Essay #7: Union Movement

Between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the century, the United States’ industry grew dramatically in what some called the “Second American Revolution.” The industrial output that had been ranked fourth behind Britain, France, and Germany only a few decades earlier had now become larger than these three combined. Help from the government and new technologies gave the capitalist class its chance to rise. The concept of Social Darwinism promoted laissez-faire capitalism and its idea that government intervention was not needed in industry and that the economically “strong” (the wealthy business owners) deserved to have high status and not be limited. This led to low wages and poor conditions for laborers, prompting them to create unions in an attempt to right the situation. The union movement was successful on some fronts and unsuccessful on others. The unions were successful in uniting workers and shortening work days, but unsuccessful in achieving any of their economic goals, such as higher wages.

In the late nineteenth century, there were four major national trade unions. The first was the National Labor Union (NLU). This union had the goal of uniting all workers, regardless of skill level, area of work race, or gender. It included members of all backgrounds, allowing for diversity and unity of all different workers. The second union was the Knights of Labor. This union was much more radical than the NLU but still held the same goals of equality, leading to the same diverse and unified result. The third union was the American Federation of Labor (AFL). This union was much less radical than the previous two and chose to work toward realistic goals instead of large reforms. It only accepted skilled workers, which meant that it did not have the same level of diversity as the NLU or the Knights of Labor. It did, however, unite its workers under a common goal. Finally, there was the Industrial Workers if the World (IWW). This was by far the most radical and revolutionary union at the time, often resorting to violence to achieve its means. The workers in the IWW were able to unite under the common idea that change was needed and could only be achieved through radical means. Although many goals were not met, each union had a way of uniting their workers as one front against the problems they were facing.

The one goal that the unions did manage to achieve was the shortening of the workday. At the time the unions were formed, long workdays were considered normal. The average laborer’s workday consisted of ten hours of work with only one hour of rest. The work was often hard and this ten-hour day was very tiresome for workers. Many workers at the time had to work even longer than this. The labor unions made shortening this workday one of their main goals. The NLU’s efforts eventually paid off when they managed to shorten the workday for federal workers to eight hours. Unfortunately, this was the only victory that the union movement could claim.

The most important goal for the unions was higher wages for laborers. The method used to achieve this goal was striking, but it proved unsuccessful because the government’s eventual intervention always brought the strikes to their ends. In the Railroad Strike of 1877, which was in protest of cut wages, President Hayes eventually sent the army to stifle the strikers. In the Pullman Strike of 1894, which consisted of a boycott because of lowered wages during a depression, the federal government issued an injunction referring to the ruling of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act that restraint of trade was illegal. Eventually, President Cleveland sent troops, who jailed union leaders for violating the injunction. The result of Homestead Strike of 1892, a protest over the fact that the Carnegie Steel Company had lowered wages in spite of increased profits, was slightly different. The government did not intervene to stop the strike, but the company hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to crush the strikers, eventually leading to the destroyed union ending the strike itself. The goals of increased wages were never met because the inions faced powerful opposition: the corporations themselves and the government. The corporations had the money and the power to crush the unions if they needed to through expensive resources such as the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The President was always willing to stop strikes using the military and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act made the strikes illegal because they were restraint of trade. The unions faced resistance far too powerful for them to ever succeed in their economic goals.

The union movement following the Civil War was successful in some areas, but failed profoundly in others. The unions each managed to unify workers as single fronts against their problems. They also managed to shorten the workday from ten hours to eight. However, they were unable to meet their economic goal of higher wages. The federal government was clearly on the side of the corporations, who already had plenty of resources to fight the unions on their own. This made all of the unions’ strikes unsuccessful, stopping them from achieving their main goal. Although the Unions had their small victories, they faced too much opposition to be able to do most of what they were created for.