Labor Unions Emerge

Link to reading: http://goo.gl/QOuVc

Essential Questions:

1)In its entirely, labor unions were (good/bad) and why?

Labor unions were people who joined together to improve their lives. The laborers formed together because they all worked hard in unsafe working conditions and still did not met their bills.

2)Describe the sweatshop and how 146 women died in a fire, and how it could have been prevented.

Sweatshops or workshops were in tenements. They were tedious and required few skills. 146 women died in a fire because the monopolies locked the doors because they were scared their workers would escape or steal from their business therefore, the women were not able to escape/leave during the fire. It could have been prevented if the workers had better working conditions.

3)What is a scab, and why would unionized workers not like scabs?

Scabs are what the businesses ordered to replace working people on strike. Unionized workers did not like scabs because they went along side with monopolies when laborers were fighting against monopolies for fair rights.

4)Describe the type of people who formed the IWW union.What does IWW mean?

IWW unions were formed by socialist. IWW means Industrial Workers of the World. 

-Based Upon what I have read, labor unions were people who joined together to improve their lives because they all worked hard in unsafe working conditions and still did not met their bills. The tenements was a sweatshop in which 146 seamstresses died because the monopolies locked the doors and held their workers in like a jail because they were scared their workers would escape or steal from their business therefore, the women were not able to escape/leave during the fire. The fire ladder only reached to the 6th floor when the seamstresses were on the 9th floor. These details could have been prevented if monopolies cared more about the working conditions of their workers. Monopolists did not want unions because their working people rebel against their business and their workers did not like the way they ran things in the factory/sweatshop. Union members did not like scabs because they went along side with monopolies when laborers were fighting against monopolies for fair rights. Scabs were the who the businesses ordered to replace people on strike.Many factory and sweatshop owners disliked the vision of unions like the IWW because they were socialist and socialist wanted the workers to have their needs met. If the workers had their needs met that meant that the monopolies had to spend more money on the business and their workers and the monopolies tried to spend as little money as they possibly could. IWW unions means Industrial Workers of the World.

Scabs were people who businesses replaced when their workers went on strike and scabs were paid less than their workers. (http://www.cartoonwork.com/scabs_sjpg343.jpg)

Tenements were bad condition apartments where poor working people live/work in sweatshops. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/LowerEastSideTenements.JPG/220px-LowerEastSideTenements.JPG)