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Issue
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Knights
of Labor
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American
Federation of Labor
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When?
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1871
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1886
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Leader?
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Terence
V. Powderly, the “grand master workman”
Tip: this title is representative of their “fraternal
ritual.” If you don’t know the term fraternal,
look it up.
Caution: The “language of Christianity” does not
mean anything more than vocabulary.
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Samuel
Gompers, a member of the craft union, the Cigar Makers International Union
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Members?
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Open
to varied groups:
- “workers from skilled
craft unions”
- “agricultural
laborers in the South”
- “women who were new
entrants into the workforce”
The
union’s openness to “women and blacks set it apart from other unions.”
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Open
only to:
- craft unions
- skilled workers
Tip: If you don’t know the word federation, look it up or ask.
Rejecting
those who could be easily replaced by employers, this union:
- “did not try to
organize the masses of industrial workers”
- “opposed immigrant
labor, especially the Chinese”
- “was cool toward the
idea of black members” [Caution: “cool” means not open to.]
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Goals?
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- “a system adopted
which will secure to the laborer the fruits of his toil’”
- involvement of
government in protecting workers
Additional
information: 8 hour day, graduated income tax, cooperatives
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- “concrete and limited
improvements in living and working conditions”
- no “political
involvements “
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Size?
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1879
9,000
1882
42,000
1885
100,000
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1886
150,000
1896
300,000+
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Key
Events?
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1870s
– unions among Pennsylvania
coal miners
1885
– strike of Gould railroad
1886
– Haymarket Square
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“achieved
considerable benefits for its members through judicious use of strikes and
negotiations with employers”
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Location
information in your textbook
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Notes:
- This union dies out with the Haymarket Square event in this
Unit.
- You can find these facts and part of the quotations in other
editions and versions of the textbook by looking up the Knights of Labor
in the index.
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Notes:
- There will be more on
this union in the era covered in the next Unit.
- This column’s data includes information from a caption under a
picture in the 2nd edition, not included in many editions. It
is useful: “The craft unions that Gompers
represented did not reach out to the large, unorganized mass of workers,
and barred African Americans and Chinese from their ranks.”
- You will find these facts by looking up the American Federation
of Labor in the index.
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