Workers'+Rights+and+Regulations+-+Hee+Jae,+Yoon+Shin,+and+Yea+Young



Safety at the Factories By: Yeayoung Koh Why is it a growing problem? During the progressive era, out of all the reforms that was to be made regarding Workers’ Rights and Regulations, some of the most pressing problems were related to safety at the factories. In the factories that sprang up after the Civil War, chemicals, grime, dangerous machines, and a confusing array difficult instructions and queer objects confronted inexperienced, and often very young workers. The reports of State labor bureaus in the late 19th century told of tragedies that often struck the unaware, uneducated, and unprepared. The Progressive Era and the growth of mass circulation newspapers and national magazines which reported horrifying cases of safety hazards helped instigate a national movement for workers' safety and health.

In 1907, mining hazards were brought to light when 362 coal miners were killed at Monongah, greatly shocking US citizens. A few months later, William B. Hard published "Making Steel and Killing Men," that described his investigations of a Chicago mill that every year had 1,200 workers killed or severely injured out of ten thousand. He urged the steel industry to use its technical knowledge to reduce this casualty rate.

National awareness only grew more with the "Pittsburgh Survey," done in 1907-08, which studied the living and working conditions of Alleghany County. One of the major topics of the investigation were industrial accidents where they found that the injured workers bore the economic responsibility of the accidents even if it was the employer’s fault. This led to conclusions that employers should be economically responsible, giving them more incentive to eliminate the causes.

The ones who took the brunt of the accidents were immigrant steelworkers who were generally willing to put up with the long hours, hard, work, and bad conditions as long as they had steady employment. Steelmaking, dangerous enough for experienced workers, was even more so for the untrained and uneducated immigrants. From 1906 to 1910, the accident rates for immigrants at the South Works were double those for English‑speakers. Each year, about one‑fourth of the immigrant workers were also killed or injured on the job.

During this time, the Federal Government also began investigations into industrial diseases. In 1903, the U.S. Bureau of Labor published studies of death and disease in the dusty trades including other safety and health topics. In 1910, the Bureau published a study on phosphorus necrosis which was a disfiguring disease of the jawbone suffered by workers in the white phosphorus match industry. It opened the nations eyes to the connection between industry and disease and also led to other studies regarding health in the work environment.

Perhaps one of the most dramatic cases that spurred changes in codes and labor laws was the Triangle Fire where unsafe factory conditions led to the death and burning of numerous immigrant women. Unfortunately, sweatshops and unsafe factory conditions persisted, and many factory owners continued to lock the doors of their shops and continue other practices that were deemed dangerous in the case of fire.

Possible Solutions: In order to solve the problems regarding safety at the factory and work environment, many actions could be taken involving new legislation, new labor codes, as well as new inspection committees. The only problems with any legislation created would be regarding funding and power, yet if the government was willing to fund these acts created to protect workers, and also willing to give newly created inspection commissions power such as: being given the power to fine employers and corporations, to inspect the inner workings of the factory, and also take note of safety practices and rules companies used, these solutions would be highly effective.

On that note, the most necessary legislation needed to be created by the government would be to create some kind of inspection agency that would be given the power to inspect, observe, question, survey, and gather data on questions regarding safety hazards in order to be sure that all corporations were following the rules. This inspection agency would also report on industrial diseases and accidents in order to further find needed areas of improvement.

The second governmental organization needed to be created would regard a commission with the power to fine corporations and employers if they did not follow through with the proposed acts that I will further go in detail below. In a way, this new commission would be related to a factory inspection law, where factors such as machine safety, fire hazards and escape methods, abusive chemical use, and other hazardous practices would be noted and properly dealt with. This commission would enforce safety and health regulations and would also have the responsibility of advising companies on how to reduce hazards, such as on information about devices or safety features of new machinery.

Another concept that could be used regarding factory safety would be the creation of workers compensation for injuries. Although organized labor opposed the concept for they believed it was a palliative and not a preventive measure, it would still increase incentive for factory owners to improve their safety conditions.

Other incentives for corporations to improve their conditions beyond direct fining by the corporation, could be legislation that banned or certain substances from being used in the factories after being deemed “significantly dangerous” to human health.

Yet legislation that should absolutely be passed by the government regards fire safety. These new laws should codify a measure of protection by requiring the existence of safety devices such as fireproof materials and stairwells, fire alarms, extinguishers, and hoses. This would also codify restrictions on factory building, and certain standards that should be met regarding all buildings housing workers.

