Lesson 1: The Workers' Plight

Lesson Focus

As industry grew, workers faced dangerous jobs, low wages, and long hours. This lesson explores why they began organizing into unions and the powerful forces that stood in their way, setting the stage for major conflict.

People to Know

Rutherford B. Hayes

Learning Objectives

• Describe the harsh working conditions, including low wages, long hours, and dangerous factories, that industrial laborers faced in the late 1800s.
• Explain the major obstacles that early labor unions encountered, such as employer opposition, public opinion, and government resistance.

Industrialization created harsh new realities for American workers in the late 1800s.

Skilled artisans were replaced by machines, leading to monotonous, low-paying jobs with long hours. Many workers were forced to live in company towns and were paid in scrip.

Life was also dangerous due to unsafe machinery and the constant threat of unemployment from the recurring business cycle. These difficult conditions pushed workers to find ways to fight back.

In response to poor working conditions, workers began to form labor unions.

Their main goal was to use collective bargaining—negotiating as a group—to achieve better wages, hours, and safer workplaces. However, union leaders were divided on the best strategy: some wanted one giant union for all workers, while others preferred smaller unions organized by specific crafts.

This debate over goals sometimes weakened their efforts before they even began.

As unions grew, they faced powerful opposition from employers and the government.

Employers used tactics like blacklists to prevent union organizers from getting jobs and used the lockout to shut down factories and fire union members.

Public opinion and the courts usually sided with employers, viewing strikes as illegal conspiracies. This combination of forces made it extremely difficult for unions to gain power and achieve their goals.

The economic depression following the Panic of 1873 caused railroads to slash worker wages.

In response, the great Railroad Strike of 1877 erupted, becoming the nation's first major labor conflict. The strike spread rapidly, with workers destroying railroad property and bringing more than half of the country's freight traffic to a stop.

Violent clashes broke out between strikers and troops, shaking the nation and revealing labor's growing anger.

The Railroad Strike of 1877 ultimately failed because unions were not strong enough to defeat business and government.
President Hayes sent in federal troops to crush the strike, resulting in over 100 deaths and widespread arrests.

Note that this defeat taught union leaders a crucial lesson: they realized they needed much greater unity, funding, and organization to challenge the powerful combination of industry and government in the future.