The Worker in the Progressive Era

 

 

Demographic Characteristics of Progressive Reformers – Shaky Partnership

 

 

Underlying Factors:  Adjusting to Industrialized Labor

·         Issues for Workers

·         Working Conditions

·         Resistance

 

·         Issue for Management:  – Standardization and Efficiency

 

·         Machines and Technology = Loss of Skilled, well-paid jobs

 

·         Standardization and Assembly Line – Henry Ford

 

·         Frederick Taylor – “Taylorism”

·         Scientific Management of Work Process

·         “Blue Collar Blues”

 

Union Organizing

 

Samuel Gompers and American Federation of Labor

 

·         Skilled Workers

–      An “endangered species”

–      “mere machines” – Gompers

 

Union Workers vs. Management

 

Two Actions by Management

 

1.       National Association of Manufacturers – Strikebreakers, industrial spies, blacklisting

 

2.       Danbury Hatters case: Supreme Court Decision – 1908

 

·         Favored Management

·         Union Members – Personally Liable for Costs

·         Strikes – Illegal

 

 

 

 

Garment Workers and the Triangle Fire

 

The Issue:

·         Working Conditions in the Garment Industry

·         Garment Worker’s Strike – 1909

 

Women - Second-Tier Status:

·         Women Workers – AFL

·         Impact of Muller vs. Oregon – Protective Legislation

 

Response – Own Organizations

·         International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union – Men & Women – Issues of women workers

·         Women’s Trade Union League – 1903

·         Partnership between Upper Class Women Reformers & Working Women – Leadership

The Partnership and Publicity

·         Unity of women workers

·         Consequences – Shirtwaist Workers Won

·         Garment Union – Strongest Union in AFL

·         Smaller Companies Changed Working Conditions

·         Larger Companies – Triangle Shirtwaist Company – Did Not

 

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire – March 25, 1911

 

·         Management – Work Ethic and Heavy Dose of “Taylorism”

·         Locked Windows – Keep Women “on task”

·         Fire and No escape

·         46 women – jumped; 100 others died in fire

·         Consequence: Public Outrage – State Actions

 

Changes:

·         54 hour work week

·         Forbid Child Labor

·         Safety Regulations

 

Punishment: Management of Shirtwaist Company – Not Prosecuted

Radical Labor:   IWW – Industrial Workers of the World –

 

·         All workers

·         Socialists and members of the American communist party

·         Impact: California example