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Students investigate the harsh reality of factory work and the early movements to protect workers' rights.
Imagine working 14 hours a day in a room so loud you can't hear yourself think, surrounded by machines that could take a finger in a second—all for less than the price of a sandwich. Would you stay, or would you fight to change the system?
During the Industrial Revolution, the factory was a place of constant noise, heat, and danger. Workers often faced a 14-hour workday, starting as early as AM and ending at PM. There were no safety guards on machines, leading to frequent injuries. Child labor was especially common in textile mills and coal mines because children were small enough to crawl under machinery to clear clogs or fit into narrow mine shafts. Employers preferred children because they could be paid significantly less than adults—sometimes as little as of an adult's wage. The air was often filled with cotton dust or coal smoke, leading to chronic lung diseases. There was no job security; if you were injured or sick, you were simply replaced.
Consider the schedule of an 8-year-old 'scavenger' in a textile mill: 1. Arrive at the mill at AM before the sun rises. 2. Spend 12 hours crawling under moving power looms to pick up loose cotton. 3. Take only one 30-minute break for a meal of oatcake and water. 4. Return home at PM, having earned roughly to cents for the entire day.
Quick Check
Why did factory owners prefer to hire children for certain tasks in textile mills?
Answer
Children were small enough to fit into tight spaces around machinery and could be paid much lower wages than adults.
As conditions worsened, workers realized that as individuals, they had no power. If one worker complained, they were fired. However, if everyone complained at once, the factory would have to stop. This led to the formation of labor unions—organizations of workers who joined together to negotiate for better pay and safer conditions. Unions practiced collective bargaining, a process where union leaders negotiated a single contract for all workers. Their goals were simple but transformative: higher wages, an -hour workday, and the end of child labor. When owners refused to listen, unions used their most powerful weapon: the strike, where all employees refused to work until their demands were met.
Imagine a factory with workers. 1. One worker asks for a raise and is immediately fired for being 'troublesome.' 2. The workers form a union and elect a representative. 3. The representative tells the owner: 'Either give everyone a raise, or all of us walk out today.' 4. The owner calculates that losing one day of production costs more than the raises, so he agrees to the deal. This is collective bargaining in action.
Quick Check
What is the difference between a strike and collective bargaining?
Answer
Collective bargaining is the negotiation process for a contract, while a strike is the act of refusing to work to force an employer to meet demands.
The fight for rights was rarely peaceful. Factory owners often fought back by hiring strikebreakers (nicknamed 'scabs') to replace striking workers. They also created blacklists—lists of union members shared between owners to ensure those workers would never be hired again. In some cases, the government sent in the police or the military to break up strikes, leading to violent clashes. Despite these obstacles, the labor movement slowly gained ground. By the late 1800s and early 1900s, new laws began to limit the hours children could work and established basic safety standards that we still benefit from today.
In a major strike, workers had to weigh the 'Cost of Conflict': 1. Lost Wages: If a strike lasted weeks, a worker lost of their yearly income. 2. The Scab Threat: If the owner hired enough strikebreakers, the original workers might lose their jobs permanently. 3. The Goal: If the strike won a pay increase, it would take several months to 'break even' on the lost wages, but the long-term gain for their families was massive.
Which of the following was a primary reason for the formation of labor unions?
If a factory worker earned per day and went on strike for days, but won a raise to per day, how many days of work at the new wage would it take to recover the lost ?
A 'blacklist' was a list of dangerous machines that workers were forbidden to use.
Review Tomorrow
In 24 hours, try to explain to someone else the difference between 'collective bargaining' and a 'strike.'
Practice Activity
Research the 'Newsies Strike of 1899' to see how children successfully used union tactics to change their working conditions.