Ch. 14 Sec. 4 Workers of the Nation Unite

Ch. 14, Section 4, Workers of the Nation Unite

Overview
Objectives
To describe the exploitation of workers, including women and children.
To summarize the emergence and growth of unions.
To identify the various types of unions.
To explain the violent reactions of industry and government to union strikes.
To identify the influence of women in the labor movement.
To describe the role of the government in opposing union activities.

Critical Thinking
A – G, Skillbuilder p. 430

Focus & Motivate
Starting With the Student
How would you convince school officials to change a policy that you do not like?

Objective 1 Instruct
Workers are Exploited
Starting With the Student
What do you know about working conditions today?
A “Now-and-then Chart” can be completed as you read the section.
The Chart should contain the following elements:
Working Conditions
Days/Week, Now 5-5 ½, Then 6
Hours/day, Now 7-8, Then 12
Benefits, insurance, vacation, Then 0

Discussing Key Ideas
Laborers work long hours, often in unsafe conditions, with no benefits.
Many women and children work at tedious jobs that require little skill and pay low wages to help their families survive.

Objective 2 Instruct
Labor Unions Emerge
Discussing Key Ideas
Several local unions merge into national organizations.
Some unions exclude women and African Americans, leading African Americans to form unions of their own.
Unions use different tactics—some favoring strikes and others, arbitration.

Historical Spotlight
African Americans in the Labor Movement
Critical Thinking: Drawing Conclusions
Why might the CNLU have preferred to negotiate rather than go on strike?
Possible response: Because its membership was small, strikes might not have been effective.

Objective 3 Instruct
Union Movements Diverge
Starting With the Student
What attributes might you associate with influential leaders? What is the importance of leadership in the effectiveness of an organization?

Discussing Key Ideas
Craft unions bring together workers who do similar jobs in different industries.
Industrial unions include all workers in a specific industry.
Agricultural workers in the West and Southwest also organize into unions.

Now & Then
Underage and on the Job
Starting With the Student
Do any students work after school or on weekends? What benefits have you gained by working? What, if any, negative effects has working had on your academic performance and social life?

Discussing Key Ideas
Many modern teenagers hold part-time jobs while going to school
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many children worked out of necessity.
Public outcry against the horrendous effects of child labor led to a legal ban.
Increasing numbers of children sill work illegally.

More About. . .
Samuel Gompers
With the exception of 1895, Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) remained president of the AFL until his death. He became the first registered member of the Cigar Makers’ International Union at age 14, and continued to work in cigar shops for 20 years, even after he became active in union activities.

More About. . . .
The Union Label
The AFL was an early user of the union label, which was put on products to identify them as having been made in union shops. Union supporters were encouraged to look for the union label in products they bought.

History From Visuals
The Growth of Union Membership, 1878-1904
Reading the Graph
Trace the lines showing the development of each union. When were AFL membership and total union membership in the nation essentially the same?
About 1897.
Extension
Research AFL membership today for Extra Credit.
In 1993, membership was 13,200.
Also identify other influential unions, such as the Teamsters.

More About. . . .
The Sugar Beet and Farm Laborers’ Union of Oxnard
When the Sugar Beet and Farm Laborers’ Union of Oxnard applied to the AFL for a charter, Samuel Gompers informed the union secretary, a Mexican, that Chinese and Japanese workers must be excluded from membership. The farm laborers rejected Gompers’s conditions.

Objective 4 Instruct
Strikes Turn Violent
Starting With the Student
What are the circumstances that can breed violence?
Possible Answer: When groups with conflicting goals clash, especially when on group feels powerless or fears the other.

Discussing Key Ideas
Riots erupt as workers in various industries strike.
Management appeals to the government to stop striking railroad workers.
Many companies retaliate against striking workers.

More About. . . .
The Haymarket Affair
The three surviving men of the eight convicted of the Haymarket bombings were pardoned by the governor of Illinois, John Peter Altgeld. He justified the pardon because he believed that the accused had not received a fair trial. Altgeld was a staunch supporter of labor, and in 1894, he opposed President Grover Cleveland’s decision to send federal troops into Pullman to stop striking railroads workers.

Objective 5 Instruct
Women in the Labor Movement
Starting With the Student
Why do you think many unions did not include women in their ranks, despite their prominence in the work force?
Possible Answer: Traditional prejudices against women, belief that their place was in the home, and the fact that they generally didn’t work in skilled trades.

Discussing Key Ideas
Women play significant roles in unions that admit them.
Public exposure of dangerous and unhealthy working conditions for children leads to the passage of laws banning child labor.
After the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, New York state passes strict fire codes and other reforms.
Key Players
Eugene V. Debs
Critical Thinking
Synthesizing
For Extra Credit, write a paragraph describing the relationship between Debs’s labor activism and his belief in socialism.

“Mother” Jones
What might have driven Mary Harris to become the “mother” of union activism? Support your opinion in a paragraph.

Objective 6 Instruct
Government Pressure on Unions
Discussing Key Ideas
Employers fear the power of unions, and ask the government for help.
The courts use the Sherman Antitrust Act against labor.
The public withdraws support from unions, whose membership declines.

Difficult Decisions in History
Strike! Management or Labor?
Make a chart listing the problems workers faced and the solutions other than strikes they might have tried.

Close
Low wages and poor working conditions compelled workers to form unions and to press for changes. Some reforms were achieved, but when industrialist joined forces with the federal government, the effectiveness of unions began to decline.