The new industries needed millions of workers. Many worked ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, in mills, mines and factories where injuries were common and there was no pay for those who were hurt. Children worked too. Workers formed unions to bargain together for better pay, shorter hours and safer work.
Key idea
Two big national unions: the Knights of Labor (founded 1869; open to skilled and unskilled workers, including women and Black workers) and the American Federation of Labor (1886, led by Samuel Gompers; skilled craft unions focused on wages, hours and conditions). The Haymarket affair (1886), the Homestead strike (1892) and the Pullman strike (1894) turned violent and set unions back.
| Event | Year | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Great Railroad Strike | 1877 | Wage cuts set off strikes along the railroads; federal troops were sent in |
| Haymarket affair | 1886 | At a Chicago rally for the eight-hour day, a bomb killed police officers; the public blamed unions, and the Knights declined |
| Homestead strike | 1892 | Carnegie Steel workers fought Pinkerton guards hired by manager Henry Clay Frick; the state militia took over the town, and the strike collapsed |
| Pullman strike | 1894 | Railway workers led by Eugene V. Debs refused to move Pullman cars; a federal court injunction and federal troops broke the strike |
Why it works
Why did strikes so often fail? Employers could hire replacement workers, and many new immigrants needed jobs. Most judges saw strikes as attacks on property and on trade, and issued injunctions (court orders) against them; the Pullman injunction even used the Sherman Antitrust Act against the union. Governors and Presidents sent militia and troops to keep trains and mills running. Violence, such as the Haymarket bomb, turned public opinion against unions, even when the unions had not caused it.
Work it through
Worked example: Comparing two unions
A skilled carpenter and an unskilled factory worker both want to join a union in 1888. Which union would take each?
- The AFL was a federation of craft unions for skilled workers.
- The Knights of Labor took skilled and unskilled workers alike.
- So the carpenter could join either; the unskilled worker would look to the Knights.
Answer: Carpenter: the AFL (or the Knights). Unskilled worker: the Knights of Labor.
Common mistake
Many students think the government usually sided with strikers. In the major strikes of this era, courts issued injunctions and state or federal troops were sent, mostly against the strikers. Government protection for unions came much later, with the Wagner Act of 1935.