Concordia Library: Industrial Revolution: Labor Movement

Overview

The American labor movement was multifaceted. This section includes some of the key events, people, and organizations all of which changed the face of America.

Besides URLs, there are subscription databases listed below in the middle column for students to research for more information.

Pullman Strike

1894

Pullman Strike
"The most famous and farreaching labor conflict in a period of severe economic depression and social unrest, the Pullman Strike began May 11, 1894, with a walkout by Pullman Palace Car Company factory workers after negotiations over declining wages failed."
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Encyclopedia of Chicago History
Pullman Strike
"The Pullman strike had at least two important consequences....First, these events convinced [Eugene] Debs that the lives of American workers would never improve unless they controlled governmental power through their strength of numbers in elections....Second, many Americans were appalled at the class conflict that the strike (and others like it) represented."
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All images and content are the property of eHistory at The Ohio State University unless otherwise stated.
Copyright © 2011 OSU Department of History.

Great Steel Strike

1919

Great Steel Strike of 1919
"In 1919, workers represented by the American Federation of Labor went on strike against the United States Steel Corporation. Eventually workers at other companies joined the strike. Because this labor unrest eventually involved more than 350,000 workers, the walkout is known as the Great Steel Strike of 1919."
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Ohio History Central, an Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History
The Great Steel Strike of 1919 Historical Marker
"In 1919 a total of four million American workers went out on strike - one-fifth of the nation's industrial workforce - in one of the largest waves of labor actions in American history."
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ExplorePAHistory.com
“I Witnessed the Steel Strike”: Joe Rudiak Remembers the 1919 Strike
Listen to the audio.
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History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web was first developed in 1998 by the American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning, City University of New York, and the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, with initial funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Triangle Shirtwaist Company

1911

The Triangle Factory Fire: 1911 ~ 100 Years Later ~2011
"Near closing time on March 25, 1911,
a fire broke out at the Triangle Waist Factory. Within 18 minutes, 146 people were dead as a result of the fire." Click link to learn more.
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"The ILR School Kheel Center is honoring the 100 year anniversary of the fire with a redesign of this well-known resource, including many new and updated materials." Cornell University
Triangle Fire
"It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City's history."
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PBS
About the Triangle Fire
Contains "Eyewitness at the Triangle" by William G. Shephard and a photo essay.
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Modern America Poetry site. Robert Pinsky.
Compiled and Prepared by Lori Scrutchfield, Southern Illinois University and Cary Nelson

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

Formed 1938

(In November 1935, John L. Lewis formed the Committee for Industrial Organization. In 1938 it renamed itself the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).)

Congress of Industrial Organizations
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Encyclopedia of Chicago
Congress of Industrial Organizations
An inventory of the Records of the Congress of Industrial Organizations at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives
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The Catholic University of America

Ludlow Massacre

1914

Colorado Coal Field War Project
See Photo Galleries: The Ludlow Massacre
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University of Denver, Department of Archeology
The Ludlow Massacre and the Birth of Company Unions
""God gave me my money."

John D. Rockefeller--the world's first billionaire--spoke these words in 1905. This is how the founder of the Standard Oil Trust--now known as Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Amoco, etc.--explained the secret of his wealth.

Nine years after that interview, the bodies of two women and 11 children were dragged out from a cellar in Ludlow, Colo. They had choked to death when the Colorado state militia set the tent above them on fire."
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By Stephen Millies, in Workers World,
26 January, 1995.

Labor Organizations

Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA)

Formed 1844

A History of Women in Industry
Industrial Revolution (1800-1880)
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National Women's History Museum
The Samuel Gompers Papers
"Preamble and Constitution of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (founded Dec. 1844)"
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University of Maryland
One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview
See for context of 1844 Lowell Female Labor Reform Association
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America Memory loc.gov

Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU)

Organized 1881

The Samuel Gompers Papers
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Sponsored by the University of Maryland at College Park, the National Historical Publications & Records Commission, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
What Did Labor Want?: Organizing the Working Class, 1850-1924
-What's Inside
-Did You Know?
-Time Line
-Leaders & Strategies
-Shorter Hours
-Primary Sources
-Labor Links
-Images
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Sponsored by the University of Maryland College Park, the National Historical Publications & Records Commission,
and the National Endowment for the Humanities. T

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Formed 1886

American Federation of Labor (AFL)
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loc.gov
Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor
Discusses AFL formation and Samuel Gompers' role in it.
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Digital History

United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)

Founded 1890

A Brief History of the UMWA
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United Mine Workers of America

International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU)

Formed June 1900

Guide to the ILGWU Records, 1884-2006, bulk 1923-1995.
Read "Organizational History."
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Cornell University
The ILGWU : Social Unionism in Action
Labor Arts presents powerful images to further understanding of the past and present lives of working people.
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Be sensitive to copyright. See Labor Arts stance: http://www.laborarts.org/copyright.cfm
The Story of the ILGWU: A Radio Play in Six Episodes
Primary Sources: Text Documents -Survivor Interviews, Photos & Illustrations, Audio Recordings: Songs & Plays Testimonials, Newspaper & Magazine Articles Reports,
Letters, Transcript of Criminal Trial, Lectures: Story of the ILGWU: Episode V
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The Story of the ILGWU: A Radio Play in Six Episodes, typescript, no date, Archives Union File, Box 192, Cornell University, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Ithaca, New York.

