Analyze the rise of the labor movement, the American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor, major strikes such as Homestead and Pullman, working conditions, and the laissez-faire role of government in labor disputes (NGSSS SS.912.A.3, Reporting Category 1).

What this topic is asking

The wealth of the Second Industrial Revolution was built on the labor of workers who faced long hours, low pay, and dangerous conditions. The NGSSS benchmark SS.912.A.3 wants you to explain why workers formed labor unions, what the major unions wanted, why famous strikes mostly failed, and how the era's laissez-faire government tilted the balance toward owners. This is a Reporting Category 1 topic the EOC often tests with a quotation or a strike photograph.

Why workers organized

Collective bargaining and the major unions

Two unions are the standard examples:

• The Knights of Labor welcomed nearly all workers, skilled and unskilled, and pushed broad goals such as the eight-hour day. It grew quickly but declined after being unfairly blamed for the Haymarket violence of 1886.
• The American Federation of Labor (AFL), led by Samuel Gompers, focused on skilled workers and concrete, achievable goals: higher wages, shorter hours, and safer conditions, won through collective bargaining. Its practical approach made it the most durable union of the era.

The major strikes

When negotiation failed, unions called strikes, and the most famous ones became violent confrontations:

• The Homestead Strike (1892) at a Carnegie steel plant pitted strikers against private Pinkerton guards, ending in a bloody battle and a defeat for the union.
• The Pullman Strike (1894), a railroad boycott led by Eugene V. Debs, was broken when the federal government sent in troops and a court issued an injunction ordering the strikers back to work.

In almost every case the strike failed, and the workers returned with little to show for it.

Laissez-faire and the role of government

The single most important idea here is why the strikes failed: under laissez-faire, the government's job was to protect property and keep order, not to help workers. So when strikes broke out, the government usually sent troops and issued injunctions against the strikers, siding with owners. With the most powerful institution in the country against them, workers almost always lost. This is exactly the imbalance that Progressive reformers and, later, the New Deal would set out to correct.

Try this

Q1. State the main goals of the American Federation of Labor. [2]

• Cue. Practical "bread and butter" gains for skilled workers: higher wages, shorter hours, and safer conditions, won through collective bargaining.

Q2. Define laissez-faire and explain how it affected Gilded Age strikes. [2]

• Cue. Laissez-faire is a hands-off government approach with no regulation of the economy. In strikes the government backed owners (troops, injunctions) rather than workers, so most strikes failed.