Imagine you faced a real threat of injury or even death every time you went to work. And despite the danger you were putting yourself in, your boss paid you barely anything and made you work over ten hours a day. You'd probably want to quit and find a new job, right? Well, prior to workplace reform in the United States, workers did not have much of an option. A lack of regulation allowed employers across various industries to take advantage of the working poor.
Workplace Reform Definition
Before the Progressive Era, workers were at the mercy of their employers and often faced horrific working conditions. Beginning in the late 19th century, Progressives who were sympathetic to their plight took action and succeeded in passing workplace reforms across the country.
The Progressive Era
period of activism and reform spanning from the late 19th to early 20th centuries
Workplace Reform History
With the benefits of industrialization also came a host of problems. As industry leaders were accumulating extreme wealth, their workers struggled to make ends meet. Often, they could not even afford to buy the goods they produced. Unfortunately, workers did not find much support for their plight during the Gilded Age. In fact, even the government seemed to be under the thumb of big business.
The Gilded Age
a period of extreme wealth, but also extreme corruption, lasting from the end of the Civil war to the turn of the 20th century
The Pullman Strike
In May 1894, workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company, a producer of railway cars, went on strike. The year before, the company had cut their wages by 25% and a delegation of workers went before the company’s president, George M. Pullman, hoping to find an answer to their grievances. Instead, they were fired.
In support, not only did the Pullman workers go on strike, but so did members of the American Railway Union (ARU) who worked at other companies. On July 3rd, President Grover Cleveland ordered troops to put an end to the strike and boycott. After the strike's failure, the Pullman Company agreed to hire back workers, so long as they agreed to never join a union.
Fig. 1 - national guards lined up to protect the Arcade Building from Pullman strikers
Outside of low wages, workers faced extremely long hours and a host of dangers on the job. Accidents and deaths were exceptionally common because of a lack of regulation, and without any workmen’s compensation, an accident or death could leave a family homeless and starving.
Workplace Reform in the Progressive Era
It was during the Progressive Era that workplace reform finally found widespread support.
Workplace Reform in the Progressive Era: The Growth of Labor Unions
The abuses of industry leaders led to the creation of labor unions across various professions. Members came together to protect their interests through strikes and boycotts. One of the first and most preeminent organizations was the American Federation of Labor (AFL), founded in 1886. The AFL limited its membership to skilled workers, so other labor unions formed to fill the gap. In 1905, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) formed and opened its doors to unskilled workers.
Many members of labor unions were politically radical, supporting communism, socialism, and anarchism.
For the most part, labor unions took on an anti-immigrant position. They believed that immigrants were flooding the labor market and accepting less pay, leading to lower wages for everyone. The Women’s Trade Union League, founded in 1903, was a notable exception. It brought together middle-class reformers and immigrant workers.
Workplace Reform in the Progressive Era: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 was a significant event in the push for workplace reform. On a typical Saturday afternoon, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the Triangle Waist Company factory building. The fire escapes proved unstable and locked exit doors prevented the workers, mainly women, from leaving the building. In a desperate attempt to escape, some workers jumped out the windows to their death. The tragedy took 146 lives and was entirely preventable.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire led to increased membership in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.
Fig. 2 - firefighters at the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
The size and scale of the tragedy garnered nationwide attention and led to workplace reform across the states. Factory inspection laws enforced new health and safety standards (e.g., sanitation, proper lighting) and worked to prevent fire hazards and otherwise dangerous working conditions. In the case tragedy still occurred, state governments passed workmen’s compensation laws.
Workplace Reform in the Progressive Era: Women and Children
The subject of many workplace reforms were women and children, whose conditions both gained particular sympathy from the public. One of the larger victories for women was Muller v. Oregon. Oregon had enacted a 10-hour workday for women and fined the owner of a laundry company, Curt Muller, for violating the law. The case went before the Supreme Court in 1908 which decided against Muller and affirmed the 10-hour workday for women.
The Supreme Court argued women needed more time to devote to their domestic duties as a wife and mother.
Children as young as six or seven worked alongside adults in dangerous conditions, from factory work to mining. In response to public outcry, states began enacting minimum age laws and prohibiting unsafe working conditions.
Workplace Reform Goals and Successes
Although the Progressives were not always united in goals, workplace reform had almost universal support. As a result, state and local governments passed a variety of legislation to improve the condition of workers including:
Workplace reform also found support at the federal level. When President Theodore Roosevelt came to office in 1901, one of the main goals of his “Square Deal” domestic policy was to reign in corporations, which had become all-powerful during the Gilded Age.
Fig. 3 - Theodore Roosevelt United Mine Workers Strike
In 1902, President Roosevelt set the tone for his presidency when he mediated an agreement between the United Mine Workers and the coal companies that employed them. The coal companies agreed to increase wages and decrease hours, but they refused to recognize the United Mine Workers as a union
President Roosevelt’s successors, Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft, continued his legacy of dismantling large corporations and protecting workers’ rights in their own candidacies
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