Labor in the Gilded Age

Growth of the labor movement

The rise of industrial capitalism was at times challenged by the growth of a rising labor movement in the United States. Workers joined unions and other labor organizations and societies to demand higher wages, shorter working hours, improved safety conditions, and to protest the increasing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a small number of captains of industry or robber barons. Labor organizing was often risky as management often sought to prevent unionization, including through infiltration of unions by spies and the use of force.

Even when workers were legally allowed to unionize, courts and legislatures, including the US Congress, have frequently sought to prevent workers from striking as these are typically the most costly and disruptive forms of labor organization and work stoppages.

Knights of Labor

The most important early labor union in the United States was the Knights of Labor, led by Terence Powderly. The Knights of Labor committed themselves to a more comprehensive shift in labor organization and power than later unions such as the American Federation of Labor. The Knights of Labor welcomed women, ethnic and racial minorities, and lower skilled workers into their ranks, organizing strategies that put the Knights at odds with other unions that focused primarily on attracting more highly skilled white male workers. Powderly had primarily rejected the use of strikes, believing that they were ineffective in resolving labor disputes, but he was unable to prevent local unions from striking, which diminished his credibility within the Knights of Labor and when negotiating with business.

Using these more inclusive organizing strategies, the Knights of Labor grew rapidly during the 1870s and early 1880s but were permanently damaged by their association with the Haymarket Square affair or riot in Chicago in 1886.

American Federation of Labor

In contrast to the Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, focused on craft unionism, with less radical demands for organization of the workplace and distribution of societal resources and wealth. While Gompers did not rule out strikes, he brought a more conciliatory approach when working with management. By the end of the 19th century, the AFL was clearly ascendant, boasting nearly 140,000 members while the Knights of Labor had nearly faded from the American labor scene with fewer than 20,000 members. The AFL merged in the early 1950s with the Depression era Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), forming the largest umbrella organization for unions, the AFL-CIO, which still exists in the 21st century.

Strikes

After the infiltration and ultimate destruction of the Molly Maguires, Irish coal miners in Pennsylvania who advocated an aggressive stance towards management, including the use of armed violence on several occasions, the labor environment in the United States became increasingly combative. Over the next 20 years, the United States would witness the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Haymarket Square Affair in 1886, the Homestead Steel Mill Strike, and the Pullman Strike. In many of these instances, violence between strikers on one side and the police, Pinkerton detectives, and even federal troops led to many workers and police and Pinkerton detectives being injured and killed and creating a legacy of suspicion and mistrust between representatives of organized labor and management and ownership.

Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1886

Bullets sped into the howling Anarchists in murderous storms, strewing the street with dead and dying…Officers and Socialists fall in hand-to-hand combat, and others were brought to earth by the assassin. Bystanders who had been attracted by the roar of the battle shared no better. They were shot down where they stood, or overtaken by the leaden storm while fleeing. The street was littered with the victims…The officers were crazed with fury. They pressed forward into the teeth of a hurricane of bullets and stones….

Eugene V. Debs, Testimony to the United States Strike Commission, August 24-25, 1894

I found that the wages and the expenses of the employees were so adjusted that every dollar the employees earned found its way back into the Pullman coffers; that they were not only not getting wages enough to live on, but that they were daily getting deeper into the debt of the Pullman Company; that it was impossible for many of them to leave there at all, even if they were disposed to quit to try and better their condition.

As the organized labor movement grew in the late 19th century, workers and management confronted each other with competing demands over pay, working hours, and safety.

The growth of labor unions such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor demonstrated the desire of many workers to obtain greater representation when negotiating with management, but the leaders of these unions employed different strategies and tactics to obtain desired results.

Prolonged labor strikes, particularly involving coal mining, railroads, and steel production, sometimes erupted in violent clashes between striking workers and the police, outside security hired by management, and even federal troops.