Workers in Gilded Age New York and Brooklyn, 1886-1898.
Item
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Title
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Workers in Gilded Age New York and Brooklyn, 1886-1898.
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Identifier
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AAI9000048
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identifier
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9000048
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Creator
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Mendel, Ronald.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Irwin Yellowitz
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Date
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1989
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, United States | Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations
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Abstract
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This study examines the labor movement in two of the nation's largest cities as an embodiment of working class life in late Gilded America. An account of the experience of four groups of workers--building tradesmen, cigarmakers, garment workers and printers--demonstrates that the process of industrialization was uneven, and the labor activity it engendered contained contradictory features. A variety of work patterns, spawning a broad range in the conditions of employment, emerged as each trade faced different market pressures. Printers retained their strategic position in the production process despite the introduction of machinery, which resulted in the displacement of some compositors. Building tradesmen remained craftsmen whose specialized skills were barely touched by technological innovation. Cigarmakers, in contrast, were approaching a crossroads in their occupation, as labor saving equipment facilitated the introduction of less skilled operatives, and consequently reduced the demand for handicraftsmen. Garment workers encountered greater work loads and wage cutting measures, although mechanization was not a major factor in production.;These developments spurred workers in each of the four trades to form unions in order to protect their craft autonomy, to introduce more equitable standards of compensation and exercise some control over their jobs. This labor activity received much of its inspiration from the experience of immigrants, who constituted a majority of the labor force in all four industries except printing. Irish building tradesmen helped to make the labor boycott a popular weapon in the trade union movement. German immigrant workers, some of whom were veteran socialists in their homelands, stressed the need for solidarity. Recently arrived Jewish immigrants organized with a missionary zeal that imbued strikes with a sense of moral urgency.;Although labor activists emphasized a code of mutuality and cooperation, in practice these principles often were contradicted by the outbreak of internecine conflicts between unions or the unilateral pursuit of sectoral interests. Moreover, union membership continued to be a status for a minority of New York's and Brooklyn's workers largely because of specific structural features endemic to their industries. However, in confronting the challenges of social and economic transformation, trade unionists sought to give fresh meaning to the concept of citizenship in an era when industrialization often resulted in inequality and powerlessness.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
