The Urban Worker Experience

1. The Urban Worker Experience

2. Most industrial workers worked six days a week for more than 12 hours a day. Employees were not entitled to vacation, sick leave, unemployment compensation, or reimbursement for injuries suffered on the job. Yet injuries were common. In dirty, poorly-ventilated factories, workers had to perform repetitive, mind-dulling tasks, sometimes with dangerous or faulty equipment. In 1882, an average of 675 laborers were killed in work-related accidents each week. In addition, wages were so low that most families could not survive unless everyone held a job. Therefore, with little time or energy left for school, child laborers forfeited their futures to help their families make ends meet.

3. 1.Working Conditions • -increased 400% by 1890 • More industry = more labor • -mostly unskilled labor • Machines doing labor • -assembly line work • Making one part, move along to another station • -sweatshops • Harsh workshops in tenements • -low wages • Owners make large profits • -long hours • 14-hour days, 6-7 days a week • -dangerous conditions • Hot, poorly-ventilated, dangerous jobs • -company towns • -child labor • Jobs to support the family “When I was younger, girls learned full trades, now they do not—one stitches seams, another makes buttonholes, and another sews on the buttons. Once girls learned to do all these things…Now you see then in those shops, seated in long rows, crowded together in a hot, close atmosphere… working at 20 and 25 cents a day.” ~Aurora Phelps

4. 1.Working Conditions • -women and children used in the strike process • Mary Harris “Mother” Jones • -advocated against child labor • Young children work in harsh conditions for low pay “The militant, not the meek, shall inherit the earth.” ~Mother Jones

5. 2.Labor Unions -tried to improve conditions of workers used strikes(refuse to work) Collective bargaining(negotiations) Arbitration (3rd party makes decisions for both groups) -owners countered blacklists(do not hire) lockouts (keep employees out) scabs (strike breakers) injunctions (court order to stop something, strikes) “…I can never get a day’s work under that company or any other around here, for…I’ll be blacklisted. Then what will my wife and my babies do?” ~American Worker

6. 3.Gov’t Intervention • -RR strike of 1877 • Cut wages, railroad workers strike until wages raised • -violent protests • Freight/passenger traffic stopped • Strikers tearing up railroads • -Federal troops sent to restore order by President Hayes Damage done by railroad strikers in the 1877 railroad strike

7. 4.Knights of Labor • -Terence Powderly • -any kind of labor accepted • Skilled and unskilled labor from all sexes and races • -eventually failed • Used strikes as a last resort • Strikes failed • -weakness?? • Advocated arbitration, which was not strong enough “An injury to one is the concern of all.” ~Motto: Knights of Labor

8. 5.AFL • (American Federation of Labor) • -Samuel Gompers • -only allowed skilled labor to join • Only allowed white males • -made strikes a legitimate weapon for union • Successful strikers • Also used collective bargaining “Show me the country in which there is no strikes, and I will show you the country in which there is no liberty.” ~Samuel Gompers

9. 6.Industrial Unions • -union combining all workers of an industry • Skilled and unskilled • Ex: Railroads • -Eugene V. Debs • -United RR workers • All railroad workers in one union • -helped organize the Pullman Coach Strike (1894) • Turns violent • -Government steps in: Debs is jailed • Railroad union failed

10. 7.Haymarket Square Strike • -Chicago strike of 1886 • Protesting police brutality used at another strike • -bomb thrown at protest • Police fire back at crowd • -several people killed • Strikers blamed, four executed • -union activity was blamed for the violence • Public turns against labor unions “They have grown rich and powerful on your labor. They amass stupendous fortunes, while you, who bring them into existence, are suffering from want. In answer to your pleadings they ask for the bodies of your little children, to utilize them in their gold mints, to make dollars out of them!” ~August Spies, Haymarket Square

11. 8.Pressure on Gov’t • -public supports the plight of workers but likes cheap products • Do not fight for reform at first • -Triangle Shirtwaist Fire • Public can no longer ignore working conditions • -gov’t begins regulations on working conditions and child labor • -Homestead Strike, 1892 • Carnegie Steel workers • -violent strike between workers and management • Strikers force out Pinkertons but Union finally gives up Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

