Pre Industrialization Era

Topic #2: Industrialization
Industrialization had a great positive impact for the middle class and upper class people in such way that their standard of living improved. However, it had an opposite impact for the lower class and the working class. The workers had to go through many challenges, like working twelve hours a day in a harsh environment. Workers were literally putting their lives to earn money. Even the children of the low-income families had to work full time under unhealthy conditions due to desperation. Moreover, the working environment was very unsafe so death rates and injuries were high among the people who worked at factories. During the pre-industrial era, the skilled workers such as shoemaker, blacksmith, etc. were the

There were many labor unions created throughout the Industrial era. One of the most significant union was established in 1866, the National Labor Union (NLU), which brought twelve working hours to eight working hours for the workers. In 1872, the NLU fell apart after death of the head of the union and due to 18070s’ depression. The other important Union was formed in 1869 known as the Knights of Labor. This Union, helped advanced working environment for the workers, such as eliminate convict-labor competition, ensure payment of salaries, and etc. The most significant thing about this Union was they supported equal pay for equal work for both genders. In addition, they had their own manufacturing and mining company where they only hired anyone except middle and high income workers such as lawyers, doctors, bankers, and those who sold alcohols. This union was against violence so they did not support strikes. Anyhow, the union failed right after failure of railroad strike in

The biggest downside was the labor strikes against the business owners and managers. In 1892, the homestead strike took place which was violent labor dispute between the labors and managers. The labors were ferocious when the Carnegie Steel Corporation planned to reduce their wages. Therefore, violence erupted between the labors and managers. The strike ended in November of 1892, after the union was defeated and the leaders of the union were charged with murder. The brutal strike took place in Pullman, Illinois known as “the Pullman strike of 1894”. This dispute was between the Pullman Palace Car Company and their employees due to laying off 3,000 employees and cutting wages up to 40 percent. Therefore, Eugene V. Debs established the American Railway Union, where most of the ex-employees and current employees of the Car Company joined to fight for justice to the employees. Similar to Homestead strike, this dispute resulted the same way where Debs was prisoned for violating the