Labor Unions Emerge Page 67



what was left of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory after the burning.http://goo.gl/80Cg0

 Based upon what I have read, labor unions were both good and bad because the positive side was that the workers got a chance to stand up for themselves and be heard, the downside is that it caused a negative reaction as stated in the reading the strikes turned violent.

"Industry and government responded forcefully to union activity which they saw as a threat to the entire capitalist sytem."- http://goo.gl/QOuVc 

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a sweatshop in which 146 seamstresses died because of the hazardous conditions they worked in. These deaths could have been prevented if they had more than just one fire escape, a sprinkler system and safer working conditions.

Monopolists did not want unions because they did not want to lose money or follow through with what the people were asking for.Union members did not like scabs because they were their replacements and they probably felt since they got workers fast what they were doing was not affecting the monopolists.

Many factory and sweatshop owners disliked the vision of unions like the IWW because they were socialist and industrial workers of the world. Also because they had a strike victory in 1912.