Workplace Reform In The Progressive Era

In the late 1800’s to early 1900’s there was a workform epidemic that was affecting the workplace in its entirety. There were many struggles for the men, women, and even children that worked in factories and on farms. These struggles included but were not limited to poor pay, poor workplace safety, and poor hours for the workmen. These problematic situations made many national government changes. These changes in the government were a direct response to the publishing of photos and articles that showed the true poverty of the american working class.

The work conditions during this time were terrible, there were many work accidents that caused many injuries and some fatalities. In the article, The triangle shirtwaist factory fire, It tells a story that really puts how bad the work conditions were into its full effect. In the passage it describes a clothing factory that was full of women. The factory had almost doubled the capacity on most of its floors. There had not been proper disposal of a highly flammable byproduct from the cloth and it was just heading for disaster. One evening around 4:30 one of the workers had tossed a burning match or cigarette into the waste bin. Because the waste had not been disposed of properly the fire spread extremely fast. The passage describes it saying, “It took less than 30 miniutes for the inferno to devour the three top floors of a ten story building.” There was nothing to help the women and men that were at the top of the building. Word of this incident spread across the country almost as fast as the fire did. By the next day it was in newspapers and being talked about by many powerful men. People wanted change. Another thing that sparked the need for change was the abusive hours that the laborers worked. In the same passage it hints about these hours saying, “...at least two of whom were 14 year-old girls working a 72 hours a week for less than a dollar a day”. The amount of hours they worked with little to no breaks was inhumane. The abusive hours took a toll on the women and men that were working in this factory and factories like this. Something had to change.

With the poor working conditions came a need for change. The poor men and women needed help. There were few powerful men with a voice in society that were willing to help the people in need. The ones that were there to help give the worker class a voice were strong willed and were willing to get a fair work environment at whatever costs. Francis perkins was a 30 year old member of an old maine family. He was a ruthless fighter for workman rights. Even before the fire incident he was fighting to get fair hours for laborers. One document that really stood out to the government was Dr. David Micheals letter. In this letter he points out all the different things that led to the casualties and injuries of the fire in manhattan. He was demanding change for the safety of workers. This letter went through congress and introduced many new opportunities in the workplace.

There were many successes in this time for the poor work conditions. Many people fought restlessly for the work day and workplace to be fair and safe. When Dr. David Micheals sent his letter to congress it showed just how ruthless and dangerous factories could be. This introduced OSHA. OSHA is an organization that protects workers even up to today. OSHA has set many regulations that keep workers safe. This organization made it illegal to have a construction site without hardhats. This was to ensure the safety of the constructors while they were on the job. OSHA still plays a big part in ensuring the safety of thousands of workers across America. Another crisis that was solved was the hours of the workday. In The Plea For Eight Hours, it talks about the actions and press that was put into getting an eight hour work day. In the passage it explains how long the days were for workers. It describes it by saying, “... men worked from sunup to sun down”. Depending on the season sunup to sundown was about 12 hours in the winter and 14 in the summer. The Plea for Eight Hours was an article that Mr. Powderly published in many ways to persuade the readers to fight for an eight hour workday. Soon this fight went to congress and was passed with some exemptions. Overall today the standard workday is still 8 hours. These few things that were improved back in the 1900’s are still in effect and have improved our workforce excessively.

In conclusion, our work environment would not be what it is without the changes that happened about 100 years ago. Some of the warriors that fought for workmen were Dr. David Micheals and Terrance Powderly. In the late 1800’s to early 1900’s there was a workform epidemic that was affecting the workplace in its entirety. There were many struggles for the men, women, and even children that worked in factories and on farms. These struggles included but were not limited to poor pay, poor workplace safety, and poor hours for the workmen.