The Riot, The Pullman Strike, And The Homestead Strike

During the late 1800’s America became involved in a large labor movement that would shape history. As America was becoming more industrialized, the need for workers increased overnight. “The workplace was changing as machines became common and the demand for unskilled workers brought new groups into the workforce including immigrants, women, and children” (Aboukhadijeh). The desperation from both employees and employers brought awareness to working conditions. Employees desired better working conditions, increased wages, and decreased working hours. Communicating with employers proved to be futile and fueled union movements. Union members would go on strike to force companies to meet their demands. Sometimes it would work and when it didn’t, companies would lock out employees and bring in new workers to do the job. These actions led to violent protests, riots, and arrests. The Pinkertons were hired as security by companies during these trying times. “Toward the end of the 19th century, the agency became more involved in labor disputes, always on the side of management” (Crawford). The Pinkertons were labeled as villains by workers as blood was shed during these conflicts.

Although many say that the bombing that caused the Haymarket Riot did not help the cause of the protestors, I claim that the bombing helped the eight hour work day movement by striking fear into the employers, which

The Pullman strike brought to glaring attention the “labor problems” in America and the “labor question” in American politics; the labor problems being the unrest and discontentment of the workers, and the labor problem being the role of the government in business. One of the consequences of the Pullman Strike is that labor reformers began to vigorously search for a way of protecting the interests of the workers in an unfettered capitalist economy. Another consequence is that American workers realized that when they were in bad situations, they would never have the opportunity for improvement unless they orchestrated the government through an overwhelming turnout at different elections. “If workers used the Socialist Party and democratic elections, the power of their numbers would ensure the election of political leaders sympathetic to their cause”.2

The ensuing conflict, between labor vs. capital, during the late 1800s initiated a struggle of power in the workforce between the rich-industrialists (or corporate leaders) and the middle-class/lower-class workers. The Capitalists had intervened with the protests orchestrated by the workers, ensuring that the power remains with them. The strategies of the industrialists and the unique ways of protesting from the workers, contributes to spur a vigorous argument between the employers and their employees. The workers tried their best to ameliorate their working conditions by forming numerous unions, trying to fix currency (gold to paper) to economically help themselves, refusing to go to work, resorting to violence and non-violence, etc. However, the Corporate leaders kept an upper hand and dissolved the workers’ ambitions by hiring scabs, creating a strong relationship with the military (Pullman strike), controlling and fixing policies at work, hiring immigrants for cheap labor, etc. Throughout the late 1800s, the corporate leaders have been able to successfully prevent workers who had resorted to: forming unions, protests (ex. Pullman strike and Homestead strike), violence (ex. Haymarket Sq. Riot), etc., from achieving a radical solution to the workers issues with the management by using several different strategies including but not limited to: hiring scabs/immigrants in the Homestead strike, using government support in the Pullman strike and keeping the power on their side

It was not until 1902 that things really turned around. Unions formed to fight for workers and child laborers.

The 1800s is characterized with the rise of industrial America. As technological advances were introduced to industry, unskilled labor also rose in accordance to the rise in factories. However, this rise also introduced several labor unions such as the Knights of Labor, which organized a series of protests and riots. The labor unions had good intentions, aiming to lower the average work hours for workers, as well as increase their wages. However, their methods which involved riots and protests, were altogether not effective, and ended up being detrimental to their cause. Between 1875 and 1900, labor unions surged and were temporarily successful; however, their methods would prove detrimental to their cause overtime, leading to their

During the later years of the 1800s, the United States (US) established itself as a dominant industrial country. As the US became a dominant source of business, industry, and capitalism, many laborers demanded for improved working conditions. Despite the later part of the century, however, the labor strikes and efforts are ineffective, but they did lead to other improvement of labor situations within the twentieth century. The actions betweens businesses and laborers, the conservative mindset of the government, the different opinions of laborers, and the growing images of labor efforts resulted in the small benefits of labor resistance.

