Illinois Labor | Historic Figures + Events of the Movement
Illinois has always played an important role in the history and struggles of the US labor movement. In honor of Labor Day week, we are highlighting the brave Illinois figures and significant historical events that have helped to shape the modern labor movement of the United States. By remembering and recognizing the complex history of the labor movement, we can help to ensure that workers today are treated with dignity and respect.
Mother Jones
Mother Jones, born in Ireland as Mary Harris, immigrated to North America with her family to escape the Great Famine. In Memphis, Tennessee, she met and married a foundry worker and union supporter, with whom she had four children. In 1867, however, an epidemic of yellow fever claimed everyone in the household except for Mary, leaving her a widow at age 30.
Mary then moved to Chicago and began working as a dressmaker, barely scraping by, yet always wanting to help those around her who were disenfranchised. She soon began working with the Knights of Labor, then the United Mine Workers, and her spirit for labor rights quickly won over workers. Now known by many as Mother Jones, she would travel far and wide to advocate for fair wages and safe working conditions, aiding miners, garment workers, steelworkers, bottle washers, and more.
After Mother Jones’ death in 1930, she was buried among the miners laid to rest at Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive. Her grave marker reads: “She gave her life to the world of labor, her blessed soul to heaven.”
The Haymarket Affair
In May of 1886, Chicago was becoming a labor battleground. With the labor movement increasing in numbers and beginning to make strides in the fight for better conditions and pay, tensions were rising among pro-labor and anti-labor forces.
On May 4th, Chicago laborers held a rally in support of the fight for an eight-hour workday, just one day after police had fired upon another group of striking Chicago workers, killing two. The rally, which had been peaceful, ended with the police stepping in to disperse attendees. Then a stick of dynamite was thrown at the police, causing officers to return fire into the crowd. Seven policemen and one civilian were killed from the explosion, while dozens of citizens were wounded from the gunfire.
Though eight men were arrested and convicted in connection with the bombing, the individual who threw the bomb was never found. Four of the men were hanged. Gradually, public sentiment grew more and more suspicious of the prosecution as a whole, and looked to the eight defendants as martyrs.
This public sentiment ended up aiding the fight of pro-labor forces, eventually leading to the success of their eight-hour workday campaign, along with the creation of International Workers’ Day on May 1.
The Pullman Strike
The Pullman Co., based south of Chicago, built and leased passenger train cars. They also ran an infamous company town, which they touted as a model community. During a recession in 1893, the company laid off workers and cut wages, yet did not reduce the rents in Pullman’s town. These actions soon led to the first national strike in American history.
On May 22nd, 1894, 4,000 Pullman workers went on strike, led by the American Railway Union. Gradually the strike grew to national levels— by the end of June, the number of striking workers was up to 125,000 and affected 29 railroads that utilized Pullman train cars, effectively shutting down most American freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit.
By early July, the federal government had attempted to legally order ARU leaders to force their workers back onto the railroads. President Grover Cleveland sent 14,000 federal troops and policemen into Chicago, causing 6,000 rioters to destroy hundreds of railcars in protest. Soon, violence ensued, and 30 people were killed by federal troops in a mob altercation.
By this point, broader public sentiment had gradually soured on the strike because of the lack of rail service. By July 20th, the strike had effectively ended, and federal troops were recalled from Chicago. Pullman Co. rehired the strikers under the condition that they pledge to never join a union, but their rents in the company town were not reduced.
As a conciliatory gesture to the labor movement, President Cleveland and Congress created Labor Day.
The Herrin Massacre
In 1922, strike tensions boiled into gruesome violence in downstate Illinois. It began in June, while the United Mine Workers were on nationwide strike, but the workers at the Southern Illinois Coal Co.’s strip mine near Herrin were continuing to mine coal from the earth without shipping it out.
In mid-June, the owner of the mine violated this agreement by ordering that the coal be shipped. When the union workers refused, he fired them and called in 50 replacements from Chicago, who were unaware that they had been hired as strikebreakers.
On June 21st, shots were fired at the mine. It is unclear who instigated the event, but union men from throughout the region soon flocked to the mine— where one strikebreaker and two strikers were dead and another was seriously wounded— armed with more guns and ammunition.
The strikebreakers were soon outnumbered and agreed to stop work in exchange for safe passage out. The union workers marched them out of the mine on the morning of June 22nd, where the strikebreakers were then told to flee for their lives before the strikers opened fire on them, killing and wounding many.
The final death toll from this event was 23. The nation reacted to the massacre with disgust, and President Warren Harding characterized it as a “shocking crime, barbarity, butchery, rot and madness.”
The Cherry Mine Disaster
Though praised for its modern safeguards, the St. Paul Coal Co. Mine soon sparked one of the worst disasters in mining history. Located in Cherry, Illinois, about 50 miles northeast of Peoria, the mine was considered to be secure when it opened in 1905. But on November 13th, 1909, an electric outage forced miners to light kerosene lanterns and torches to continue to pull coal from the deep mine.
Shortly after noon that day, embers from a wall lantern dropped below into a coal car filled with hay. Flames spread rapidly and raced through the mine, allowing only 200 of the 490 miners to quickly escape. A large mine shaft fan inside was reversed in an attempt to blow out the fire, but this only succeeded in spreading it. Both of the mine’s shafts were then shut to smother the flames, which then cut off oxygen to the trapped miners.
In the eighteen days following the initial fire, twelve volunteers went down one of the shafts to attempt a rescue and perished in the process. In the end, 21 remaining survivors were brought to the surface, and only 19 did not succumb to their injuries. All in all, the disaster claimed the lives of 259 workers, many of whom were young boys.
The Cherry Mine Disaster inspired a crackdown on child labor laws and led to mine safety rules that eventually paved the way to modern worker’s compensation laws.
Want to learn more about the history of Illinois labor? Check out the Illinois Labor History Society for informative resources and upcoming events.