Industrial America At Work

Question 1

Laborers worked ## hours a day, # days a week

Answer 1

12 hours a day

6 days a week

Question 2

Piecework

Answer 2

Paid not by hour but by what they produced. Those who worked fastest and produced the most made the most money.

Question 3

What kind of shops paid by piecework?

Answer 3

Sweatshops

Question 4

Sweatshops

Answer 4

A shop where employees worked long hours at low wages under poor working conditions

Question 5

Frederick Winslow Taylor

Answer 5

Organizer at a steel factory whose goal was to increase efficiency and profits through division of labor

Question 6

Division of labor

Answer 6

Break down tasks into a number of steps and its overall timing. Proved efficient but took joy out of work.

Question 7

Factory work environment

Answer 7

Ruled by clock
Strict discipline
Fear of being fired 
Unsafe conditions 
But factory work offered higher pay than other jobs

Question 8

In the 1880s, children made up what percent of labor force?

Answer 8

5%

Question 9

Jacob Riis

Answer 9

Social worker that explained the impact of factory work on children in his 1892 book “Children of the Poor.” As a result, child labor came under attack in 1890s and 1900s

Question 10

Socialism

Answer 10

Workers were drawn to the economic and political philosophy that favored public rather than private control of property and income. Promoted in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, which denounced capitalism and predicted that workers would overthrow the system.

Question 11

The first union was:

Answer 11

National Trades Union

First union opened to all, survived only a few years

Question 12

Knights of Labor

Answer 12

Formed in Philadelphia in 1869
Led by Terence Powderly
Equal pay, 8 hours, no child labor (under 15), open to all

Question 13

American Federation of Labor

Answer 13

Formed by Samuel Gompers
Skilled workers, no Africans or women
Focused on wages, hours, conditions
Used strikes, boycotts, collective bargaining, closed shop

Question 14

Collective Bargaining

Answer 14

Workers negotiate as a group with employers

Question 15

Closed shop

Answer 15

Workplace in which only union members were employed

Question 16

Industrial Workers of the World

Answer 16

AKA Wobblies, IWW
1905
43 groups opposed to AFL
Radical Union of unskilled workers, open to socialists
Led violent strikes

Question 17

Reaction of employers

Answer 17

Banning union meetings
Firing union organizers
Signing yellow dog contracts: workers agree not to unionize
Refusing to bargain collectively

Question 18

Great Railroad Strike of 1877: reason

Answer 18

B & O Railroad announced 10% wage cut during a depression, imposed double headers (2 engines, twice as many cars, accident risk).

Question 19

Great Railroad Strike of 1877: actual strike

Answer 19

Workers organized strikes and clashed with local militia. Violence spread through cities like Pittsburgh, Chicago, and St. Louis. State governors requested assistance from the govt. Pres Rutherford B Hayes sent in federal troops to restore order. Pittsburgh soldiers fired on rioters. 20,000 rioters set fire to railroad property, $5 mil in damage. More troops sent in.

Question 20

Outcome of Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Answer 20

Eugene V Debs opposed the railway violence and proposed a new industrial union for railway workers called the American Railway Union

Question 21

Haymarket Riot

Answer 21

1866
Knights of Labor union workers mounted a demonstration for an 8 hour workday. Police broke up a fight between workers and scabs at Chicago’s McCormick Reaper Factory and caused casualties among workers. Union leaders called for protest rally at Chicago’s Haymarket Square. Anarchists joined the strikers. Someone threw a bomb into the police, killing an officer. Gunfire killed people on both sides. Four anarchists hanged for conspiracy to commit murder.

Question 22

Scabs

Answer 22

A worker called in by an employer to replace striking laborers

Question 23

Homestead Strike

Answer 23

Summer 1892
Carnegie’s partner Henry Frick tried to cut wages at Carnegie Steel. The union at the Carnegie plant in Homestead, PA called a strike. Frick called in the Pinkertons, private strike breakers. Shootout between Pinkerton guards and workers left several dead. Strikers eventually crossed the picket line.

Question 24

Pullman Strike: reason

Answer 24

George Pullman invented luxury sleeping cars. He built a town for his workers in Chicago. In the Panic of 1893, Pullman laid off workers and cut wages by 25%. Rent and food prices in town stayed the same.

Question 25

Pullman Strike: Strike and Aftermath

Answer 25

Pullman workers turned to the American Railway Union under Eugene V Debs. 260,000 workers joined strike. It disrupted mail delivery. Railroad owners sought government help, and it was ordered that all union activity regarding railway traffic was illegal. In the years ahead, factory owners repeatedly looked to the govt for court orders against unions.