Introduction
In the late 1800s, America’s labor market and economy underwent massive changes. During the industrial north, many children, females, and men of diverse ages, professional, and ethnic origins became wage workers. In the south, dominated by agriculture, most previously enslaved laborers became wage earners, mainly employed by affluent employers and landowners. This change created disagreements between the laborers and their masters and employees, primarily between capital and labor.
This research paper discusses the economic and social factors that forced workers to unite for a common objective and outlines the main unions they forced to improve their jobs. Moreover, the paper explains how the employers resisted the formation of unions by the workers and how the government supported the employers.
Social and Economic Conditions That Enabled Workers to Unite to Pursue Common Goals
The economic and social situations that made laborers unite to pursue a shared goal resulted from the work change. Most individuals in America were farmers in 1700, but by 1800, almost five million U.S. citizens worked in the construction, manufacturing, and transportation sectors (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 65).
Low wages are one of these factors since most business owners of large companies are only concerned with making good profits at the expense of the workers (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 68). Declining profits, falling prices, competition, and bankruptcy forced business owners to cut the salaries of their laborers (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 100).
Another reason for the low incomes is that as more individuals were looking for jobs, the business owners would reduce the pay of their laborers. Furthermore, as the companies expanded, the owners lost contact with the workers, and the employers had little concern for the challenges of their workers.
As individuals and immigrants from rural areas moved to work in mines, railroads, and factories, the working conditions in these places were harsh. The work environment was unsafe and resulted in deadly accidents. In addition, the working hours were long, specifically between 10 – 12 hours a day (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 89). These conditions pushed the laborers to unite into unions and collective groups to fight their demeaning work conditions.
For instance, the workers came together to create local unions in single factories where they would use boycotts and strikes to compel their employers to improve their working conditions and wages. Moreover, the skilled artisans formed the American Federation of Labor in 1886 to win economic benefits for its members mainly through collective bargaining. Immigrants and the working class were the main types of communities that workers would be part of.
Major Unions and Political Organizations Formed by Workers
The initial labor movements harbored a conception of a fair society centered on Ricardian’s principles of the American War of Independence and labor theory of value. These concepts celebrated fair labor, fostered social equality, and depended on virtuous, independent citizenship (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 104).
However, industrial capitalism’s transformative economic changes counteracted labor’s vision. The result would be forming two groups: the poor and the wealthy. Starting with the workingmen’s parties in the 1830s, the pioneers of equality of all people organized a sequence of reform endeavors that crossed to the nineteenth century.
In the late 1800s, workers formed unions to gain more power. Some unions joined to represent laborers working for the same company, such as railroad and steel workers. Others attempted to include diverse workers from all over the United States. The unions could gain power by using accommodation to resolve their challenges by putting pressure on the government to make legislation that helped workers. In contrast, others could use strikes to acquire domination over employers.
The Knights of Labor is one of the first major national labor unions created in America. The union recruited blacks, women, immigrants, Mexicans, and white male workers, both skilled and unskilled. By 1885, it had more than seven hundred members out of the twenty million individuals in the labor force (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 126). Some members wanted to use strikes to increase wages, while others disagreed and advocated for creating cooperatives and passing laws.
In 1886, both events occurred, and some workers used strikes against the railroads, especially in the Southwest, resulting in violence (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 126). When the union leader, Powderly, criticized the strikes, most of the members of the Knights of Labor got annoyed and quit.
In the same year, when about one thousand and four hundred workers were on strike against a company that made farm machinery, a policeman shot and killed a striker. The following day, the union sponsored a big rally of the striking members at Haymarket Square, and one of them set off a bomb when the law enforcers tried to stop the rally. As a result, the police arrested the union organizers and eight anarchists, which made most members turn against the union.
The National Labor Union is another union that was formed in 1866 to represent workers from diverse occupations. (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein 2008, 115). It supported the political class that favored legislation that would aid workers, and it did not achieve the common goal of helping laborers get better work conditions. The union sought to improve the work conditions of laborers through legislative reforms instead of using collective bargaining.
Finally, workers who protested the Knights of Labor later united to create the American Federation of Labor, which marked a radical change in the past behavior since it rejected labor movements any more role in the fight for workers.
After the decline of the union, the working class also mobilized in other platforms and through other coalitions (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 127). For instance, they sought power through labor and mainstream parties, winning modest legislative benefits and patronage jobs. Others included the American Railroad Union and Western Federation of Miners, which threatened a nationwide strike to secure eight-hour pay.
How Employers Resisted the Efforts of Workers
As many laborers organized for good conditions, they found that their employers were pushing back, attempting to persuade employees to dismiss union invitations through methods that breached the law. Employers, including capitalists, resisted unions by mounting a sustained counterattack to dismantle the uprising of the 40-hour week movement, among other coordinated labor reforms (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 129).
Others strived to weaken unionization by recruiting employees from diverse racial classes, making it hard to communicate with each other. Moreover, trade association members relieved the duties of the striking workers, locking out those who joined unions and circulating blacklists of labor activists.
In addition, employers would resist strikes by sacking union laborers, boycotting their heads, and compelling them to sign the ironclad oath. Employers use the coercive power of governance to resist the efforts of workers to improve work conditions. Across the United States, the employers who had negotiated with labor rejected to do so in 1886.
According to a report by the Bureau of Labor from Illinois, about seventy-six endeavors to resolve differences between employers and labor showed that business owners declined discussions in thirty-two cases (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 129). Similarly, that year, employers locked out one hundred thousand workers, and efforts to improve their working conditions in knitters in Amsterdam and Cohoes, Packinghouse workers, and laundry workers in Troy ended in harsh defeats.
The government of the day would use legal charges, including intimidation, inciting a riot, trespass against striking workers, and court injunctions to restrict the rights of laborers to picket. Additionally, government officials would support the employers against striking workers by strengthening the police and the United States Army and proliferating surveillance groups.
For instance, the Haymarket affair started as a peaceful meeting by radical unionists demanding an eight-hour workday and a protest against police brutality (Rosenzweig & Lichtenstein, 2008, p. 130). The demonstrators clashed with police, and as a result, some strikers were injured and others killed. After the law enforcers broke up the gathering of labor protests, a bomb was detonated, causing wounds and deaths to several police officers and demonstrators. Many anarchists were convicted in court, and the event served as the climax of the social unrest among America’s working class. Finally, the courts would determine the employers’ favor by ruling against the striking laborers and the union movements.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this paper has outlined the social and economic conditions, including living in unsafe conditions and low pay, as the factors that made workers unite to improve their conditions. Moreover, the Knights of Labor and the National Union of Labor were some of the dominant labor unions in America in the 1800s that made efforts to improve the working conditions of workers.
Despite the efforts made by the striking workers to enhance their standards of living, employers and government officials used different methods to suppress and resist those efforts. Some of the unions failed because it was evident that the government would support the business owners but not the workers, as was seen when the state government sent its troops to stop the strikes.
Reference
Rosenzweig, R., and Lichtenstein, N. 2008. Who Built America? Working People and the Nation’s History. Boston: Beford/St. Martin’s.