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Formed June 1905

Speaking Out
Webisode 9: Working for Freedom
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PBS Segment 8
People & Events: The Industrial Workers of the World
"A Union for the Unskilled - The I.W.W. was "'a union based on the principles of Marxist conflict and the indigenous American philosophy of industrial unionism,'" according to historian Joyce Kornbluh. The Wobblies solicited new members among the most discriminated-against groups of the workforce: unskilled workers, non-whites, immigrants, women, and migrant workers."
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PBS American Experience
The Lucy Parsons Project
"A founding member of the International Working People's Association, an early anarcho-syndicalist labor organization. In 1905 she helped found the Industrial Workers of the World"
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"The Lucy Parsons Project is an online educational resource designed to publicize the life of Lucy Parsons and the struggles she championed."
IWW Historical Archives
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Industrial Workers of the World
General Headquarters

Eugene V. Debs - Supported Industrial Unionism

(1855-1926)

Welcome to the Eugene V. Debs Foundation...
Timeline, photo gallery, and much more.
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Debs Foundation
Eugene Victor Debs (1855 - 1926)
"Debs was a prominent leader of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF) in his youth. Later he helped found the American Railway Union (1894), the Socialist Party of America (1901) and the Industrial Workers of the World (1905)."
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AFL-CIO
Eugene Victor Debs
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Kansas Heritage Foundation

Bread or Revolution

I.W.W. hat card "Bread or Revolution"

LC-USZ62-22190 (1914) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Homestead Strike

1892

Homestead Strike - 1892
"he Homestead strike, 1892, in Homestead, Pennsylvania, pitted one of the most powerful new corporations, Carnegie Steel Company, against the nation's strongest trade union, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers."
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History.com

Chicago's Haymarket Square

1886

Eight Anarchists
See links to the eight anarchists:
August Spies
Albert Parsons
George Engel
Adolph Fischer
Louis Lingg
Michael Schwab
Oscar Neebe
Samuel Fielden
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PBS
The Haymarket Events
"Watch a video re-creation of the Haymarket incident, from the film." Scroll down to the link that says "The Haymarket Events."
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PBS
The Haymarket Affair
The Lucy Parsons Project
Chicago Anarchists on Trial
Evidence of the Haymarket Affair: 1886-1887
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American Memory, Library of Congress
The Labor Trail
Check out the Interactive Labor Trail highlighting what happened in Chicago's labor history
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"The Labor Trail is the product of a joint effort to showcase the many generations of dramatic struggles and working-class life in the Chicago area's rich and turbulent past. The Trail's neighborhood tours invite you to get acquainted with the events, places, and people -- often unsung -- who have made the city what it is today."

Labor Events Affecting Change

Knights of Labor (KOL)

Founded 1869

Knights of Labor
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Encyclopedia of Chicago
The Order of the Knights of Labor (KOL)
From the Samuel Gompers Papers Project
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Sponsored by the University of Maryland at College Park, the National Historical Publications & Records Commission, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Knights of Labor, 8 May 1886, Page 1
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Encyclopedia of Chicago

Labor Leaders

Some of the people who shaped America's labor movement

Sarah Bagley - Organizer & President of LFLRA

(1806-1883)

Lowell Mills
-The Condition of the Operatives
-Home in a Boarding-House; Editorial, The Lowell Offering
-Harbinger: The Female Workers of Lowell, 1836
-Josephine L. Baker "A Second Peep at Factory Life," Lowell Offering, 1845
-Sarah G. Bagley, "Pleasures of Factory Life"
The Lowell Offering, 1840
-Mill Girls Protest Resolutions
-Rules of the Mills

Samuel Gompers

(1850-1924)

Finally, A Statesman
Webisode 9: Working for Freedom
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PBS Segment 7

Emma Goldman - Organizer & Propagandist

(1869-1940)

Mother Earth Magazine

David Dubinsky - Labor Leader

(1892-1982)

One of founders of the American Labor Party and Liberal Party of New York.

Mother Jones - American Labor Organizer

(1837-1930)

Telling It Like It Is
Freedom: A History of US
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PBS

Pauline Newman - Labor Activist

(1887*-1986)

*There is a discrepancy with her birthdate. JWA says 1890.

Pauline Newman (1890-1986)
"The first woman ever appointed general organizer by the international ladies garment workers union (ILGWU)."
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Jewish Women's Archive- Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia

Rose Schneiderman - Labor Union Leader

(1882-1972)

Rose Schneiderman
“The woman worker needs bread, but she needs roses too,” Rose Schneiderman said in 1911.
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Jewish Women's Archive
Lament for Lives Lost: Rose Schneiderman and the Triangle Fire
"...The meeting would have broken up in disorder if not for a stirring speech by Rose Schneiderman, a Polish-born former hat worker who had once led a strike at the Triangle factory. Although she barely spoke above a whisper, Schneiderman held the audience spellbound."
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Created by the American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY)
and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (George Mason University).

Ella Mae Wiggins - Unionizer & Balladeer

(1900-1929)

Wiggin's Protest Ballad: The Mill Woman's Lament
Listen:
This ballad's intent was to portray "women as providers for their families who were forced to choose between caring for their children and the demands of mill work. Sung to a familiar tune that the workers had heard on the radio, this ballad became an anthem for cotton mill workers across the South.
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From Alexander Street Press' Music Online database. This ballad is part of the American Industrial Ballads sung by Pete Seeger.
Organization: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings & Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution
North Carolina Digital History
Read the lyrics to Wiggin's "Mill Mother's Lament."