Evolution of Labor Rights in Early America

Turbulent times of a newly freed democracy bred a longing for civil liberties and birthed what would become equality for all. The United States of America, known for independence, has not always been balanced in its freedom. The labor movement in America was a significant step in developing equal opportunity. In the nation’s infancy, working conditions were abominable. Workers were underpaid, overworked, and abused. Women and children in the workforce were ubiquitous in certain industries, often earning far less than a man would. Countless laborers were injured or killed on the job, and there was no health insurance. If a worker was wounded while working, he or she would simply be replaced. As a result of the deplorable labor environment, unions

were created by workers to amalgamate and fight for their basic rights. Two fundamental agencies of this battle were the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. While both unions shared a few of the same objectives and similar methods, they had slightly varied principles and were composed of a differing membership base.
The Knights of Labor was not the first union of workers in America, yet it was one of the most instrumental in the development of these organizations.

The union was founded in 1869 in secrecy by an aggregation of tailors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Propagation of the group was slow in its early years and began to expand more rapidly toward the end of the 1870s. The Knights eventually ceased the secrecy, and by 1886, the union had 700,000 members (Foner and Garraty). Contradictory to the majority of unions in the era, the Knights of Labor included all workers in a given industry, regardless of their trade, skill level, or gender. They advocated for several of the reforms that other workers’ rights groups stood behind including: the eight hour work day, the use of paper currency, the abolition of child labor, equal pay for men and women, and a graduated income tax. The Knights drew attention to these reforms through boycotts and only used striking as a method of pressuring employers if it was a deemed necessity. Violence flared at one of the strikes, now called the Haymarket affair, as angry workers argued with people who defied the strike at the McCormick Reaper Works plant. A bomb exploded in the crowd, killing seven and wounding sixty. Police then open fired, killing and wounding an unknown number of people. The events of that day resulted in a national flood of arrests, and labor rights crusading took a monumental hit. By 1890, the Knights had lost 600,000 of its

members.
The same year the Knights of Labor was delivered its finishing blow in Haymarket, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed.

The new organization, similarly to the Knights, grew slowly in its beginnings. It quickly ballooned to half of a million members by the turn of the 20th century, and at its peak in 1920, reached four million members. The leader of the AFL, Samuel Gompers, pushed for more tangible economic improvements and avoided idealistic policies. The AFL focused on, higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions. They differed from the Knights in one key way: they were not all-inclusive. Membership was restricted to only skilled workers and craftsman. As founder and president of the AFL, Gompers had no intention or vision of uniting the entire working class. This is in stark contrast to the Knights of Labor who vehemently included all workers in need. Similarly to the Knights, however, the AFL was averse to a radical method of political change. They avoided strikes when possible, but they did not fear such an outcome. Two notable strikes of the AFL are the Homestead and Pullman strikes, with neither of them ending in the magnitude of violence that the Haymarket affair did. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, more than 20,000 strikes took place in America, half of them ending with failure, but many succeeding with demands partially or completely met (American Federation of Labor). At the forefront of the labor rights movement, the

AFL was the dominating force until the beginning of the Great Depression when unskilled workers belatedly united for the common good.
Two paramount unions of the labor force in America, the Knights of Labor, and the American Federation of Labor, congruent in abounding ways, yet contrastive in amply significant ways, have molded labor policy in paths that are still presently, meaningfully affecting the American workforce.