Dying for Minimum Wage or Surviving on the Bare Minimum | Dark History with Bailey Sarian

workplace and this would blow up parts like a mountain to make a path for the train tracks, which sounds safe, but come on, sticks of dynamite, remember the cartoons? Nothing good happened when there was a stick of dynamite, but that's what they used to blow up, you know, trains. Well, one day in 1867, workers placed 20 sticks of dynamite in a cave, lit them, and then ran outside to stay behind and watch the dynamite explode. But they realized that only 18 of the 20 exploded. So there were two left, mathematics. The boss of the workers made them go back to the cave tracks and light those two sticks of dynamite, okay?

They say, "Go back there, turn that shit on." They come back in with the intention of finding them and guess what, bitch? Bang, kaboom bitch. Ka-fucking-boom. The last two sticks of dynamite explode with the workers inside. Well, guess what? It was raining men, there was blood, guts and body parts everywhere. Yeah, that's really what that song is about. And this wasn't just a one-time sad thing. I mean, these deadly explosions happened all the time. And it's not like these jobs were paid workers. A lot of money makes you say, "Well, at least you...". You understand. Like if you give me a couple million, yeah, okay, I'll light some dynamite.

But they are not paying that. So these workers are simply risking their lives for what? So that? Okay, well, great, depressing, we know. Exploitation and horrible things like this were not only happening within the railroad company itself like the workers, but they were happening all over the country. And finally everything came to a head in Chicago on May 11, 1894. That's when the railroad workers decided it was time to do something. So they were about to launch what would become known as the largest labor movement in

history

. And guess what, bitch? Sorry, I don't know why I'm in a bad mood, bitch.

The workers got together and talked about how they could get the attention of the people higher up, not just their managers or whatever, but they needed to get to the top guy. So they knew that no one cared about their lives. They had just spent months working on the railroad, watching their colleagues die these horrible deaths. They knew that negotiating would get them nowhere because, at the end of the day, they would be reminded that they were replaceable. So they got together, brainstormed, and thought, "Hey, let's send a message hurting the only thing the people in charge cared about: their money." So they put down their tools and climbed onto the tracks they built with their own hands and blocked the movement of the trains.

Now they were hoping this would get the attention of the guy in charge, Vanderbilt, and all these other idiotic railroad owners. And they were right, it did catch their attention. The strike was illegal at the time, so that caught their attention. And two, the big bosses didn't want any workers to think they could get what they wanted by striking, which of course blew up in their faces like that dynamite in the cave because the people were about to create the Pullman Strike. Now the Pullman Company made railroad cars specifically, okay? And these railroad cars were like works of art.

They were high-end, luxurious, first class, velvet. Sheets, I mean, seats, just think (smacks lips), you know? That's what built the Pullman train, whatever it's called, cool. Pullman was such a successful company that its president built an entire town in Illinois where factory workers could live. The town was called Pullman, Illinois, wow. Now it gets a little creepy when you think about it because this whole thing was meant to be some kind of little utopia. Everything in the city was owned by Pullman. The houses, the supermarket, the library, the park. All the money the workers earned basically went back to the company when they paid rent or bought food.

It's a very difficult situation to understand, you know? But here's the thing: The workers could

bare

ly afford to live in this fake little prison town because they were

bare

ly paid enough to put food on the table, probably a Pullman table. The average Pullman worker earned 27 cents a day, which today is equivalent to receiving $8 for an entire day's work. Needless to say, the workers were angry and decided in 1893 to take matters into their own hands and strike. 250,000 people who worked on railroads across the country downed tools and left their jobs in solidarity with Chicago to join the Pullman strike.

In total, 250,000 people across the United States participated in this strike, which means 250,000 people just stood up and walked out of their jobs and times were really tough, so it was a really bold and brave thing to do. And they were essentially saying, "Yes, we won't work for you" or drive your railroad cars "until you give us what we want." And it's not that the workers even asked for that much. They were asking for the

minimum

. They wanted a standard

wage

, normal work hours, quote unquote, normal workplace protections. In 1894, the American Railroad Union was rooting for Pullman workers, which means they were rooting for them, and this meant Pullman was screwed.

