Unrealistic demands were put on the workers who could barely afford to support their families. (1).
The United States had the highest job-related fatality rate of any other industrialized nation in the world. Everyone worked eighty hours or more a week for extremely low wages. Men and women earned twenty to forty percent less than the minimum deemed necessary for a decent life. The number was even worse for children. (Department of Humanities Computing, 2) Often workers would go home after a long day and have to continue work on an unfinished product, which they had to return to the factory in the morning. Their jobs were never finished, and they barely had any time to rest. (Working People, 1) These men, women, and children lived in dilapidated tenements. People lived and worked in unhealthy environments in poverty with little food. (Working People, 1) The country was growing and its economy was rising, but its people were miserable. .
Technological improvements continually reduced the demand for skilled labor. Yet, eighteen million immigrants between 1880 and 1910 entered the country eager for work. With an abundance of new immigrants willing to work, and no laws protecting a worker's rights, businesses disregarded the lives of the individuals. (Department of Humanities, 1) This began to change with the formation of National Unions, collaborations of trade unions created to be even more effective than the local unions. (Working People, 1).
The National Trades' Union, formed in 1834, attempted to improve the current working conditions, but failed due to the financial panic three years later. (AFL-CIO American Federationalist, 1) The National Labor Union in 1866 managed to establish an eight-hour workday in 1868 for federal employees. However, it fell apart once their leader had died in 1873 and an economic depression swept across the nation. (1).
The first large national labor organization to become popular was the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor.
