Mr Birling Diary

The first legislation to try and weaken TU’s was the 1980 Employment Act which was targeting secondary boycotting and picketing. The Government wanted to limit the scale and scope of these activities, to individuals who were

“People were forced to work in harsh, dangerous conditions in order to be able to provide for their families” (Document 8). Although most people were grateful to have a job, the conditions that they were forced to work for in order to provide for their families were unfair to them, and their families. Just because they obtained a job one day, doesn’t mean they would have it the next day, for example, if an employee was sick, or injured and had to miss a day of work the employee wasn’t guaranteed to continually have the job after they finally recovered. “I am at work in a spinning room tending four sides of warp which is one girl’s work” (Document 1) working conditions such as these are very harsh for the employees, not only do they have to keep up with the work of four people. Not only do the employees have to keep up with the sea of work, they also have to attempt not to get injured with the very harsh conditions lots of employees did in fact end up with serious injuries. “5 in the morning till 9 at night…” (Document 7) Those were the harsh working hours according to twenty-three year old Elizabeth Bentley. Long hours such as those were very common for factory workers, which made life hard for employees. Not only was harsh working conditions bad, but also the worst consequence that came about through the Industrial Revolution was child

1. In the essay “Sweatshirts to Sweatshops,” many of the universal intellectual standards are violated. To begin with, the speaker talks about the “little girl…working hour after hour…trying not to collapse from the heat…” and that violates the fairness of the argument. He is trying to manipulate the audience by appealing to their emotional side. This argument is not based in factual evidence, and therefore, could be dismissed by the audience. There may not be a little girl in this exact situation described, and therefore, this statement is irrelevant. This could be corrected by leaving the entire story of the “little girl” out, or an interview of a child that works in the factory could be conducted giving a first-hand look into the

The working conditions of the average laborer during the industrial revolution were oftentimes harsh and dangerous as seen in documents in 1,2,3 and 5. According to the Sadler Committee of 1832, men were forced to work excessively long hours and were whipped to stay awake. (Doc. 1) Additionally, the Sadler Committee revealed that many workers have suffered from infections, disease and muscle problems. (Doc. 2) This shows that industrial factory owners oftentimes exploited their laborers for profit. Andrew Ure’s The Philosophy of Manufactures reveals that children in the factory

It always begins with a promise. A promise for better living conditions, higher wage, more opportunities, etc. This is when hope is established within an hard working individual. In the video, “New England cotton mills” and the reading, “Life in the Iron Mills”, there are similarities in regards to working conditions, solidarity among workers, and owner attitudes. Both mills show identifiable occasions of mistreatment of workers, although there are clear differences in quality and benefits offered by each institution. The purpose of this essay is to compare discuss issues of worker mistreatment, solidarity, class, and fulfillment of everyday life in regards to work.

The factory is a deafening cacophony of machinery. The air around you is smothering and dusty. Diligent workers handle the looms—1, 2, even 3 machines, beads of sweat dripping down their concentrated faces. The work is exhausting; however, you manage to survive a 13 hour shift, as the benefits are a decent bundle of cash, far more than you could ever earn anywhere else. On the other hand, some workers are dissatisfied with the conditions they must work in—going as far to sign a petition. In “Lyddie” by Katherine Patterson, Lyddie, a hardworking13 year-old factory worker, contemplates on whether or not she should sign said petition. She is confronted with the challenge of determining which means more to her--her job or the safety of her and

Strikes are on the rise as protests for better working conditions continue. One of the many goals of the protesters

Whilst the objectives of trades union have traditionally been to maintain and improve the conditions of their worker members, this has more often than not, manifested itself in a conflict and struggle with the “political systems” adopted by the hierarchy of company management. This is certainly evident in the conflict at Riverside. What adds another dimension to the situation is the family connection that exists between Steve and Rod.

