Workers Rise Up: Development of Labor UnionsAs business leaders gained profits, exploitation and unsafe working conditions drew workers together in a nationwide labor movement. Laborers—skilled and unskilled, female and male, black and white—joined together in unions to try to improve their conditions. One of the largest employers, the steel mills, often demanded a seven-day workweek. Seamstresses, like factory workers in most industries, worked 12 or more hours a day, six days a week. 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 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. Between 1890 and 1910, for example, the number of women working for wages doubled, from 4 million to more than 8 million. Twenty percent of the boys and 10 percent of the girls under age 15—some as young as five years old—also held full-time jobs. With little time or energy left for school, child laborers forfeited their futures to help their families make ends meet. In sweatshops, or workshops in tenements rather than in factories, workers had little choice but to put up with the conditions. Sweatshop employment, which was tedious and required few skills, was often the only avenue open to women and children.In 1869, the first union, or workers’ organization, was created called the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. The Knights supported an eight-hour workday and advocated “equal pay for equal work” by men and women. They let all workers join, regardless of skill, race, or gender. The goal of a union is to advocate for worker’s rights through power in numbers. Workers don’t have money or power, but they have numbers, and if they refuse to work, employers will lose profits. Unions used a variety of tactics, including collective bargaining (bargaining for rights as a whole group), lock-ins (locking yourself in the factory), walk outs, boycotts and strikes. In retaliation, bosses would hire alternate workers, known as scabs, have lock outs, or get an injuction (court order) against unions. Many times, business owners reacted to union protests with violence and intimidation.The second famous union, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), was led by Samuel Gompers and used collective bargaining to reach agreements on wages, hours, and working conditions. The AFL only allowed white male skilled workers to join. Unlike the Knights of Labor, the AFL used strikes as a major tactic. Successful strikes helped the AFL win higher wages and shorter workweeks. Some labor leaders felt that unions should include all laborers—skilled and unskilled—in a specific industry. In an attempt to solve the problems faced by workers, Eugene Debs and some other labor activists eventually turned to socialism, an economic and political system based on government control of business and equal distribution of wealth. In 1905, a group of radical unionists and socialists in Chicago organized the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or the Wobblies. Industry and government responded forcefully to union activity, which they saw as a threat to the entire capitalist system. Police often attacked union picket lines, and violence was common. On the evening of May 4, 1886, 3,000 people gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest police brutality—a striker had been killed and several had been wounded at the McCormick Harvester plant the day before. Rain began to fall at about 10 o’clock, and the crowd was dispersing when police arrived. Then someone tossed a bomb into the police line. Police fired on the workers; seven police officers and several workers died in the chaos that followed. No one ever learned who threw the bomb, but the three speakers at the demonstration and five other radicals were charged with inciting a riot. All eight were convicted; four were hanged and one committed suicide in prison. In 1892, steel workers went on strike at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead steel plant, and nine workers were killed. This was known as the Homestead Strike.Although women were barred from many unions, they united behind powerful leaders to demand better working conditions, equal pay for equal work, and an end to child labor. Perhaps the most prominent organizer in the women’s labor movement was Mary Harris Jones. Jones supported the Great Strike of 1877 and later organized for the United Mine Workers of America (UMW). She endured death threats and jail with the coal miners, who gave her the nickname Mother Jones. In 1903, to expose the cruelties of child labor, she led 80 mill children— many with hideous injuries—on a march to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt. Their crusade influenced the passage of child labor laws.Legal limitations made it more and more difficult for unions to be effective. Court orders and federal troops were consistently used to stop workers from organizing. Many politicians received money from business leaders, and so used their power to ensure that the bosses, and not the workers, remained in power. Despite these pressures, workers—especially those in skilled jobs—continued to view unions as a powerfulQUESTION 710 pointsWhat is union? Why were unions created during the Industrial Revolution?