12. 9.Immigration & Urban Growth • -Old Immigration • Western Europe • -New Immigration, 1890 • Eastern Europe • Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland (to East Coast) • Asian Immigration • West Coast – mining, railroads, farming • Hispanic Immigration • Political freedom “America…We were so near it seemed too much to believe. Everyone stood silent- like in prayer…Then we were entering the harbor. The land came so near we could almost reach out and touch it…everyone was holding their breath…” ~Rosa Cavalleri, Italian immigrant

13. 9.Immigration & Urban Growth • -difficult journey • 1-3 weeks in steerage with diseases and not much food • -Ellis Island, NY • immigrant processing • Physical exam, government inspection (criminal record) • -Angel Island, SF • Harsher examinations, detentions, often involved Chinese immigrants Waiting in line at Ellis Island in New York. This was the major immigrant in-processing station in the nation, as 17 million immigrants passed through its gates to gain entrance to the United States.

14. 9.Immigration & Urban Growth • -Culture Shock • Brand new culture, need home and job • ethnic communities • Similar language/customs • -Melting Pot • Mix by assimilation • -Nativism • Favor native-born Americans • Chinese Exclusion Act • Banned Chinese immigration for 10 years Once in America, new immigrants had to endure physical examinations (to check for disease and lice), as well as governmental examinations, which checked your criminal record in your previous country. While many were admitted, some were sent back home.

15. 9.Immigration & Urban Growth • -urban life • 1/12 in 1840--1/3 by 1900 • -immigrant settlement • Cheap housing, available jobs • -decline of farmers • new technology, fewer workers • -closing off the frontier • People move to cities • -industrialization • Available jobs Most immigrants settled in and around the major cities because of their proximity to jobs, as well as allowing cultural groups to stay together. When this happened, places like “Little Italy” and “Chinatown” sprang up across major cities.

16. 9.Immigration & Urban Growth • -poor housing • row houses • Single-family dwellings that shared side walls • tenements • Multi-family dwellings; over-crowded, unsanitary • -transportation • Mass transit to move people to jobs (street car, subway) • -rising crime rates • Small police forces and the poor are very desperate

17. “We cannot all live in the city, yet nearly all seem determined to do so.” ~Horace Greeley

18. “I looked about the narrow streets…ragged clothes, dirty bedding oozing out of the windows, ashcans and garbage cans cluttering the sidewalks. A vague sadness pressed down on my heart-the first doubt of America.” ~Anzia Yezierska, Russian Immigrant

19. 9.Immigration & Urban Growth • -few city services • water • Indoor plumbing rare, water unsafe to drink • sanitation • Manure, sewage and trash in streets, foul air • fire • Wood dwellings with candles and oil lamps • Small fire departments with limited water supply • -pollution and disease • Lack of sanitation It was not uncommon to see horse manure, horse blood, or even dead horses in the middle of the street.

20. 10.Raising Awareness • -Social Gospel • Christian theme of helping the less fortunate • Salvation Army • -Jacob Riis • “How the Other Half Lives” • Book about the urban poor written to get help • -Jane Addams • Hull House, Chicago • Settlement Houses • Community centers in slums that provide services to the poor Jacob Riis and Jane Addams crusade for the poor to improve their urban living conditions in the major cities. “Presently she established a kindergarten, a gymnasium, evening classes, clubs for young people and clubs for old people, and a day nursery where workingwomen might leave their children. As her work advanced she experienced the need of more room and several buildings were added to the original brick Hull House.”

21. “’One half of the world does not know how the other half lives.’ That was true then. It did not know because it did not care. The half that was on top cared little for the struggles, and less for the fate of those who were underneath, so long as it was able to hold them there. “Suppose we look into a tenement on Cherry Street…Listen! That short hacking cough, that tiny helpless cry…The child is dying of measles. With half a chance it might have lived. But it had none. That dark bedroom killed it.” ~Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives