The rise of organised labour, 1877 -90

The rise of organised labour, 1877 -90

1. Early Unions

   • 1877: Union membership falls to 50,000
   • Before 1877
     • 1873: Economic depression makes millions unemployed
     • 1866: National Labor Union formed with 60,000 workers and 77 delegates
       • Focused on securing 8-hour-day
     • 1872: Union membership peaks at 300,000
     • Unions are sporadic and local Small craft unions
   • Unions struggled to get the right to exist and be recognised by business owners

2. National railroad Strike, 1877

   • Key events
     • B&O Railroad company cut pay
       • Workers to strike
         • Other railroad workers and sypathisers from different industries join in
         • The striking workers mass to attack railroad yards.
           • This was worst in Pittsburgh
             • 5,000 workers fought 650 police troops and destroyed 500 cars, 104 locomotives and 39 buildings.
             • The military came to support the police and 25 people died as they opened fire on the crowd
           • The military restored but the damage was done.
             • Outcomes
               • Desire for stronger unions
               • The prevention of businesses labour suppression
               • A shocked America and a terrified middle/upper class
               • $10 million worth of damage done
         • Felt they were in a power struggle against business and governemnt
       • The issue of this being that it was the fourth in as many years
   • Key people
     • S.D. Cashman
       • August 1877: released a call to arms encouraging the people to rise up against big bussinesses
     • The owners of the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad company

3. Knights of Labour

   • Life cycle
     • Formed in 1869
     • Growth
       • 1885: Wabash Railroad (part of the Southwest System) try to break a local union.
         • Knights sympathy strike freezing the whole Southwest System and forcing Wabush to negotiate.
       • By 1866: 750,000 members
     • Decline
       • By 1885: 10,000 members.
       • No united support meant most actions resulted in failure.
       • Haymarket bomb outrage was blamed on the Knights, destroying them
     • The organisation became all but extinct by 1882
   • Goals
     • 8-hour-days
     • Child labour restrictions
     • Initiative and referendum
     • Cooperative labour-management relations
       • Democratic enterprises
   • All races, genders, ethnicities and occupatons.

4. Haymarket Bomb Outrage

   • May 1886: McCormick Harvester Works
     • Battle between strikers vs strike breakers and police
     • Several died and more were injured when police fired on the crowd
   • Black International (formed 1881) anarchists call meeting in Haymarket Square.
     • Though the meeting was peaceful, upon its conclusion one anarchist threw a bomb which killed a policeman and injured 60 people of whom 6 died.
       • The public turned on the anarchists resulting in the execution of seven members in 1887
       • Police retaliation ended in them firing into the crowd wounding hundreds, some fatally.
       • As a result of the event, the 1886 8-hour movement failed and all but 15,000 people lost their labour gains.
         • Existing organised labour was destroyed

5. American Federation of Labor (AFL)

   • Samuel Gompers founded AFL and was voted its first president (1896-1924)
     • 1892: over 250,000 members
   • Founded in 1885, the AFL was central to the labour movement after the fall of the Knights of Labor.
     • 1892: over 250,000 members
   • Policy: secure recognition and agreements with employers through collective bargaining and hard strikes.
     • Aimed for higher wages and shorter hours
     • Focused on higher wages and shorter workdays.
     • Non-interference policy with member unions
   • Was a federation of semi-independent craft associations
     • Only skilled white men
     • Taxed member unions to raise a strike fund and maintain a secretariat
       • Paid for a network of state federations which acted as central points for the member unions under the AFL