The Killing Floor Summary

Improved Essays
In the documentary; the Killing Floor, it shows the struggles workers faced in the business of meat packaging. The employees worked in terrible conditions without a union contract that promised them that their jobs were safe. Workers were divided into factions because some wanted an increase in wages, while others thought that they should not step over the line due to the fear of losing their jobs. This documentary shows that several black workers did not want to join a union because if they did the white workers would eventually exclude them. However, many workers did join in resisting the employers. The forces that caused the workers to unite and resist, was the low wages, long hours and unsafe work conditions. The workers in the documentary …show more content…
The workers started to lose their jobs and those involved in a union were not allowed back in. This caused numerous individuals to doubt the organization they were in and made them believe that if they were not in a union they would still have their jobs. As the employers began to gain more and more power, the nonunion workers tried to break the unions so that they can keep their jobs and maybe even receive a better paycheck. The nonunion workers were the main cause of the unions being driven away due to them agitating the union workers and causing a race battle. The battle caused white men to believe that black men did not deserve to work in the business so they started killing black individuals. This lead to many of the black individuals to not be able to get to work. The unions, then became exclusive to white workers because they did not want to be next to people who were trying to “take their jobs.” The race war caused the black workers to leave the union since they believed that the members of the union betrayed them and did not help them get back to work. In addition, to the nonunion workers and the race war, the union was driven apart because many employers fired various union employees and did not allow them back in. The employers did not want workers who would go against and out power

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Laissez Faire Dbq Analysis

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages

    At the turn of the 20th century, a lot was happening for America. Populations were growing and business was booming. Between the years of 1860 and 1900 America saw a 171% rise in the Gross National Product. Big businesses were growing and people were moving from rural areas and from other countries in search of new opportunities. Men, women, and children entered the workforce.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Apush Dbq Research Paper

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Q6. During the 1800s, factory workers spent long hours working in the dangerous factories everyday. By this time, the majority of working people had evolved in the area of politics. Many workers would join together in order to create labor associations called unions. The unions were the voice for all of the factory workers.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The image from “The protectors of our industries,” shows how the owners are relaxing on top of the workers and it’s the workers that are doing the jobs (Doc. A). The working conditions were extremely dangerous because people lost fingers, limbs, become physically handicapped, stooped over, or other health problems. Woman and children were paid less…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bruce Watson, author of the book Bread and Roses explains to the reader an overview of a strike caused in Lawrence, Massachusetts by textile workers in 1912. Immigrant workers who came from all sorts of lands such as Italy, Ireland and Germany and many more started working in Mill working areas. They came to America for the American Dream. Sadly, these immigrants were working in horrible working conditions. These conditions led workers to die or grow sick.…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Apush 2000 Dbq Analysis

    • 1618 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Elana Shpunt APUSH DBQ 2000 March 13, 2017 To what extent was organized labor in improving the position of workers in the 19th century successful? After several years of Reconstruction and proceedings of the Civil War; the Gilded Age commenced as the American economy and population emerged in premodern civilization. In the Nineteenth century, the Second Industrial Revolution altered the factory system and how jobs were operated.…

    • 1618 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Organized Labor DBQ

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Many of the strikes led to a horrible reputation and image of the unions. Most times, the riots caused discomfort within the public. The depression of the 1870s and the Panic of 1873 were also not in favor of the unions. Labor unions had to face many obstacles,…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Watts Riot Research Paper

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages

    To understand the Watts Riot, one has to understand there were many causes for Negros to seek change. Many Negros in the south were subject to physical and emotional violence for many years. Negros' had decided change needed to happen in order for them to have equal treatment. Turmoil within the Negros' communities divided them; because some Negros believed the answer was to protest peacefully while many other Negros believed violence was the answer for change to happen.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction The Haymarket Square Riot took place on May 4, 1886 in Chicago Illinois. In the United States, the labor unions have an extensive and compelling history increasingly developing the world’s largest economy in history, the union movement influence in many significant ways to this unparalleled expansion. The unions have delivered numbers of achievements to American workers. Some achievements include to a safe and intolerant work environment, collective bargaining power, the right hour workday, no child labor, wage standards, political guidance and much more.…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This made workers go on strike and boycott against the company they worked for. During strike they did not work and they began sabotaging the business they worked for. They would sabotage it by going inside and destroying the equipment. Owners tried to prevent this by making them sign a yellow dog contract which just said workers could not join a union while working at the business, however, most employees that were already working would run off the workers that would not join a union because this would hurt the workers when they tried to strike. Owners then began locking up their businesses to try to keep the workers from sabotaging it.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Seeing that the government was really concerned because they were in need of workers. In result of that, many immigrants took it as an advantage and started to take over the veterans and strikers jobs. The immigrants were thankful for the job they got and didn’t mind the wages and salary payments they were receiving by the government. Due to that, immigrants decided to remain doing the jobs they were doing and not join the strike. After the war many veterans returned and were shocked because many factories were shut down due to the low employment rate.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These workers typically worked seven days a week, twelve hours each day, some enduring 24 straight hours of intense labor. After looking closely at Document B, Neill-Reynolds, a muckraker who investigated and gave nationwide publicity to accidents and unsafe conditions. The report was basically about poor conditions in the meat packing industry and violation of international agreements promising a safe workplace. The factory conditions were poor: light source was natural light, few windows, dangerous machines, few break times and poor sanitation. These conditions could affect the workers’ health by giving them diseases, physical problems, deformities, and poor nutrition.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Industrialization after the Civil War The industrialization that occurred shortly after the civil war in America brought many changes to the American economy and society. Three main aspects of industrialization that influenced the U.S economy and society were the construction of the railroad, the formation of labor unions and changes in agriculture. In addition, several groups of people were affected by the industrialization; this includes women, immigrants, and African Americans. Industrialization had both positive and negative effects on the average life of working Americans during this period as people were forced to work for many hours and live in big cities that were exposed to environmental hazards such as smoke from factories.…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Compare and contrast racial conflict in the South and the West. This essay will discuss and analyze some of the racial conflict that happened in the South as well as the West. There continues to be racial conflict throughout the world and it has been that way for quite some time now. So does racism, racial profiling and racial conflict differ depending what part of the world or country a person is from?…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Wilson's Reforms

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A fear that made even the most innocent of socialist ideas or protests look dangerous. Strikes that crippled the City of Seattle and the coal and steel industries reminded many of the European class warfare that lead to the communist uprising in Russia. Labor Unions were still fighting for better pay, hours, working conditions but companies were portraying them as radicals, feeding the fear. Coincidently a series of terror threats began in 1919 around the same time as the labor strikes. Mail bombs were discovered by post office officials.…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It becomes hard to choose from a very limited choice. Because of these negative points density of union decreased. People preferred to work freely and get wages as per their need and work. Labor cost and wages were fixed in union therefore some unskilled workers were getting more wages and skilled workers were getting less wages according to work. This give rise to inequality among the members of union.…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays