NUTR 513 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: American Railway Union, Henry Clay Frick, Molly Maguires
4 Sep 2016
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Day 5 9/23/2014 11:52:00 PM
Are you Pro or anti labor?
Pro labor:
• collective work
Anti labor:
• Don’t know
Labor:
• 8 hour day
• equality
• fair treatment
• safety majors
• access
We are pro labor
Roots of Labor movement:
• Unsatisfactory working conditions
• pace of production
• control over critical work decisions
• control of the shop floor
• Blue Monday
o when your sick
Railroad strike of 1877
• reduction of wages by railroad company
• strikers destroyed railroad property and kept train idle
• erratic economy, high unemployment and lack of job security
• 100 people died before federal troops ended strike
1881-1905
• see power point
Molly Maguires
• 1865-1877
o originally an Irish group who fought landlords for tenant
rights in the 1840s.
o ancient order of Hibernians was public front
o Irish miners in PA used Molly tactics against anthracite coal
companies
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Labor Union
National Labor Union (NLU)
• 1866: craft unions and reform groups
• 300,000 members supported:
o temperance
▪ people say no drugs, no alcohol, just God and family is
all they need
o women’s rights
o co-operatives
o 8 hour day
Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor (KL)
• 1869: secret society
• 1879: public union under Thomas Powderly
• ideology of equal rights to secure to the workers the full enjoyment
of the wealth they create
• co-operative system of production
• open to all American producers
• closed to idle and corrupt
o companies
o railroads
o Morgan
o Dule
o Rockafeller
• Advocated for boycotts not strikes until 1883
o Details in power point
• By 1885 over 700,000 members
o More details in power point
Yellow dog contract
• Says you promise you would never join a union and will not strike
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
• 1886: led by Samuel Gompers
• Federation of skilled trades, each one autonomous with an
executive council to oversee all union in order to work together for
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
pro-labor national legislation and mutual support during boycott
and strike actions
• higher wages
• shorter hours
• industrial safety
• right to organize and strike
• closed shop
o there is a single union representing and workers must go to
that union not a different one
Homestead Strike
• Pittsburgh, PA 1892
• Homestead steel plant
• Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick
• Federal Troops and Pinkertons
American Railway Union (ARU)
• formed in 1893 under Eugene Debs
Pullman Strike
• a model company town
• 1893: Pullman Co. cut wages by 1/3 and laid off workers without
reducing rents or prices in its company stores
• 1894: workers strike after joining ARU and Pullman refuses
arbitration
• See power point for details
Unions Divided
• middle and upper classes convicted unions Un-Americans
• Employers
• economy
• tenuous position of immigrants
• diverse work settings
o skilled v. unskilled workers
o factory v. domestic production
o make v. females
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Labor: 8 hour day, equality fair treatment, safety majors, access. Roots of labor movement: unsatisfactory working conditions, pace of production, control over critical work decisions, control of the shop floor, blue monday, when your sick. Railroad strike of 1877: reduction of wages by railroad company, strikers destroyed railroad property and kept train idle, erratic economy, high unemployment and lack of job security, 100 people died before federal troops ended strike. Molly maguires: 1865-1877, originally an irish group who fought landlords for tenant rights in the 1840s, ancient order of hibernians was public front, irish miners in pa used molly tactics against anthracite coal companies. National labor union (nlu: 1866: craft unions and reform groups, 300,000 members supported, temperance, people say no drugs, no alcohol, just god and family is all they need, women"s rights, co-operatives, 8 hour day. Yellow dog contract: says you promise you would never join a union and will not strike.
