Southam Newspaper Chain, Firestone, and Westinghouse all experienced closures due to striking workers. Yet, it was the Stelco strike which would have the greatest effect. It came to a head on July 10th, when the federal government declared they were taking control of the steel industry and that striking was illegal (p. 46). In response, the steelworkers’ union of Hamilton held a meeting, where they made the decision to strike. Straight from the meeting, they headed to Stelco, rounding up workers of other professions along the way.
You touched on a critical point in your forum, as of why workers went on strike. While poverty played a significant role, in 1877, railroad employees experienced a significant pay cut, which sparked the Great Railway Strike, triggering violence and a shutdown of the railways lasting nearly six weeks. Next, the Pullman strike began with railroad owners becoming increasingly wealthier, while none of the profits trickled down to the employees. The labor walk-outs encompassed the substantial divide between social classes. Hence, rich businessmen were increasing their profits, while poor workers often remained stagnate with low wages and company issued paycuts.
thousand went on strike on July 20, 1899 after months of planning to boycott ("William Randolph Hearst"). All of the other newspapers lowered their prices back to pre-war prices of 65 cents for 100 except Joseph Pultizer’s Evening World and William Randolph Hearst’s Evening Journal. At this high of a rate Newsies could not make enough for housing and food. The reason many newsies started protesting was because they believed that Pulitzer and Hearst were being greedy saying, "Ain't that ten cents worth as much to us as it is to Hearst and Pulitzer who are millionaires? well i guess it is.
The Newsboys were the kids that were out on the street that were typically orphans or poor who sold the newspaper. Approximately 10,000 newsboys worked the streets. Most of the publishers of the paper wouldn’t buy back the unsold papers the Newsboys had. The cause of the strike was the rise in prices for the bundles of papers the Newsboys had to buy and it happened in late July and early August. The owner of the The Evening World, Joseph Pulitzer, and The Evening Journal, William Randolph Hearst, upped the price from 50 cents a bundle to 60 cents a bundle.
B. The Winnipeg General Strike 1. Workers were upset with postwar inflation and responded with a series of national strikes in 1918 and 1919. 2. On May 1, 1919, metal workers and builder union workers went on strike to press for better wages and improved working conditions.
The Homestead Strike, which culminated with a day-long gun battle on July 6 that left 12 dead and dozens wounded, led to a wave of de-unionization. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) began organizing unskilled iron and steel workers into federal unions in 1901. The AFL did not account for the hardening anti-union attitudes of U.S. Steel executives and plant managers, and the federation had no real plan to counterbalance the vast financial resources the company would pour into anti-union espionage, strikebreaking and union avoidance measures.
The strike was covered by two newspapers: the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Times. The Tribune was an opponent of the boycotts while the Chicago Times was a supporter. Therefore, from the start of the strike, the views of the people influenced the way the two newspapers portrayed
In Braddock the work day went from eight hours to twelve hours, and in Homestead workers had to agree to the mills terms to return to work. Kratcha did not like the strikes, but Andrej approved of them saying, “While you’re losing a dollar, Carnegie will be losing thousands… Take a penny from [the millionaires] and they will bleed” (40). Although many workers, mostly those in support or in unions, approved of the strikes, they still made it difficult for many workers to support themselves when they were receiving no pay due to a shutdown mill. With the strain that strikes put on low income workers, Unions made it difficult for laborers, like Kratcha, to earn a steady income,
The organized labor of 1875-1900 was unsuccessful in proving the position of workers because of the future strikes, and the intrinsical feeling of preponderation of employers over employees and the lack of regime support. In 1877, railroad work across the country took part in a cyclopean strike that resulted in mass violence and very few reforms. An editorial, from the Incipient York Time verbalized: "the strike is ostensibly hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and splenetic demonstration of resentment by men too incognizant or too temerarious to understand their own interest" (Document B). In 1892, workers at the Homestead steel plant near Pittsburg ambulated out on strike and mass chaos the lives of at least two Pinkerton detectives and one civilian, among many other laborers death (Document G).
The Pullman Strike was an 1890s strike that occurred as a result of employee dissatisfaction with wage cuts, long hours, and high rent and goods prices attributed to unfair practices by the Pullman railroad company. This strike was what is known as a wildcat strike whereby acting out of accordance with a union, workers rallied against their employer. This was a largely failed attempt to satisfy their demands but to their advantage, the strike grew as they paired up with a labor union, the American Railway Union, headed by Eugene V. Debs which lead a nationwide boycott of all railroad cars managed by George Pullman. When workers tried to oppose Pullman, they were fired, and many residents of Pullman, Illinois who didn't follow the company
The government sided with the bosses instead by stating that men could find other jobs if their current employer was not giving them the treatment they thought they deserved. Eventually laborers got what they sought and they were granted fair treatment, such as 8 hours shifts. The first Labor Day was celebrated on the first Monday of September in the year 1882. Then in 1884, Congress passed an act which made every first Monday of September a nationwide holiday. Today Labor Day is dedicated to the American workers who contribute to the nation.
The workers gather to listen to several speakers over the five days near the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company among those giving the speaks there was both a pled from those who discouraged violence and encourage the crowd to join together against the companies; however, this was also a pled from those who urge worked to take action of violent revolution. The Haymarket Riot turned into a violent event resulting in a controversy trial that supported the discrimination against union members. Perhaps the greatest lasting effect of the riot was that it created a widespread revulsion against union, which caused membership to decline and reduce union influence; because unions became lined to radical ideas and violence in the popular mind. (Avial,2011)
Furthermore, this marked the beginning of strikes, unions, and violence. This also marked the beginning of the “Knights of Labor”, which was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, was the first national strike in the country. The strike was in response to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad cutting wages. The strike lasted several days, and was finally put down by the state militias, and federal troops.
It was only when the immigrants who worked in the factories began to strike that the politicians recognized them. Stopping the means of production to strike not only hurt the factory owners but also the country as a whole so the government had no choice but to finally take notice of them. Although the majority of strikes were wildly unsuccessful due to the stigma around strikers being violent individuals, they paved the way for unionization and the establishment of a federal minimum wage in
After the police stopped several of these meeting the workers didn’t stop there, they started to publicly express the wrongs in these industries. Some of these actions would be creating small strikes, creating slogans heard everywhere like "Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for What We Will!" or "Shortening the Hours Increase the Pay". , or even creating songs like "the Eight Hour Day". Soon after that the works started to arrange marches through the middle of down town. Nearly 100 thousand workers marched through the middle of down town chanting about the eight-hour day.
