Knights Of Labor In The Gilded Age Essay

The Knights of Labor was the first major American labor union created around 1871. It was configured by all productive laborers from the factories to fields, whose leader was Terence V. Powderly. Their goals were to adopt a system that could which will secure the labor job and involve the government to protecting the workers. In addition they were fighting to obtain 8 hour work day, graduated income tax, cooperatives.

1. Differentiate between the kind of unionism represented by the AFL and the kind of unionism represented by the Knights of Labor and/or the Wobblies. 4 pts.2. The union represented by the Knights were more egalitarian organizations that sought to organize all workers regardless of skill level.

Three unions that are similar & different. The Knights of Labor was a powerful labor union in the United States in the nineteenth century which was founded by Uriah Stephens in 1886 and was also lead by Stephens but then Stephens got replaced by Terence Powderly. American Federation of Labor was started by Samuel Gompers in the mid-1800s the AFL had came into place after the The KOL had begun to fall. Industrial Workers of the World came up in the late 1800s their key leader was “Big Bill” Haywood. The similar things between the three were they wanted the best for workers and had a group that was made of workers.

Uriah Stephens formed the Knights of Labor in 1869, but the union gained a national following when Terence Powderly assumed leadership. The Knights of Labor were founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Uriah Stephens and six other tailors in 1869.”The Main goal for Knights of Labor was “To combat this dismal situation for workers, unions of the Gilded Age pursued two broad strategies.

During World War One, Labor Unions formed concessions for the war effort and wanted demands met after the war. Come the late 1880’s specifically 1869, the Knights of Labor were born. The Knights of Labor was the first major effort to create a Labor Organization in America. By 1890, the membership of the Knights shrunk from over 700,000 to about 100,000. Only a couple years later, the organization vanished all together after several damaging strikes and the organizations failure to restore their reputation.

How would you like to work for little to no pay and over 60 hours a week? In today's day in time some people would call that abuse or over work, but that’s exactly what was going on in the 1870s and 1880s. This is where the labor movement started, with people being over worked and little to no pay. As you can imagine people started to get upset with how things were going so that started violent outbreaks along with strikes all across the United States. In the 1880s, a group was formed to help the working man, this group was called the Knights of Labor.

In ways, this was seen as a labor union since the employers were well represented, but it was not well organized, which eventually led to the downfall of the group. The Knights of Labor was a diverse union that was open to all

The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor are just two examples of labor unions. Working in such poor conditions with little pay was a harsh reality. Labor unions provided at least some hope of change for workers. A worker in Hollitz explained that the reason he went on strike from George Pullman’s “model” company was because, “five reductions in wages, work, and in conditions of employment…” The railroad strike of 1877 grew violent, as workers demanded better wages.

Black workers formed Revolutionary Union Movements within Detroit auto factories in the late 1960s as a means of organizing and protecting the black worker. At that time, black people were blue-collar workers, not skilled tradesman or white-collar workers, and often worked in factories as the “transformation of sweat and blood”. They realized that since they were overwhelmingly employed in these jobs, with upwards of 80-90% in some plants, they could cause a major disruption through work stoppages, causing plants to, “cease function”, and interrupting the, “money flow”. Working conditions were beyond subpar, since safety conditions failed to exist, “compulsory overtime”, where you were made to work overtime, and a system where the union

During the gilded age, America turned out to be more prosperous and saw exceptional development in industry and innovation. However, the Gilded Age had a more vile side: It was where covetous, degenerate industrialists, financiers and legislators delighted in phenomenal riches and richness to the detriment of the regular workers. Truth be told, it was well off moguls, not lawmakers, who subtly held the most political power during the Gilded Age The gilded age in 1866-1900 the laborers who were basically outsiders and slaves needed specialists association. All things considered, they were just left helpless before their bosses.

Businesses could not afford to slow downproduction during the Panic, so they continued to keep their prices high, but the people didn’thave access to the scarce money. Not only were businesses charging high prices, but also thePhiladelphia and Reading Railroad went bankrupt, causing less modes of transportation for work-ers and farmers. In total, over 15,000 companies went bankrupt during the Panic and the unem-ployment was the highest in history. Labor Unions were also created during the Gilded Age, which added to the idea of theGilded Age being truly “gilded”. The American Federation of Labor was one of the first laborunions created in the United States.

The Knights of Labor, founded by Terence Powderly and Uriah Stephens in 1869, helped create a union contract with Carnegie’s Braddock Mill. While the Knights of Labor were trying to have broad social reform around the country, they created a lockout in the Braddock Mill. Workers like Kratcha did not care as much about the union’s goals, instead they wanted the mills to be open so that they could earn money (25). Large business owners, like Carnegie, tried, and usually succeed, at breaking strikes and unions in their mills. In Homestead and Braddock, Kratcha experienced the effects of strikes, and they were not positive.

The CIO organized almost 4 million workers into 32 national and international unions in just the first two years that it was in service. They also signed contracts with 30,000 companies, “resulting in wage increases in excess of $1 billion, shorter work hours for millions of workers and improved working conditions. ”(UMWA) The AFL and the CIO stayed as two separate organizations until 1955, when the two groups combined to make the AFL-CIO. Today the AFL-CIO is the federation for U.S. unions that represent 12.5 million working women and men.

Farmers and Industrial Workers in the Gilded Age In a time when industrialization was booming, immigrants were racing towards the “American Dream”, and cities were growing towards the sky, the United States was thriving. As a country, the United States went from rural, to mostly urban, which made America “the world’s largest industrial power” as stated by John Green. Since the U.S. had become mostly urban, this left the very few rural workers (farmers), and even some of the industrial workers unhappy. This period of industrialization is called the Gilded Age than spans from 1865 to 1900.The farmers and industrial workers responded to the Gilded Age in significantly negative ways including unions against their authority, strikes and political

The time period from when the Second Industrial Revolution was beginning, up until President McKinley’s assassination in 1901, is known as the Gilded Age. After the Civil War, many people headed out West to pursue agriculture, and many immigrants moved to urban areas to acquire jobs in industrial factories. It is in this context that farmers and industrial workers had to respond to industrialization. Two significant ways farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age, were creating the Populist Party and the American Federation of Labor (AFL).