The Pullman Palace Car Company manufactured railroad cards. The workers were not part of a union and lived in the town of Pullman where the company controlled the rent, utilities, and politics. Due to a poor economy, the Pullman Palace Car Company laid off many employees and cut wages for those remaining by 25% and didn’t lower the costs in the town of Pullman. The ARU came on board and made numerous attempts to negotiate with the company and none were successful. I agree with the workers striking considering they were in a lose-lose situation with their employer controlling their entire life – not only their employment but their living conditions. The company had no reason to want to deal with them because they controlled everything.
Even in booming communities such as the city of Pullman that George Pullman started back in 1880, even encountered violence and riots. Due to an economic depression in 1893, over half of the workers of this company had to be fired, while the rest had their pay checks majorly cut. This made them very angry since they were now unable to pay rent in Pullman or support their lifestyles. This caused an official strike in the year 1894, where workers were led by Eugene Debs, the creator of the failed Industrial Workers of the World union. Pullman resisted from negotiations, motivating the laborers to start boycotting train cars as part of the American Federation of Labor. Unfortunately, strikes began turning violent again as army troops were required
Unfortunately the company found a way to work around the striker by hiring non-union workers. According to A Colorado History, “Newly arrived immigrants and unemployed workers could always be recruited into the ranks of nonunion workers during times of crisis.” and since the economy was coming out of a depression, many people were willing to work as nonunion members. Because of the depression, the mining business was seeing a slow bounce back. This caused the mines in Colorado to be in less of a demand and the company needed to only hire on few strikebreakers to work the mines on terms denied to the
There were a lot of issues that prompted employees at the Frontier hotel to take striking as an action to be heard. When watching this documentary for the first time I didn’t realize how long these workers were on strike for. One word to describe the owners of these hotels is “savages”. They started to fire individuals for no apparent reason it seemed the owners wanted to cut back. There was one girl that worked in the culinary department for eight years and she was let go. The hotel also took away health insurance benefits, pension contributions for employees trying to retire and the most important cutting employee wages for the hotel to save money and for the owners to profit even more letting these employees work next to nothing. A lot of workers said they felt their pride was being taken away also trying to take care of their own family will be even more inflexible. The hotel took away everything so these employees had no chose but to strike.
Workers picketed and protested until they received their rights (Doc 4). Unions that were formed made demands for the well-being of workers. People continued
I agree on your views that American businessmen saw this national strike as a threat to their capitalist objective. The collective action of a national strike made businessmen aware of the possibility they may have to comply to workers' demands. The railroads were some of the worst culprits of the many inequalities seen during this time period, so it's no surprise that one of them was met with a national strike. Overall, I really like your response and how railroads felt the threat of a tyranny of the
I will fight this to the bitter end. I will never recognize the union, never, never.” (Document D.) Henry Clay Frick, the person from whom this quote is taken from, was the president of Carnegie Steel. He was making his workers work much harder, long, strenuous hours with poor conditions and little pay. “Exhaustion from overwork. In consequences of the long hours of labor, the great speed the machinery is run at… So much exhaustion is produced. (Document F.) This definitely needed to be addressed and it wasn’t. Unions were forming to try and help workers get more fair jobs, safer and better pay, but they often could not come to an agreement with the company. Then the workers would strike. When workers went on strike, profits and production stopped. If the company did not want to come on a consensus, often, strikes would become violent. The owners could have hired perhaps two shifts of workers, one to work during the earlier part of the day and another to work the later part of the day. This would have reduced exhaustion in workers, which also meant they would work faster if not
The fights the workers had did give long, and short term effects, but was it worth it? The long term effects were, safety codes were improved [ learned from the triangle fire article], wages and conditions improved [ From the Bread and Roses article]. Others are labor laws and rights. Some short term effects are destruction of property, and Economical, emotional, and physical effects from the strikes. Also some of the strikes gave workers an image of terrorists. The strikes did not really help the workers because at the end of most strikes they lost, and lost their jobs and reputation.
During 1877, railroad workers in West Virginia went on strike. The railroad industry had grew following the Civil War, and wage cuts during the Panic 1873 established anger among workers. Later B & O Railroad stated a second wage cut later in the year. On the other hand employers believed business owners were terrible for business. Business owners wanted to keep costs down, which would cut jobs and wages. “Business owners fought against unions and able to keep their factories and mines operating, they hired strikebreakers, often employed immigrant workers from other areas who were hungry for jobs and had no stake in the union struggle.” (Schultz, p. 305, 2009) However, family and small factories were united as one and controlled by large
Most people were angry with railroad owners because of how they treated their employees and were too powerful. (Doc B) This resulted in strikes such as the great railroad strike of 1877 where it began with employees from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad company that were angry with them for several reasons but led to many other employees across the nation striking against their large business employers. Furthermore, employees were extremely angry with working conditions and the way in which they were being treated by their large employers and demanded better conditions. (Doc G) One iconic group that came out from this was the American Federation of Labor which was a combination of various unions looking to find better wages, working conditions and and hours for workers. However there was a positive thing that came out from the big businesses which was the creation of department stores. (Doc I) The creation of department stores made it easier for consumers to find everything they need all in one spot. As you can see, there were mixed reactions about big businesses although most were
In 1894 workers participated in a widespread strike and boycott against the Pullman Palace Car Company, a U.S. company that made and ran passenger railroad cars. For a time, the Pullman Strike essentially stopped the railroads from running in much of the western part of the country. An antitrust law—a law intended to curb concentrations of power that interfere with trade and reduce economic competition—was ultimately used to end this
Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States. George Pullman cut his railroad workers wages in regards of economic depression. The workers organized a strike, but soon enough they realized they needed additional help. Famed labor union Eugene V. Debs helped to establish an organization to create a national movement. After the railroad workers resorted to destructiveness it gained favor, which, it was brought to the attention of the attorney general. The Pullman Strike is widely seen to have reached the maximums because of George Pullman’s uncompromising and unsympathetic attitude towards his employee’.
In this chapter, it is mentioned that the United Auto Workers (UAW) was one of the largest unions in the United States, but it seems like it has been declining in the last couple of years. The traumas experienced by the auto industries in 2008-2009 required the UAW to make major concessions to help Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and GM survive. I think that the UAW hasn’t been successful in its attempts to unionize U.S. workers employed at Toyota, Nissan, and Honda plants because these employees are convinced that the benefits they are receiving are pretty good and that the union wouldn’t do any better. For example, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda plant employees feel like they are earning satisfactory wages, have adequate benefits, have satisfactory
The mill workers felt that they simply did not have any other options and feared the punitive steps management would take if they unionized. Indeed, this appeared to be the case. When several employees expressed a tentative interest in the union, management reduced their work days, and, consequently, their pay. The mill’s management used many other scare tactics to try and persuade employees to reject the union.
This was the country’s first railroad strike in nation’s history as well as the first general strike. Strikes and violence spawned briefly, paralyzed the country’s commerce, and led the governors in ten states to mobilize militias to reopen rail traffic. Northern railroads were stills struggling from the Financial Panic of 1873, which led to cutting salaries and cutting wages. Another thing is cutbacks promoted
The past of Unions is indisputable; however, the outlook can be altered to form a promising future. The reversal of history can be done through reconstruction and restatement of workers rights. A reestablishment of worker liberties should be considered in order to clarify any confusion in which present and prospective employees are faced with. Unions are notorious for being tyrannical and inconsiderate towards employees and thus union heads should confront this issue head on and give workers a voice (i.e. vote). In order to regain union strength in today’s society I believe Unions must give workers honorable rights and a democratic right to be heard.