Other ideas that can be taken into consideration may be new labor codes requiring proper safety materials for all workers, proper training (especially for immigrants who could not speak english) and authorization required to use dangerous factory machines, and the requirement for each company to have standardized workers safety rules.

 Child Labor By: Yoonshin Lee

Why is it a growing problem? During the industrial boost in the economy, the gap between the higher and lower classes began to grow wider. The idea of Social Darwinism started to spread throughout the society and it was often used by economists to explain why the gap was getting larger. The higher class was "surviving" in a harsh economy and the lower class were becoming "endangered." The low class grew poorer and the conditions of living for them grew worse. The streets were filled with rats and the housing was unsanitary. It was to a condition where people had "given up cleaning" their own houses or rented rooms. Even some writers, such as Upton Sinclair states the horrid conditions of the community in his book "The Jungle." Children's shoes were worn out, "[tying] them up with string", they would sleep "crowded onto one bed," and many "had never had and education." Given the poor economic circumstances of the lower class, families were forced to send their children to work. More children meant more money needed to support the family; therefore, every one had to pull their own weight as the wages that one worker received was as little as "perhaps the half of hundred dollars a year" (from //The Jungle//). To make matters worse, the government did not offer any means of economic support to these lower class families suffering from unemployment and destitute poverty. //" In those days there had been no law about the age of children—the packers had worked all but the babies. At this remark the family looked puzzled, and Grandmother Majauszkiene again had to make an explanation—that it was against the law for children to work before they were sixteen. What was the sense of that? they asked. They had been thinking of letting little Stanislovas go to work. Well, there was no need to worry, Grandmother Majauszkiene said—the law made no difference except that it forced people to lie about the ages of their children...there were families that had no possible means of support except the children, and the law provided them no other way of getting a living." (//from //The Jungle)// Companies hired children in some cases more than grown men or women because children could get into the smallest places in the dangerous machines and fix them with their small hands. Consequently, children ended up being over worked in dangerous situations everyday, with no education and away from their family. Possible Solutions: 1. Enforcing regulations that children must be over a certain age to work at the factories. Also, the regular income must be lower than a set standard that the government will decide and continually change in regards to the state of the economy. 2. Only allowing children to work for a certain amount of hours a day so that they can spend a certain amount of time with their family and to make sure that they are healthy and well-rested. 3. Bimonthly checking machines and assembly lines of factories to make sure that children are not being put into unnecessarily dangerous situations because only they can reach certain places. What things **cannot** be fixed? The social strata cannot be erased. It would be impossible for the lower class to be given free money or loans that they could not repay. People would go bankrupt and the economy would crash. Although it would be possible to have reforms to close the gap, it would not be possible to close it entirely. To have a capitalist community and have the economy running smoothly, there has to be a higher class and a lower class, and between them, a gap. Also, the immediate education of children, quality family time, or other necessary needs of children are short on, and satisfying the dire economic need, is difficult.

Overwork By: Hee Jae Choi Why is it a growing problem? Many workers of the Progressive Era suffered severely from overwork, working almost 12 hours a day for seven days a week. Sometimes, during night shifts, many of them worked for almost 20 to 24 hours, given little or no work breaks in between. The lack of consideration for workers' health ultimately had its toll on the physical condition of the workers, many of whom fainted or died from over-exhaustion, leaving families without a source of income.

However, companies consistently ignored agreements between companies and labor unions, such as the Knights of Labor, that granted an eight-hour workday for civil service workers, and laws that limited work hours, such as the Adamson Act that prevented workers from working more than eight hours a day. Steel workers could make fourteen cents an hour in the late nineteenth century and seventeen cents an hour by 1908; this amounted to about $13 for 84 to 96 hours' worth of work. Thomas Bell, himself a descendant of Slovak immigrants who worked in the steel-mill town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, noted that with such a wage, a couple "could just keep alive....Two people, if they were thrifty and their wants were simple, could manage on that; two people with debts and growing children could not." And poverty for hardworking Americans was not confined to Braddock, Pennsylvania. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px; text-align: left;">Possible Solutions: In response to the following social ill that numerous workers suffer from, we will make these changes: 1. Create a Workers' Rights Commission, controlled by the government, that dispatches investigators to major factories and other workplaces in industrial centers of America, namely, New York, Pennsylvania, and Chicago, to ensure that work hours are being kept by companies. If employers break any law that limits workers' rights, they will be required to pay a heavy fine, as determined by the federal government. This will ensure that passed work hour laws are regulated and enforced. 2. If workers are worked over time, employers are required to compensate for their additional work hours. This should serve as a "stick" to convince employers to refrain overworking their employees. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Bibliography