Failed Farm and Labor Organizations in the Late 19th Century

In the period of 1870-1900, labor unions and organizations were rarely successful in achieving their goals primarily because of problems with being able to organize large numbers of American Workers. The rare victories for labor were isolated incidents because there were no labor organizations on a national or even state-wide basis. The problems with organization arose because of five major factors - differences in union leadership, divisions between skilled and unskilled workers, ethnic and racial …

…the overall outcome was not very successful. Almost all of the strikes included violence or un-organization. If the unions had taken a more peaceful approach instead of using violence, they could have had a better outcome. Many of the laws were not enforced, and neither strikes nor protests seemed to have much effect. The end of the century found most workers with considerably less control of the workplace than they had had forty years before.