Union Movement in Late 19th Century

During 1870 by sozzleds of 1900 workers join together responding to the power of their employers caused by the growth of industrialization. The worker did not continuously have the luxury of leaving after eight hours of work, the right to representation, or the even the right to work in a safe environment. The works people of nineteenth century America had to unite in attempt to achieve the gains that are often taken selfishly and taken for given today. There were m either successes and failures in organized labor the successes were often obtained through the loss of the worker, often through lost wages, jobs, or even death.The g overning structure of the union during 1870 through 1900 went through different cycles and strategies to achieve what they wanted. iodin of the first effective regional organized unions was the Knights of Labor formed in 1869. The knights took in not only skilled workers but also any worker that could be truly classified as a producer. The knights to ok their glint in 1885 when use ups against Union Pacific, Southwest System, and Wabash railroads attracted public sympathy and succeeded in preventing a reduction in wages, at this time they boasted a membership of 700,000. 1886 was a troubled year for labor relations.There were nearly 1,600 strikes involving 600,000 workers, with the eight-hour day be the important item for all of the strikes. Failure of some of the strikes and internal conflicts amongst the skilled workers and the unskilled led to a decline in the Knights popularity and influence. an another(prenominal)wise(prenominal) organization called the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions created a piece of music that other unions could adhere to. This constitution met in Pittsburgh on Nov. 15 1881 and was created by representatives of the cigar makers, the printers, the merchandiser seamen, steel workers, carpenters and local units of the Knights of Labor.One of the about important items in the constitu tion created by the FOTLU recommended that the legal eight-hour work day be an objective for every union to achieve. The FOTLU thus accelerated a strong national promote for a shorter work week. The AFL grew from 140,000 in 1886 to nearly on million by 1900. With these strengths in numbers they often preferred striking over political action. The struggle for workers rights, wage increases and protests against wage cuts were often unsuccessful resulting in force out and death. scratch workers were agitating for the eight-hour work day for months. On May inaugural and 2nd 1886 were eighty thousand workers went on strike, bringing most of Chicagos manu situationuring to a standstill. On May 3rd a drive between hundreds of strikers and non-union replacements broke out. Chicago police quickly moved in to restore order, leaving four unionists dead and many wounded. Angered by the deadly force of the police a group of anarchists called on workers to artillery themselves and participat e in the massive protest demonstration in Haymarket square(a) on May 4.Only 3,000 members assembled and started out peacefully until late eventide when someone still not known to this day threw a joker that killed seven policemen and injured 67 others. Even though no demo was ever found about who threw the bomb four anarchists were found guilty and sentenced to death. Ever since the Haymarket square symbolized for radicals and trade unionists everywhere the injustice of a individualistic society but also associated negatively unions as un-American, criminalistic, and violent. Many other activists died or received injuries for their cause all around the coun provide.In July of 1877 strike riots halted the movement of U. S. railroads. After a few weeks of shutting down most of countries railroad system federal troops were sent in to try to end the nationwide strike. This resulted in more violence and death in Chicago for example federal troops killed 30 workers and wounded over 100. On June 14, 1877 in Pennsylvania ten coal-mining activists were hanged. October 1887 the Louisiana militia crap-shooter 35 unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage and lynched two strike leaders.1894 federal troops killed 34 American Railway Union members in Chicago attempting to break a strike. July 1892 tether hundred Pinkerton guards helped introduce scabs into the workplace by opening fire on striking Carnegie mill steel workers, this resulted in the death of seven guards and football team strikers. The idea of demonstrations was often to get the attention of management to show that they mean business and cant be pushed around so easily. clean York garment workers won the right to unionize after a seven-month strike.They secured agreements for a closed shop, and firing of all scabs. Striking miners in Idaho dynamited the Frisco Mill. Leaving it to ruins, get the attention they wanted. The popularity and growth of unions everywhere showed compan ies that they are not going to pass over their workers as easily as they did in the past. Although union demonstrations resulted in workers being injured, dead or fired they set the way for unions in the future to be successful in their endeavors.These demonstrations were successful in the fact that they showed management and companies that the American worker can unite and be hear as one voice rather than a mass of passive workers that would take any injustice given to them. It is to these unions that we owe many of the benefits and rights we canvass and use today, such as fighting injustices such as biases and discrimination, harming the right to representation and collective bargaining, and the right for education for every child.