Workers Conditions in 19th Century Europe
What would it be like to be forced to work long hours for little pay? What feelings would you have after being treated horribly at your workplace? Many workers had to face hardship while working in the factories of 19th century Europe. This was caused by careless government and factory owners. The workers had terrible lives because of low wages and inability to advance in social class. According to an article written by Louise Curth, ”In many cases, the factory owners tended to consider their employees as little more than commodities. The men, women, and children who filled those roles were generally subjected to long hours, low wages, and poor working conditions”. This shows how the factory owners treated their workers. The factory owners thought of the workers as an item rather than an actual human. This caused workers to become very upset with these factory owners.
Workers were not only upset because of how they were treated by their bosses, but also they were angry about how they were being paid. They received extremely low wages that they could barely make a living with. In addition to the low wages, they were subject to long hours in the gruesome factories. All of these conditions built up a large amount of anger towards the government and factory owners. The workers had to do something in order to better their lives. Workers in 19th century Europe had horrible lives as a result of limited attention from the government; workers union were the only thing that ended up getting the attention of the government, and therefore bettering the worker’s lives.
While working conditions was a big problem during this time period, there were some solutions that did have some affect on the prob...
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...sult of little attention from the government; workers unions were the only thing that got the government’s attention, and therefore improving the worker’s lives. These worker unions helped the working conditions improve dramatically. Without the worker unions we could’ve been treating workers badly even today.
Works Cited
Curth, Louise. "Industrial Revolution." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Engels, Frederick. The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844. N.p.: n.p., 1844. The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844. 15 Dec. 2005. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.
The Industrial Revolution. Dir. Emma Thomas. YouTube. Emma Thomas, 18 Mar. 2012. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
"Effects of Industrial Revolution." Webs.bcp.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
"organized labor." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Factory workers worked twelve to fifteen hours a day in hazardous condition. There were no protective rules for women and children and no insurances for job-related accidents or industrial illness. The workers were obliged to trade at company store
They concentrated on higher wages, shorter hours, and personal issues of workers. The American Federation of Labor’s main weapon was walkouts and boycotts to get industries to succeed to better conditions and higher wages. By the early 1900’s, its membership was up to ½ million workers. Through the years since The Great Depression, labor unions were responsible for several benefits for employees. Workers have safer conditions, higher paying jobs to choose from, and better benefits negotiated for them by their collective bargaining unit.
The working conditions at the time for the majority of laborers was deplorable. Businessmen would take advantage of the laborers and force them to work long hours with severely little
America in the late 19th century was a period of American improvement in industry, but not in the working conditions of those industries. The working class, unlike the wealthy businessmen of America, had to perform hard laborious tasks in unsanitary and unsafe conditions in order to survive. With American business moving to the 20th century, American workers wanted a move to organized, clean, and safe working conditions. With the lack of government intervention, workers resorted to various strikes and protests to show their viewpoint in the hopes that they would be noticed.
"Oppression can only survive through silence" said Carmen de Monteflores and history proved this concept most thoroughly. However, the oppressed groups are generally not silent at all. They revolt, get violent, and are repressed again. This is not a rule, just a simple generalization and, of course, there are numerous exceptions. There is always a possibility that these downtrodden factions will get together to form a strong opposing force that will be an equal or almost equal rival to those that oppress. The coercion of the working class continued throughout the eighteenth century. Horrible working conditions, poverty, and hunger were blooming in the world of the industrial proletariat. The fruitless revolts did not change the situation and just when it seemed like the treatment of the waged people could not get any worse, the resolution appeared in all its glory. This historical period (1860-1914) could be best described using the Hegelian philosophy. The constant oppression of the working class will serve as thesis. The antithesis would come with the unification of the proletariats, forming the trading unions. The role of synthesis is given to the emergence of political democracy and mass political parties.
Factory workers of this time had very little freedom. Aside from having to work outrageous hours for 6 days of the week, there was no job security, no solid way to survive day-to-day, and if a family member were to suffer an accident, families had no financial means to carry on. In the early 1900s, there were no labor laws, including the right to organize, an eight-hour day, safety standards, or unemployment/disability pensions. M...
