Due to wage reductions, high rental prices in the town, and George Pullman’s lack of empathy toward the workers of his company, employees decided to boycott against the unfairness and malfeasance of Pullman and other upper management.
Background
Wage Reductions
The Panic of 1893 created a massive depression in America which severely affected the workers wages and job security.
Wages decrease by approximately 33%; however, in many cases, people’s income was cut by 40 to 50%.
In less than a year Pullman had reduced their wages 5 times.
Wage reductions were manageable at the time but rental prices in the nearby town owned by George Pullman, did not decrease, which made housing unaffordable.
High Rental Prices
Although the income of railroad workers suffered an immense deduction, rents
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His attitude towards the workers only made the situation worse
On May 10th, some workers got laid off for “lack of work” and that night they unanimously voted to go on strike.
Conflict
The Strike
From May 11th to July 4th, 1894
The strike remained primarily peaceful until June when the workers realized it had been a month and they had made little progress and were only noticed by Chicago newspapers.
On June 12th the workers began meeting with members of the American Railway Union where they later decided to help and join the strike.
The day after the American Railway Union decided to join the strike, three members met with Wickes, the vice-president, to give him away out.
After he refused to deal with the American Railway Union, the Pullman strike became a national issue.
From that point on, on June 26th, the boycott began slowly but spread like wildfire.
Workers walked out of their jobs which became alarming to the public, the government, and the
Honey’s book is important in helping us understand the dynamics of the working class life and struggles of the African American community during the Civil Rights era. It also offers some insight into the development of the labor movement in Memphis, TN. In the 1930s and 40s, African American workers began organizing under the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The CIO was important for the African American workers because it addressed issues of race discrimination in the workplace and in the labor movement. They also challenged the administration of E.H. Crump, a political machine that was responsible for the unfair treatment and degradation of the African American community.
Cesar Chavez was a civil rights activist known famously for his contributions to migrant farmworkers in the late sixties and seventies. He was a big advocate for non violent protests and would often encourage boycotts and participate in protests against the poor treatment of farmworkers. His contributions to the civil rights of farmworkers changed many lives and continues to have a positive effect to this day. Cesar Chavez had a long and interesting political career dating from the early 1950’s until his death in 1993.
Labor unions were successful because now workers have lunch breaks and have the weekends off. Workers demand higher wages during the Homestead Strike. There was a 3 mile, 12 feet high, birwire fence with holes for snipers, pinkerstins, weapons, patrolling river. Shots were fired, 160 strikers were charged, equped, they were let go because the people in the jury, but they did not win.
Organizing the farmworkers was the first step, then came the demands for wage increase and better working conditions and when they realized that they were not being taken seriously then came the strikes. In the beginning there were small strikes, but as a union they started to get bigger and soon enough they were boycotting, picketing stores, and getting the consumers involved (Chicago Museum). Throughout this time there was only Chicano (Mexican-American) farmworkers in the UFW but they were quickly joined by farmworkers from different races and ethnic groups. In 1965 the Filipino members of the Agricultural Workers organizing committee and the UFW joined forces to produce a nationwide grape boycott (Chicago Museum), one of history’s
The factors that led the three groups for the strike were different in every situation. The miners went on strike because their pay roll were not that good or not that high for live life perfectly. Their working condition not that good, and they wanted their union recognized. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company also monopolizing them by having to buy good sold at stores run by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. In turn the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company also paid the teacher and doctors assigned to the camps.
In 1968, Chicano students decided they were tired of how the school system treated them and decided it was their time to fight back. East Los Angeles schools decided to take it upon themselves and create a walkout. Select students from each school met together with the Brown Berets and made a plan. They all stuck to what they were going to do and in March of 1968, thousands of student in East Los Angeles High Schools walked out. They made picket signs and chanted.
The organized labor of 1875-1900 was unsuccessful in proving the position of workers because of the future strikes, and the intrinsical feeling of preponderation of employers over employees and the lack of regime support. In 1877, railroad work across the country took part in a cyclopean strike that resulted in mass violence and very few reforms. An editorial, from the Incipient York Time verbalized: "the strike is ostensibly hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and splenetic demonstration of resentment by men too incognizant or too temerarious to understand their own interest" (Document B). In 1892, workers at the Homestead steel plant near Pittsburg ambulated out on strike and mass chaos the lives of at least two Pinkerton detectives and one civilian, among many other laborers death (Document G).
The law on minimum wage has become very consequential and has came to light to employees whom are required to work the current wage. The state of Texas has had the same minimum wage since 2009 which it is currently $7.25. It has been numerous complaints throughout the state about the minimum wage in Texas. Employees main concern is that they are simply getting underpaid for their work. Compared to other states the minimum wage Texas seems to have fallen very far behind.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott and Segregation On Monday, December 5, 1955, the buses of Montgomery, Alabama had no black riders abroad (McWhorther 42). This is because of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a protest that lasted 381 days in the city of the Montgomery, Alabama. The history books and websites say that the boycott started on December 5, but some people claim that it started nine months before Rosa Parks’ arrest, when 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested for the same act (Montgomery Bus Boycott, n.d). The boycott ended on December 20, 1956, but it did not put out the fire that the African-American people had created.
However, none of this seemed to be effective, as demonstrators took to streets in even larger numbers and now explicitly demanding the abolition of monarchy. That was why the Shah decided to declare martial law in 12 cities across the country. Nonetheless, people still took part in another protest event in Tehran the day after the declaration, virtually forcing the military’s hand. A bloody confrontation ensued, with soldiers firing directly onto the crowd. This spelled the end of any possibility of an understanding between the two opposing sides.
In the book, Voices of Freedom by Eric Foner, an essay called “On the New Deal and Liberty” written by Herbert hoover critiques the new deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. Herbert has a totally different perspective of the New Deal and disagrees what FDR has to say. Herbert Hoover believes FDR ’s New Deal is not going to be a successful solutions.
thousand went on strike on July 20, 1899 after months of planning to boycott ("William Randolph Hearst"). All of the other newspapers lowered their prices back to pre-war prices of 65 cents for 100 except Joseph Pultizer’s Evening World and William Randolph Hearst’s Evening Journal. At this high of a rate Newsies could not make enough for housing and food. The reason many newsies started protesting was because they believed that Pulitzer and Hearst were being greedy saying, "Ain't that ten cents worth as much to us as it is to Hearst and Pulitzer who are millionaires? well i guess it is.
Factories were paying far too little for someone to feed their whole family for that little, so many either would die or would turn to crime to survive; these laborers wanted equality. Men, women, and children were working and got employed in factories to work, and the dangerous and strenuous labor that children were put through to help the family expense caused many young children to die. Workers individually could not stop corporations, but collectively they could make an impact on their wages. The corporations eventually had to succumb to the pressure of labor supplies because the National Trade Union convinced the majority of the labor force to work from 12 hours a day to 10 hours. After the labor unions won, workers worked less, and they still had the same salary.
The strike became one of the most influential events in the history of United States labor law. The labor law in 1894 in the United States was changed in a significant way after the strike, as it was the first strike that received national attention and tested labor laws. The government intervened in the relationship between employers and their workers. For the first time an injunction by the government was used to break up a strike and block a major union activity. Many industrials and unions were affected by this intervention.
I believe that the time has come to get rid of rent controls and minimum wages. I am aware that the government would not be able to completely abolish either of these over night, however steps towards getting rid of the these laws and policies need to be made. I do not think that rent controls or minimum wage have achieved there purposes and I believe there have been much greater unintended consequences than actual results. Rent controls make it sometimes impossible for people who rent out houses to make any profit off of their business.