As I got older, the knowledge that my father negotiated with his very own employers in order to ensure that his coworkers would also reap the benefits the entire union fought for affected me on personal a level; to know that the man who drove me to school and bought for me school supplies each year also carried a responsibility to his co-workers made me rather proud. However, despite the fact that I grew up the daughter of a Union Steward, I also grew up as a teenager in today’s society: one that no longer suffers from such rampant corruption that induced misfortunes such as illegal instances of child labor: a calamity also solved by a committee aiming to better working standards. My view of labor has always been through rose-tinted glasses thanks to modern times; I really only knew of the exploits that my father had experienced from what he told me, forms recounting various union related news lying in heaps on the dinner table, and snippets on the news or the lightly-touched upon topics in my Consumer’s Education

Young girls and women worked thirteen hour days, six days a week in extremely hazardous, unsafe conditions (Tindall & Shi, 2013). As the number of mills grew and competition increased, the Lowell Mill workers were expected to work harder for lesser amounts of money and fewer benefits. Suffering from less pay, harder work, and additional pay decreases, the Lowell Mill employees organized strikes to combat the treatment they were receiving (Tindall & Shi, 2013). Having to organize themselves to protect the rights they had originally expected; a formal education, exposure to culture, and the opportunity to use this information to enhance and improve their lives in the future, was lost when they had to endure the unpleasantness of factory

It was just him, my sister, and I at first before all the other youth came in. We were just lounging in his bedroom, just talking like old times. It was all so familiar to us and it came naturally. It was like a relapse of our friendship. After while everyone started coming in and it was time to eat. After we finished eating CJ and I decided to go in his room and talk. CJ and I sat on his soft, comfortable bed. His cousin accompanied us to talk. I was as confused as a deer in headlights to what was going on. His cousin then asked me “ Do you like CJ?” and I looked at CJ confused and realized he wanted to know too. I said “Yeah, I like him” and she asked me “ Do you want to go with him?” and I looked at her and him, back and forth. She seemed to be very brusque. I just said “Sure”. CJ asked “Sure?” then I changed my answer and said yes. After we exchanged contact information he was required to depart to work.

In her piece Low-wage Senate workers get a raise- and then the shaft, Catherine Rampell tells the story of “low-wage federal contract workers” who carried out “a series of strikes” in demand of sufficient “living wage” and “a union.” As these events occurred at the Senate cafeteria, Rampell notes that the workers “attracted powerful allies to their cause.” However, the rest of the tale does not end as happily. Despite the combined achievements of the workers and “powerful allies”, Rampell reveals the detail the senators fail to acknowledge: the fact that “some workers were shortchanged.”

Often, the children were made to work “from five in the morning till nine or ten at night”, with “no time … for breakfast and no sitting for dinner and no time for tea”. These constant and long working hours not only can lead to mental and physical suffering, but they can also cause an increase in injury rates from working in general due to mental and physical fatigue. Additionally, the superiors of the workers often beat the children mercilessly. According to a firsthand account from John Birley, who was a child laborer at the time, a supervisor once “knocked me down knocked me down and threatened me with a stick. To save my head I raised my arm, which he then hit with all his might. My elbow was broken. I bear the marks, and suffer pain from it to this day, and always shall as long as I live...”. This act demonstrates the cruelty the child workers suffered at the hands of the superiors, due to the utter lack of regulation of these textile mills. In fact, the replaceable nature of their jobs and the Combination Acts essentially forced the children to endure this treatment, as they had no other way to support their families. This account is supported by similar accounts from an unbiased third-party doctor who investigated the mills. He stated that not only were the textile mills “nurseries of disease and vice”, the

We are workers from the cotton mill, we've had no breaks from our job. They start us with easy jobs like picking up cotton that has fallen of the machinery onto the floor, but evreytime we go down to pick it up we start to choke and suffocate. Evreyday we bend down and try to pick up the cotton without suffocating and if we try to take a break we get wiped with oiled up belts

Many American workers are at risk of losing their jobs to man-made machinery. One author, Adam Davidson,wrote “Making It in America,” and he argues that American workers are more beneficial and cost efficient than machinery. He uses his interview with Standard Motor Products employee, Maddie Parlier, to build his argument. Maddie is a low educated worker who was forced to take the job at SMP when she became pregnant her senior year of high school. Though she was quick and effective working the laser-welding machine, the unskilled job increased her chance of being replaced by a machine. Many manufacturing companies have found machines more efficient, but don’t realize the effect on American workers. Davidson builds his credibility with logical facts and statistics, and displaying emotional appeals to influence the audience; however, by the end of his article, his ability to influence his readers with his supporting facts strengthens his argument.