Transcript Growing Pains Work in Factories

Growing Pains
Work in Factories
Pg. 215-220
Work in Factories
• After the Civil War, many people moved to
cities to find work. This was also true in
Tennessee.
• Factory owners need lots of workers.
They hired American workers as well as
immigrants.
• Since so many were looking for jobs,
factory owners were able to hire people for
low wages.
Work in Factories
• Entire families were hired, the men for
heavy labor and the women and children
for lighter work.
• Work days typically ran from dawn to
sunset, with longer hours in winter,
resulting in a 68-72 hour work week.
• Many families also lived in company
owned houses.
Children Go to Work
• To earn more money, many
parents sent their children to
work
• Between 1890 and 1910, the
number of working children
between the ages of 10 and
15 went from 1.5 million to 2
million.
• The 1900 census reported
that 1 child in every 5 between
the ages of 10 and 15 was
employed as a full time
laborer.
Children Go to Work
• The pay for children varied from sixty
cents to one dollar for eight hours of work.
• Workers had to be careful because many
machines were not safe.
• Hundreds of workers were killed each year
in factory accidents, and thousands were
badly hurt.
Owners Against Workers
• Some workers complained about their
working conditions.
• Others went on strike, or stopped working,
as a way to get factory owners to listen to
them.
• Few factory owners listened. They simply
fired the workers who wanted better
working conditions and hired new ones.
Owners Against Workers
• As conditions grew worse, many factory
workers joined labor unions.
• A labor union is a group of workers who
join together to improve their working
conditions.
• Samuel Gompers was a labor union
leader.
Samuel Gompers
• At the age of 13, Sam
went to work in a cigar
makers’ shop.
• He worked hard but was
only paid pennies for
hours of hard work.
• Soon he joined a cigar
makers’ union and later
became the leader in his
shop.
• In 1877 he brought all the
separate cigar makers’
unions together into one
large union.
Samuel Gompers
• Members of the union went on strike for a
shorter workday and better wages, but the
strike failed.
• Gompers thought that only skilled
workers should join the labor union.
• He knew that if skilled workers went on
strike, it would be hard to replace them.
• Gompers began to organize one large
federation of skilled workers.
The AFL
• In 1886 Gompers formed the American
Federation of Labor. As the union grew,
business leaders began to listen to its
representatives.
• The AFL wanted to improve working
conditions, asked for higher wages, and a
shorter workday.
• In addition the AFL wanted an end to child
labor and accident insurance.
Accident Insurance
• The insurance would
pay the wages and
medical bills of
workers who were
hurt on the job.