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Why Is Lawrence Strike Important In The 1900's

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In the 1900’s there was lots of strikes for better pay among other issues. The Lawrence strike of 1912 and the Steel strike of 1919 were both big and influential in their own ways. The strike of 1912 in Lawrence was a large strike and had somewhere north of 20,000 people in the strike at its peak but it is most known for the influence that it had. This strike was very successful after about 2 months of striking getting almost all of their demands from all the textile companies but what made it truly influential was the fact that many other textile companies in other cities gave their employees increases in wages out of fear of a similar strike happening in their city. The steel strike in 1919 was a very large strike that wasn’t as influential …show more content…

The reason that pushed most people to join the strike was a decrease in weekly earnings due to new state legislature reducing the work week but the textile companies didn’t increase the wage to be paying their employees the same amount every week. The reduced weekly income was only the tipping point for many workers they had plenty of other reasons to walk of the job. These reasons included horrible living conditions, hazardous working conditions and wages low enough to only afford bread and molasses for many meals. With conditions being as bad as they were it’s a surprise a big strike didn’t start earlier. The reasons the great steel strike of 1919 started was very different from that of the Lawrence strike. The work environment was very hostile especially against unions. In an interview with Rudiak a son of a steel worker around this time said his father was blacklisted along with his working children from work for saying he was “I’m 100% for it” when asked about how he feels about unions at a local bar. The workers were wanting recognition of their union. The employees were tired of their long working days and wanted to reduce the work days to eight hours. They were also requesting better pay although there wasn’t much documentation about the living conditions due to the low wages but the in the interview Rudiak said that his two older brothers were also working …show more content…

When the mill owners caved in for the workers of Lawrence the rest of the country was watching. Then the mill owners of other textile cities decided to give their employees the same wage increase to avoid strikes that seemed like they may have just been around the corner before the strike let alone after their employees saw another strike be successful. Although this wasn’t the only impact they had in American society. Since they also talked to congress they showed the American public more about what it’s like to be in the lower working class making it a stepping stone on the way to the federal government getting involved in improving the working conditions across the

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