical label on organized

labor.
Along with seeing labor movements as radical, many labor movements were labeled socialist by the media. In the cartoon in Document C, the labor movement is shown to be influenced by socialist controls. Considering the generally negative connotation that came with communism in the United States, when newspapers like Harper’s Weekly labeled organized labor as socialist, many people developed a negative attitude towards organized labor. The disapproval of organized labor was not exclusive to the American public but also the federal government. During the late 20th century, the Supreme Court became increasingly conservative on the issue of organized labor. In the Supreme Court case In re Debs, the court ruled that federal government controlled interstate commerce and was obligated to keep the railroads from obstructions and in that specific case, strikes or protests. The fact that a good portion of the American public and the federal government saw organized labor as a detriment; it was no surprise that organized labor did not accomplish much during the late 20th century.
As organized labor grew in the United States, there were more strikes and protests for improvements in working conditions.

Not all of these protests were carried out peacefully however. One of the sole reasons for why organized labor did not succeed was because the violence that came with many of the strikes and protests. The Great Railroad Strike, Haymarket Riot, Homestead Strike and the Pullman Strike were all important strikes during the late 20th century and all involved some sort of violence on the part of protesters and government officials. Document G shows a firsthand account of the result of labor violence. In the Haymarket Riot, protesters threw bombs at police to protest the killings of workers by policeman. In the Homestead Strike, Pinkerton agents were brought in to suppress the violent protesters. An outsider could hardly tell that people were protesting wages and working conditions when it looked like the police and protesters were fighting a war. Protesters using violence to gain rights in the workplace was not an effective technique by any means and as a result none of the violent strikes resulted in gains for organized labor groups. When people were being killed and federal troops had to be called in to suppress the violence, it was hard for unions to gain any leverage on

businesses.
The gilded age in America lead to an increase in the wage gap and a rise in organized labor unions. However many of these labor unions were unsuccessful in attaining their goals. Many groups struggled against public disdain and the fight for recognition. Many protests ended in violence either between workers or between business heads and union members. Labor unions also found themselves often fighting among other unions. There was no sense of cooperation between separate union groups. Between 1875 and 1900 most workers in the US didn’t make significant gains in their work, many of their aspirations did not come until the turn of the century and the progressive period that it was coupled
with.