HIST 1025 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Pullman Strike, George Pullman, Samuel Gompers
HIST 1025
February 1
Song “Eight Hours” by Jones and Blanchard
Fight for an eight hour work day as opposed to 10 or 12 hour work day as was which the
standard.
I. Transformation of work
II. Early labor movement
III. Case study: the Pullman Strike
Focus primarily on Pullman Strike today.
II. Early Labor Movement:
Young men and women from farms come to urban areas for work, transformed from craftsman
to low paid wage workers. Learn how to be a disciplined, modern worker; repeat tasks; work for
wages. They work for low wages in unsafe working conditions.
First Strike-- Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Center of violence is in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. First time federal government sent in
troops to break up a strike.
1886 Haymarket Bombing (Chicago)
Homestead Strike (Pennsylvania)-Carnegie’s plant
Do workers have the right to organize unions? Do they have a say on conditions? Pay? What’s
at stake?---Dignity, autonomy, relations of power between workers and employers.
Labor Unions: Two Models
“Big Vision” versus “Pure and Simple”
“Big Vision”:
Knights of Labor- cooperative social order, not competitive, sought to abolish wages, not really
socialism, but it just sounds like it, motto: “An injury of one is the concern of all”
American Railway Union(ARU) (Debs)
Industrial Unionism (all skill labors)- one union represents all workers in an industry(steel,
rubber, tobacco, etc.)
Wanted to organize unskilled laborers, so they organized African Americans and women.
Saw themselves at the front of a big social movement.
“Pure and Simple”:
Samuel Gompers- Founder and President of American Federation of Labor (AFL)
AFL (Gompers)
RR Brotherhoods- no big vision, not rethinking whole social structure, accept new corporate
order, dont lovei but can’t change it
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Fight for an eight hour work day as opposed to 10 or 12 hour work day as was which the standard. Young men and women from farms come to urban areas for work, transformed from craftsman to low paid wage workers. Learn how to be a disciplined, modern worker; repeat tasks; work for wages. They work for low wages in unsafe working conditions. Center of violence is in pennsylvania and west virginia. First time federal government sent in troops to break up a strike. What"s at stake?---dignity, autonomy, relations of power between workers and employers. Knights of labor- cooperative social order, not competitive, sought to abolish wages, not really socialism, but it just sounds like it, motto: an injury of one is the concern of all . Industrial unionism (all skill labors)- one union represents all workers in an industry(steel, rubber, tobacco, etc. ) Wanted to organize unskilled laborers, so they organized african americans and women.