The early 19th century in America saw the rise of industry and a booming economy, however, with industry came businessmen who saw an opportunity for power and profit. Even with help from the government, it would be a long time before the American people saw an improvement in the condition of the laborers and the regulation of corporations. Fast forward to the 21st century; two hundred years have passed and people are still struggling at the hands of a corporation-run economy. Throughout history, American laborers have been at the mercy of an industry controlled by a small few that did not have the best interest of the people in mind.

The years following the Civil War and Reconstruction was an era somewhat gilded. The Second Industrial Revolution came about with new inventions, and revolutionized how factories and jobs were worked. Factory workers in this time period were working in poor conditions and had no power whatsoever. Often they were abused and their wages were cut very low. The mass immigration also did not favor laborers as it made them so easy to replace. In order to fight back laborers would join labor unions in order to protest; however, during this time the labor unions were not that affective during 1875 and 1900 because although they had their efforts many of them would not work to their advantage; efforts would give them a bad reputation, go out of

Labor unions in the late 1800's set out to improve the lives of frequently abused workers. Volatile issues like the eight-hour workday, ridiculously low pay and unfair company town practices were often the fuses that lit explosive conflicts between unions and monopolistic industrialists. Some of the most violent and important conflicts of the time were the Haymarket Affair and the Pullman strike. Each set out to with similar goals and both ended with horrifying consequences.

The late 1800’s were a time in American history where the country saw tremendous economic growth. Big businesses ran the country and even held power over the government. According to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the government took bribes from business leaders. These bribes allowed the big businesses to take advantage of workers. Laborers at the time we faced with extremely long work hours and very little pay. In hopes of reversing their luck, many workers took to strikes and riots to get what they wanted. However, the big business friendly government put an end to many of these occurrences. Due to the fact that America was run by a government bribed by big business, workers received low wages as well as unhealthy

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a vast amount of recent immigrant workers were faced with a horrendous situation within the working class due to the selfish acts of greed from big business corporations. The impactful results of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City during 1911 brought a devastating memory of horror, but at the same time a memory of an event that leads reforms. The Shirtwaist Factory Fire brings hope that even great tragedies such as it can provide change. The results from the fire drove socialist, trade unionists, and progressive reformers to finally get the push they needed to overcome the longstanding obstacles to reform. Reformers focused on various approaches to improving the situation

During the time period 1875 to 1900, the labor unions failed miserably in their efforts to amend the working conditions their workers were under. During the 19th century, the Second Industrial Revolution and The Gilded Age were taking place. These were transmuting the way society was viewed and how people lived their everyday lives. During the labor movement, there were many different organizations and groups that advocated change. Two of those specific groups were the Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor. The failure of those labor unions between 1875 and 1900 in the U.S. was mostly due to the union's actions, followed by problems within the unions, and people's response to the union.

The Haymarket bombing was directly caused by strife between the working class and employers. August Spies was one of the anarchists who called the meeting. In a pamphlet he disseminated around chicago to gather labor advocates, he wrote inflammatory statements such as “Your masters sent out their bloodhounds—the police—they killed six of your brothers at McCormick's this afternoon. They killed the poor wretches, because they, like you, had courage to disobey the supreme will of your bosses.” (Spies) This rhetoric shows how the anarchist movement was in direct response to perceived tyranny on the part of employers and the backlash towards this perceived tyranny was what drove the movement. Furthermore, Spies proclaims in the pamphlet “To arms,

By 1900, the United States had become the number one industrial power in the world. One factor that allowed the country to climb to its prime position was its abundant labor supply, largely composed of immigrants who had arrived between 1865 and 1900. However, the spot came at a cost; laborers were working long hours for low wages under poor conditions for the dominating monopolies of the time. Hoping to better these undesirable situations, multiple labor unions would form in the last half of the nineteenth century. Despite the continual efforts of these organizations little change was experienced from 1875 to 1900 due to disharmony among those competing to represent the laborer, the long-standing negative