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Labor Unions

Growth of industry and cities not only facilitated the distribution of goods, and services, but also magnified the problems of poverty, disease, crime, and political corruption. The life of industrial workers was not easy – they suffered from low wages, long hours and hazardous working conditions. The situation was worsened by periodic economic crises: the most disastrous crisis of the 19^th century swept the nation in the 1890s.

The laissez-faire capitalism, when government did not interfere into business, fostered huge concentrations of wealth and power in the hands of a small group. The popular theory of Social Darwinism, which justified the survival of the fittest people only, defended the unregulated methods of making business and reasoned that any interference with existing institutions would only hamper progress and aid the weak. Property holdings and acquisition were seen as sacred rights, and wealth was a mark of well-deserved power and responsibility.

This philosophy coupled with indifference to workers' conditions caused high job-fatality rate and poverty – most industrial workers had 10–12 hours working day and earned 20–40 % less than they needed for a decent life. Between 1870 and 1900, the number of children in the workforce doubled.

These difficult conditions provided a basis for the union movement that dated from the early nineteenth century, but had no broad power. The first major effort to organize workers' groups nationwide was the organization of the Knights of Labor, which appeared in 1869, and by 1886, mushroomed the membership to 730,000. Soon its place was taken by the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

As a federation, it gathered different labor unions, allowed them independence in their own areas of interest, but tried to develop a general policy based on "pure and simple" objectives – increasing wages, reducing hours and improving working conditions. AFL helped the unions to expand membership and collected dues to aid members on strike.

The late 19^th and early 20^th centuries saw the great number of battles that occurred between workers and employers, promoting further unionization of the workers. By 1920, 13 % of the working force belonged to the unions.

Many unions supported the violent labor conflict – the Great Rail Strike of 1877, which led to wide-scale destruction in big cities, the riots of 1892 at Carnegie's steelworks, when 10 workers were killed, and a lot of other strikes. Despite these efforts the life of skilled and unskilled workers remained rather hard – in 1900 most employees worked sixty hours a week, getting from 10 to 20 cents per hour.