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Essay On Knights Of Labor

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Simrat Kohli Dearest Salon Members, It is a pleasure to introduce myself, Samuel Gompers, to all of you. I look forward to our discussion and would like to participate and advise in whatever way possible. To begin our conversation, I will give an overview of my focuses and beliefs. My respected gentlemen and women, our beloved country is facing a conspicuous issue. While we meet here, fellow Americans, including our youth, are battling brutal conditions in the workplace- long hours, strenuous tasks, and the lack a living wage. However, I do believe I have the answer to America’s labor problem and the unequal distribution of wealth. The solution lies not with the Knights of Labor, who sought to organize all of the workers in a industry together. This generalized type of union will never be able to be successful. As I stated in the 1887 Baltimore Sun, “It is impossible for capitalists and laborers to have common interest.” Being so how can an association such as the Knights of Labor bring success, merging all parts of an industry together, from employers to …show more content…

I strongly advocate for this system of trade unionism, with only wage workers joined together based on their craft. To be able to form successful unions is essential for labor reform. As I said in the December 21, 1890 New Yorker Volkszeitung, “I believe that the trade unions will bring about both the improvement of conditions and the ultimate emancipation of workers… I think that the emancipation of the working classes has to be achieved by the workers themselves.” Thus, workers must work through the power of negotiations, strikes and collective bargaining to gain the best opportunity for change. Following my election as president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which I helped to found, I was incredibly proud to watch the AFL’s nationwide strike on May 1, 1886 for an eight-hour

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The Knights of Labor was the first major American labor union created around 1871. It was configured by all productive laborers from the factories to fields, whose leader was Terence V. Powderly. Their goals were to adopt a system that could which will secure the labor job and involve the government to protecting the workers. In addition they were fighting to obtain 8 hour work day, graduated income tax, cooperatives.

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The labor movement influences millions of workplaces from the industrialization in the 1820’s until today. He argues that the saga of organized labor has not been easy for workers to have their dreams and desires through his observation of plenty of events individually with details. He shares his idea about the debate about work and industry to make it clear of the struggle for worker’s rights. He wants to define what it means to be an American by consuming subjects as the birth of our nation with laws and customs.

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Before the structured labor society that we live in today, America was a very different working world; one plagued with injustice and grievances from workers across the job sectors. Two organizations, the Knights of Labor and later the American Federation of Labor acted as activists for reform and demanded better standards for working, living, and life for workers. Their strategies and success in achieving their goals were as different as the organizations themselves. Coming from a time of segregation and social divide, the Knights of Labor stood out as one of the most accepting labor unions of the age, which largely accounted for their membership to reach almost 800,000 members during its peak. All workers in a trade were included, regardless of their skill level.

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The National Labor Union (NLU), the Knights of Labor, and then the American Federation of Labor (AFL) all strived for a better workers’ condition. Specifically, Samuel Gompers, the founder of AFL, demanded “a reduction of the hours of labor,” “adequate wages,” etc. (Doc G) The labor unions took actions against the relentless business owners: the Railroad Strike, the Homestead Strike, and the Pullman Strike were examples that attempted to ameliorate working conditions by refusing to work. Similarly, the southern and western farmers formed organizations that asked for legislations that would benefit them.

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The Knights of Labor, founded by Terence Powderly and Uriah Stephens in 1869, helped create a union contract with Carnegie’s Braddock Mill. While the Knights of Labor were trying to have broad social reform around the country, they created a lockout in the Braddock Mill. Workers like Kratcha did not care as much about the union’s goals, instead they wanted the mills to be open so that they could earn money (25). Large business owners, like Carnegie, tried, and usually succeed, at breaking strikes and unions in their mills. In Homestead and Braddock, Kratcha experienced the effects of strikes, and they were not positive.

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The feeling, shown in Nast's illustration after the railroad strike of 1877, that amalgamations simply lead to more " communistic values" and general uniformity made it very arduous to genuinely get anything done. Samuel Gompers, progenitor of the American Federation of Labor, argued that the right to strike was absolutely obligatory if any reforms were going to be made and not even this right had been officially granted to the people by regime (Document I). Gompers made it very pellucid that not even the very substratum of organized labor had been established and so up until this point the advances that had been made, were virtually frivolous. In conclusion, from 1875-1900 very few advances were made through organized labor in achieving better working conditions for workers.

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