1800's
During the late 1800's, the working conditions and wags were not substantially the greatest. Some times the wages were cut and made times excessively hard for workers. They needed an idea of how to make conditions more appreciative. Help was on the rise through a man named Uriah S. Stephens. His idea was to create a national labor organization, The Noble Order of Knights of Labor in 1869. Inclusively anyone who was a producer could join, including women. Groups such as lawyers, bankers, liquor dealers, and gamblers were restricted. The number of women increased rapidly due to an Irish immigrant, Lenora Barry. She ran for the Women's Bureau of Knights and enlisted 50,000 women members. The main focus of the leader, Uriah, was to replace the so-called "wage system" with a "cooperative system." This movement would assist the workers themselves to control part of the economy. Years later in the late 1870's, a new leader by the name of Terrance V. Powderly took over. The number of members vastly reached over 700,000by 1886. They gathered as any members as they could to encourage the change of conditions. Their program had a very poor organization before being under the authority of Powderly. They met in local assemblies an
On the other hand another organization took a more different approach. In the year 1881, craft unions representatives joined together to form the Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. Once the change of its name to the AFL, it became the most important labor unions in the country. Headed by Samuel Gompers, their approach was not coming together to form one union as the Knights did, but was based on independent craft unions and focused mainly on skilled workers. They thought they would have a better chance at accomplishing the wage cuts and the other problems evolving. They were mostly against people who didn't fit in, such as unskilled workers and women in the workforce. They believed strongly that with women working, the workforce would not benefit as much. They argued that women would drive down the pay for everyone else, by them being weak and easily taken advantage of. Gompers once stated that 'It is the so called competition of the unorganized, defenseless woman worker, the girl and the wife, that often tends to reduce the wages of the father and husband.' He felt that it was more important to stay at home than out working, because she would not be of any support to the family. Although they rejected women in the work force, their attitudes kindly changed after a while. They figured that they could encourage women to accept the opportunit
Some common words found in the essay are:
Samuel Gompers, Company People, Knights AFL, Terrance Powderly, Bureau Knights, Knights Labor, , Missouri Pacific, Texas Pacific, United Canada, craft unions, labor unions, wage cuts, gould system, knights labor, women force, women workforce, prepared strike,
Approximate Word count = 945
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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