Following the Civil War, unions grew in numbers and strength. A new national union, the Knights of Labor, reached the unprecedented total of 750,000 members in 1885. When a general strike in May 1886 against the railroads failed to achieve an eight-hour day, however, members lost faith, and membership slipped to 100,000 by 1890. By then,
These pickets are helping to dramatize the case for labor’s legislative agenda.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) had captured the leadership of most union workers. The AFL was an amalgamation of two federations: the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (printers, glassworkers, iron and steel workers, welders, and cigar makers) and the American Federation of Labor (composed of several national unions spun off from the Knights). Under Samuel Gompers, the AFL’s first president, membership rose to 1.5 million in 1905.
The AFL’s unifying principle was control job opportunities and job conditions in each craft. This principle implied an organizational unit composed of workers who performed the same job and who, in the absence of collective action, would have competed with one another to their economic detriment. Thus, the craft union could act quickly to exert economic pressure on the employer.
Labor’s organizational gains were won as a result of prolonged, sometimes violent struggle, which was still unresolved by 1920. Strikes, though frequent were not sanctioned legally nor were they always instigated by unions. Sometimes strikes erupted simply as the spontaneous responses of unorganized workers, and on certain occasions, successful strikes resulted in the formation of a union. In any case, employers, supported by middle-class opinion and by government authorities, took the position that their rights and the very institution of private property were threatened by the growing strength of the unions.
The most violent conflicts between management and labor occurred in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. During the mid-1870s, much blood was shed when strikes were broken by force. Prices were declining, and employers sometimes responded by cutting wages, a policy designed to infuriate workers. The climax of this series of conflicts occurred in 1877, a zenith of turmoil that had begun with railroad strikes in Pittsburgh and had spread throughout the country. This strike produced violent clashes between the strikers and state militia, local police, and vigilantes. It was suppressed by federal troops. In the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania, a secret society of Irish American miners known as the “Molly Maguires” (named for the leader of an Irish anti-landlord organization) was blamed for numerous murders and other outrages. What they did and didn’t do is still a matter of dispute. Their power was finally broken after a trial that led to the
Labor leadership eventually became concentrated in the hands of Samuel Gompers, who sat on the first executive council of the American Federation of Labor in 1881.
Hanging of 20 men based on testimony provided by an agent from the Pinkerton detective agency who claimed to have infiltrated the organization.
Three incidents, purposely spaced over time, it would seem, to do the maximum damage to labor’s cause stand out as symbols of the most severe disputes.
The infamous Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, was the tragic climax of efforts of the Knights of Labor to secure a general strike of workers in the Chicago area. A bomb thrown at police officers attempting to break up a mass meeting at Haymarket Square resulted in several deaths. The authorities and the press demanded action. Seven men, who were probably innocent, were executed for murder. Although the injustice of the punishment aroused great resentment among labor’s sympathizers, anti-labor agitators used the incident as an example of what radicals and anarchists would do to undermine American institutions by violence.
Six years later, just as anti-labor feeling was subsiding, the management of the Carnegie Homestead Works at Pittsburgh decided to oust the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, which was trying to organize the Homestead laborers.
A strike was called, ostensibly because the company refused to come to an agreement
Simultaneous strikes by various Chicago unions were met by strong police action, resulting in the Haymarket Riot of May 4, 1886.
On wage matters. Henry Frick, a close associate of Carnegie, brought in 300 Pinkerton detectives to disperse the strikers and maintain order. Turning the tables, the striking mob won a heated battle with the detectives, capturing several and injuring many severely. The state militia was called out to restore order, and the union suffered a defeat that set the organization of labor in steel mills back several decades.
The adverse publicity received by the Homestead episode was exceeded only by that of the Pullman strike of 1894. Although the Pullman strike was led by the mild-mannered Eugene V. Debs, who had not yet embraced socialist doctrines, the strife was attributed to the un-American ideology of other radical leaders. Rioting spread over the entire Chicago area and before peace was restored—this time by federal troops sent on the pretext of protecting the U. S. mails—scores of people had been killed or injured. Again, the seriousness of the labor problem became a matter for widespread concern and the basis of much immoderate opposition to labor’s cause. On the other hand, the Pullman strike served as a warning to conservative union leaders that violence would only disrupt unions and damage them in the public regard. Furthermore, the dispatch with which Debs and other labor leaders were jailed on contempt proceedings for disobeying a court injunction against inciting union members to strike was a sobering blow. Any long-term strategy would have to include efforts both to pacify voters and to strengthen labor’s position in the courts. Pre-1920 successes along both lines were limited, to say the least.
Beginning in 1902, employers changed their tactics. They began a serious drive to sell Americans on the benefits—to employers, workers, and the public—of the “open shop” (factories where workers are not required to join the union). To further their propaganda, several organizations were formed. The most prominent were the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Anti-boycott Association, both of which were assisted by employers’ trade associations.
In response, Samuel Gompers and other labor leaders began a counteroffensive through education and propaganda. Affiliating with the National Civic Federation—an association that included wealthy eastern capitalists, corporate officers, editors,
Professionals, and labor representatives—AFL leaders sought to elicit a more favorable attitude from the electorate. The National Civic Federation maintained a division for the mediation and conciliation of disputes, tried to secure wider acceptance of collective-bargaining agreements, and preached the doctrine that greater labor responsibility would mean fewer work stoppages and a better livelihood for all. How much good the Federation did is difficult to say. It doubtlessly served to offset propaganda by employers, but may have lulled unionists into conservatism at a time when more aggressive policies were called for. At any rate, the core of employer opposition remained almost as solid as ever, particularly among industrialists of the Midwest.
Union activity in the United States, in general, was largely apolitical, at least at the national level, especially in comparison with labor efforts in Europe. No National Labor Party emerged as a political entity, and until the New Deal, unions could rarely rely on help from the federal government. Why this was so has been the subject of considerable research. Attention has been drawn to many factors, such as the relatively high standard of living for workers in the United States compared with workers in Europe, without reaching a firm consensus (Sombart 1906, Perlman 1928, Lipset 1983, Wilentz 1984, and Howe 1985). In any case, the main area of confrontation between employers and employees lay outside the political arena. For that reason, perhaps, strikes were longer in the United States, although they lacked the sanction of law, than they were in Europe (Friedman 1988).93
World History