6) Wyatt, Lee T. The Industrial Revolution. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2009. Print. Greenwood Guides to Historic Events, 1500-1900.
Lubar, Steven." Engines of Change: The American Industrial Revolution 1790-1860." Smithsonian Institution. http://www.si.sgi.com/organiza/museums/nmah/homepage/docs/engin10.htm ( 1986).
Beginning in the late 1700’s and growing rapidly even today, labor unions form the backbone for the American workforce and continue to fight for the common interests of workers around the country. As we look at the history of these unions, we see powerful individuals such as Terrence Powderly, Samuel Gompers, and Eugene Debs rise up as leaders in a newfound movement that protected the rights of the common worker and ensured better wages, more reasonable hours, and safer working conditions for those people (History). The rise of these labor unions also warranted new legislation that would protect against child labor in factories and give health benefits to workers who were either retired or injured, but everyone was not on board with the idea of foundations working to protect the interests of the common worker. Conflict with their industries lead to many strikes across the country in the coal, steel, and railroad industries, and several of these would ultimately end up leading to bloodshed. However, the existence of labor unions in the United States and their influence on their respective industries still resonates today, and many of our modern ideals that we have today carry over from what these labor unions fought for during through the Industrial Revolution.
The United States’s industrialization lead to a great boom in both economic and population growth, allowing businesses to flourish. With more money and workers at their disposal, employers often would often mistreat workers, suddenly cutting their wages or firing them. With only profit in mind, industries eventually became monopolized and the conditions of workers only worsened. Defenseless and barely able to survive, laborers soon found power in uniting with each other, leading to the establishment of American labor unions during the Gilded Age. They provided workers with necessary protection from their employers’ capricious decisions, and while their presence elicited fear in business owners, unions eventually bettered the standard of living for the American proletarian through compromise.
Working conditions were described as dangerous, dirty, unhealthy, polluted, dark, dim and drafty. These workers who worked very hard with their strong muscles in these horrible conditions were not valued. If they were hurt and could not work, they were simply replaced. This was also stated in Document 4, with the same thing happening to children. In conclusion, both adult and child workers were not valued equally and treated like garbage.
Unions are voluntary associations joined by workers. The Combination Act of 1800, which hindered the growth of unions, states that every workman's goal, who are entering into any combination should not be obtaining an advance of wages, or to lessen or alter the hours, or influencing any other to quit his work. Any workman who did so shall be committed to jail (Doc 1). Although the Combination Act of 1800 prevented the growth of unions, Ralph Chaplin believes that a worker should join the union. He states that there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun, but the unions, which makes it strong (Doc 2). Since there's so many workers working in bad conditions, the labor laws came to action.
Without the aid of organized labor, workers would not have been able to persuade others to help them in their fight for better working conditions. Labor unions also influenced people within society to recognize the problems that workers were facing during the late 19th century. All in all, the feelings that many once had about strikes were what changed the most; this allowed for ideas that would later cause corporations to rethink their business methods.
The increasing amount of people left destitute and helpless regarding the hasty fundamental changes of the Industrial Revolution; which occurred economically, socially, and on the conditions of the workplace, affected the living standards of all, but did not occur obscure. Reform actions begun to take place; for even industrialists like Robert Owen were sincerely concerned of the direction industrialization was headed in. Endorsing with legislation, politicians together were able to ultimately relieve the working classes predicament, as well as regulating laws for child labor. Regardless of this, the expense of suffering paid by the previous working generations for this advancement in addition to our present contented standards of living was undeniably an awful one.
How would you feel if your boss cut down your work paycheck just because he wanted a better life for them self? The men, women and children that worked in factories during the 18th and 19th centuries were brutally mistreated causing poverty, injuries and pallid body types (Thompson). At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, working was incredibly unsafe because there were absolutely no labor or safety laws. Working conditions back then were extremely different from those that are in place today. The unbearable working conditions caused a vast amount of labor laws and rights.