The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

He would be associated with this union for the next 18 years. By 1875 he had built a reputation as an outstanding citizen and was named the secretary of the Vigo County BLF, this would be his entry into the field of labor organization. During this time he was closely associated with the railroad workers and saw their consistent oppression by their capitalist employers. Despite this he was dedicated to maintaining a union comprised of sober outstanding laborers who could best serve their employers. By 1879 he was elected grand secretary of the BLF and editor of the magazine. In this role he gained crucial experience in labor organizing on a larger scale and elevated his status as a effective leader in the labor movement. During this time he saw consistent wage cuts forced on these upstanding citizens and workers which began to galvanize the idea within him that the corporations were not interested in the quality of labor of their employees. Instead they were interested in only creating a profit for themselves at any cost and reducing the value of a man to his work.

In May of 1877 the Pennsylvania line announced another wage reduction of 10% to the worker's along with speed-ups (double the work). At this point the workers accepted it. Then in July of 1877 the Baltimore & Ohio line announced a 10% cut in pay. The workers questioned management, ‘how could they survive on these wages and terms?' But the owners did not listen, instead they took the position ‘quit if you don't like it'.

The Pullman Strike strike was named after George Pullman. George Pullman was a man who became rich off of his manufacturing of sleeper and luxury railcars (Lawrence). Pullman was so successful that he had a city named after him, which he owned. In the panic of 1893, Pullman’s revenue dropped because of the lessened demand for his cars (McNamara). Because of this drop in revenue, Pullman cut the wages of his workers, but kept the rent the same. Worker’s became outraged because they couldn’t afford these changes. Pullman refused to negotiate with his workers, which caused the American Railway Union, lead by Eugene Debs, to take action (McNamara). This union consisted of over 260,000 workers nationwide to participate in the strike. Worker’s supported the ARU by not moving trains with Pullman cars (Ginger). This caused Detroit traffic to come to an

Everyone was frustrated with work conditions and this led to the formations of unions around the country. The Knights of Labor was a very popular union that led the first major strike in the United States. The year was 1885 and Jay Gould’s Missouri Pacific Railroad was the target. The owner, Jay Gould, had recently cut wages drastically and fired union members. The Knights led the strike and eventually succeeded to improve wages for the railroad workers. With this great accomplishment the Knights gained

Through the wasteful competition of the railroads, workers began to lose support of their family and make a living. On page 9, in the text it states, “When wages are cut, thousands of Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on strike in Illinois. In sympathy, other railroad workers stop Pullman cars from moving.”(Timeline) This statement expresses the idea that George Pullman treated his workers with disrespect. When the great depression occurred, George cut all workers pay by 25% to make more profit for his company. This shows that he exploited the workers to make profit. Also, During the railroad competition, George developed the General Manager Association. This association made him able to fire whoever he wanted,

1914: Clayton Anti-Truat lengthening Shermian by forbidding more practices, llabor unions exempted from trust busting— legalized strikes and peacful

The chief political issue of the late 1800s was working conditions for laborers. Big businesses, having sought to cut costs however possible, created horrible working conditions for laborers. In an effort to improve these conditions, workers waged strikes and formed labor unions, so that they might gain some semblance of bargaining power. However the fight to improve conditions for workers was largely ineffective thanks to public support of big business, disorganization amongst labor unions, and the negative connotation that came to be associated with labor unions.

The Black Panthers were formed in California in 1966 and they played a short but important part in the civil rights movement by gathering African Americans and uniting them together so they can fight for what they believe in. The Black Panthers believed that the non-violent campaign of Martin Luther King Had failed and any proposed changes to their lifestyle via the ‘traditional’ civil rights movement, would take too long to be implemented or simply not introduced. The two founders of the Black Panther Party were Huey Percy Newton and Bobby Seale. They preached for a “revolutionary war” but their party was believed to be African-American and they were willing to speak out for all those who were oppressed from whatever minority group. However, the Black Panthers were generally targeted by the FBI and they used dirty tactics such as forging letters to provoke conflict between the BPP’s leaders; organising the murders of BPP leaders initiating a “Black Propaganda” campaign to convince the public that the BPP was a threat to national security. “Carmichael is adamantly against allowing whites into the black liberation movement, explaining whites cannot relate to black experience and have an intimidating effect on blacks." Carmichael is a Black Panther. He did not want whites in the Party because he felt they

successful. Jay had no choice but to fold to the Union's demands. This success helped the

Workers were paid as little as dollar or a dollar and twenty-five cents for working for twelve to sixteen hours a day. The low wages were so bad that many were starving. In document 3, Governor John P. Altgeld of Illinois wrote to George M. Pullman saying that “there are nearly six thousand people suffering for want of food- they were your employees” (document 3). However, workers who joined labor unions had their wages increased dramatically. In document 8, the President of American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers, said that those who joined labor unions had their “wages increased 70 percent in the past seven years” (document 8). Labor unions in the 1900s helped workers increase their low wages to not beg for food for

Dobbins was hired by Ford Motor Company in Aug 2000 at the Sharonville Transmission Plant in Cincinnati, OH. Which he later transferred to the Atlanta, GA Assembly plant which produced the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable. Mr. Dobbins worked closely with the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) Local 882/ Atlanta and UAW Local 863/ Sharonville Plants. After three years at the Atlanta Plant Mr. Dobbins was transferred back to Batavia, Ohio where he was promoted to Team Leader/Supervisor of the Button-Up Department. He remain in this position until plant closed in 2009, and was place on retirement roll with the Ford Motor

George Pullman was the developer of the Pullman Palace Car, creating his own factory town of Pullman, Chicago. With the massive success of the railroads, Pullman made a fortune producing his luxury sleeping cars. He is well known for suppressing his striking workers in Pullman. When a depression struck the country, he slashed wages the wages of his workers while keeping the wages of his associates and the price of living the same. This created uproar and led to a strike amongst his workers, eventually backed by Eugene Debs’ American Railway Union. The strike was violently put down, showing that labor unions had little power to negotiate.

The Pullman Strike was an effect to the Pullman Palace Car Company hit a depression and cut workers’ wages 25-40 percent while keeping the rent and housing prices the same. Many of the workers joined the American Railroad Union. Debs, socialists that followed Karl Marx’s classless society, backed up the workers which resulted in them being jailed. The strike is an example of a secondary labor boycott. The workers cut off the town from food and goods. President Cleveland ordered troops to break up the strike. The federal courts issued an injunction

adamantly opposed any recognition of the union. Thus, the union members decided to strike over wages, safety

My grandfather became a union member for the first time in 1951 when he began working for Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), a petrochemical company. He began as a member of a labor crew and gradually moved up to operating the refining systems that converted oils into paint base.