The workers were requesting unionization of the work place. In my opinion, the most persuasive argument is that of the workers and their request to have the factory unionized, which would create a contractual relationship that covers all workers in the factory with respect to wages, hours and work conditions. It would diminish Harris and Blanck’s authority. Harris and Blanck used private detective agencies to provide replacement workers. They even hired prostitutes to start fights with the workers on strike and paid off local
When they sat down at the negotiating table, the two sides would bring with them very different preconceptions about how the world should work - it was clear the difference between rich and poor and the rich perception was that they were the owners of the poor so they should make up all rules. The Homestead Steel Strike is one of the most remarkable experiences for the trade unions’ history: after the employees tried to negotiate their wages unsuccessfully, the most powerful trade union of the moment called Amalgamated Association also tried to bargain some benefits but ended up making the hasty decision to confront the richest businessman in the US, Henry Frick, the company leader. In 1892 there was an armed battle between guards Frick hired to take care of the Mill he was shutting down and the workers that were against his decision. Lots of people died and the Mill remained
Jurgis burns his hand while working at the steel mill, because he is a child, he’s not familiar with all the labor laws. There was a significant gap between laws on the record in corporate America and job enforcement. Technically speaking Jurgis as permitted to receive some help from the corporate company to compensate for his wounds. Unfortunately, Jurgis was not aware that he could complain about his wounds resulting in some sort of payout or compensation. This revolves around power inequalities, the people who are poor and can’t afford an education aren’t well informed about the laws.
Workers were paid $2 a day at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, and that was before their bosses docked their pay for the needles, thread, and electricity they used each day. The highrise factory had locked exit doors, and practically no safety precautions in case of danger. Conditions were truly brutal, but workers had no other choice, they needed the money and their bosses could replace them at the snap of a finger. Angry garment workers, such as Clara Lemlich, were able to get workers to band together in “The Uprising of 20,000”, the largest strike of women in American history. The strikers protested low wages, dangerous working conditions, and management’s refusal to recognize unions; the mass strike failed to bring any meaningful change to the garment-making industry.
Employees worked a six-day workweek starting as early as seven-thirty and ending around nine o’clock at night. They were underpaid, had cramped workspaces in unventilated buildings, no safety precautions and were locked in their workplaces. Workers were charged for electricity, thread used and any damage that occurred. Housing compared to working conditions was no different; many of the workers lived in
They made them work long nonsensical hours the average human being can withstand, paid them wages lower than the minimum wage at McDonald's, and abused their employees. For example, take JP Morgan who increased working hours and workplace fatalities keeping his wage at an all time low (history.co.uk). Morgan made his employees work so much that they started demanding laws to limit the workday to eight hours. Morgan’s wage was so low that the average worker barely earned a dollar a day. J.P. Morgan did not treat workers well and was the main cause of falling wages and not caring for the health and safety of the workforces of his companies, especially steelworkers and miners, who died while working at his facilities ( history.co.uk, P.1)
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,
Additionally, although many workers worked long hours, their pay did not match up to the amount of effort put into their jobs. According to “Document A: Early Industrial Society: Progress or Decline?” by Peter Stearns states, “ Sick workers were rarely paid… wages fell, sometimes as much as 50 percent; up to a quarter of the labor force lost their jobs.” This shows inequality because the owners of these businesses underpay their workers on purpose to achieve greater wealth. While the rich gets richer off of the working class’s efforts, the working class become poorer due to their unstable financial income.
This is exemplified in Document O, which was a comic published around the time of the strike. Carnegie is shown decreasing the wages of workers and giving away gifts to other areas of interest. Given that the document was published at the time of increased insecurity and anger, we cannot take it as a full, unbiased reflection of how people thought back then. Document I shows that during the same year of the strike, steel workers were actually making more than many other industrial wages, and working the same amount of hours. A wage cut did happen though and even if it was not bad on a general platform, it hurt many steel workers.
During this ten year span people apart of the working class continuously begged and wished for the same two things, improved wages and improved working conditions. They did so not because of the people they worked
Living in New York City as a postal service worker one didn’t make enough to survive most workers got assistance from the government as a way to survive and make a living. Most postal service workers were members of a union they would plead to their union managers to call out a strike so that their voices could be heard by congress that they would not allow such unlawful treatment to go on, without obtaining in return better working conditions and higher wages. Even though the members of these unions knew that picketing and striking would go against the law and could mean they could get charges, they wanted to be herd. Union leaders wanted to work with members of their union, but knew that collective bargaining wasn’t allowed, union members were ready to vote so that they could call a strike. The results of the votes read that the majority of votes had voted for a strike, which would lead to the next day thousands of postal workers to walk out across the city to be
Employees were trying to get better rights and protection, while businesses expected their labor to remain cheap and abundant. The conflict came to a turning point in 1902, with the anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania. Coal mining was very dirty and extremely dangerous work, and around 140,000 coal miners went on strike and demanded a 20% pay raise plus a decrease in the workday from 10 to 9 hours. The mine owners were very insensitive and told the workers they declined to negotiate with them. Then, with the approaching threat of the wintertime cold the declining coal supply began to cause fear all through the nation.
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.
Introduction Social inequality means the unequal distribution of income, unequal access to education, opportunity, wealth and power in a society. It goes hand in hand with the social stratification. It is feature is the exist the inequality of opportunities and rewards for different social statuses within a group or society. There are two points to measure social inequality is including the inequality of conditions and the opportunities for each people.
The work was also dangerous with not much supervising by the government. Workers, on the other hand, had little or even no bargaining power to leave the unsafe conditions. Nowadays, When Americans only pay attention when extreme work strike, levels of abuse are the norm hidden in the factories around the globe. Although the condition seems much improved, consumers don’t know the true fact- “Today, American citizens simply cannot know the working conditions of the factories that make the products they buy.