The strike closes virtually all railway companies across the country by blocking major railways. They stopped freight trains, passenger trains and even trains carrying mail. So the whole economy really took a hit. And needless to say, this was a huge headache, inconvenience and inconvenience for the rich and the government. So tensions rose quickly. I love rich people, it's very fun. Ah, it makes me very happy. The government decided to bring in the big fish, literally. The governor of Illinois sent the National Guard drama queen vibes. Then they appear, raise their weapons and begin to open fire on the crowd of strikers.

Yes, again, drama queen. Did you really have to go there? Wouldn't you like to talk about it first? So the workers decided to set things on fire in response. (Snapping fingers) Good for you, darling. Things were simply out of control. Chaos, absolute chaos. The president sent troops to end the strike and in the end, 70 people lost their lives and the railroad company suffered $1 billion in property damage. You know how it goes, people don't care about the 70 who lost their lives. They say a billion dollars in property damage occurred. That's more important, damn it. Well, I told myself this year would be the year. 2023 will be the year I unlock mindfulness and have a great year.

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history. Now let's go back to our story. Some important things came out of the Pullman Strike.

Firstly, unions were finally taken seriously and listened to. They gained more legal protection, which was great news for workers across the country because it meant that many of them would feel safe enough to join their local unions or even start their own. It was a situation of power for the people. Another positive thing that came out of this was that we had a federal holiday. Oh yes, the government threw a bone to the workers and, in a gesture of good faith, said: "You know what? "You have been working hard, "take Monday off", "this Monday, actually" . "The first Monday of every September of every year "for the rest of the time." And from there, my friends, came Labor Day, isn't it funny?

I always wondered what it was about. It's because of the strike. They say : "Hey, we don't want to give you any more money." "What if we give you a Monday off, once a year, huh?" And every year, now they only sell mattresses and stuff, so I think we did very well, I'm not sure. But look, it was just an attempt to restore peace. You know, it's very funny, isn't it? It's like peace could be restored by just, I don't know, giving us money to buy bread and shelter, not Monday off. .What the hell? Anyway, thirdly and most importantly, the eyes of the country were now on the workers.

They said, "Hey, if they can do it, maybe we can do it too, right?" other people to demand more. So people were going to pay attention to these strikes in the future. Now, you might remember last season, if you've been watching "Dark History," we talked about the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. , which is still considered one of the deadliest workplace disasters in American history. Another great event that highlighted what was wrong in the factories. workplace conditions By highlighting the need for labor laws, this helped set the stage for a strike that would ultimately put the

minimum

wage

in the national spotlight.

So, a year after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, finally this whole toxic workplace. It reaches a point like the big fat pimple it was. Where do you ask? In Lawrence, Massachusetts, I can't say Massachusetts, I say shit, Massachusetts, setts, Massachusetts was known as an immigrant town. diverse city and many of the people who lived there worked at the Everett Mill Factory. Now, the people who worked here were mostly immigrants from Ireland, Poland, Italy, Armenia, Syria, and really everywhere. And just as we saw with the construction of the railroad, they took full advantage of these people and treated them like second-class citizens because of their immigrant status.

Their salaries were cut again and again during the economic depression. But then in 1912, they decided, you know what? That's enough, damn it. The workers began to talk and made alliances outside the factory. Now most workers lived in housing that was essentially very cramped apartment buildings where there was no air circulation, usually no plumbing, little or no plumbing. People literally lived on top of each other, like in hammocks or bunk beds. And this wasn't great for many reasons. But the good thing, or trying to find something positive here, let's say, is that you knew everyone and everyone talked, there's a really close sense of community.

Together, Everett workers created a network and a solid plan to strike. On January 11, 1912, they went on strike. I love a strike. A strike is when everyone shows up to work and suddenly, during the day, at a time everyone agreed to beforehand, they get up, turn off their machines, and leave. Oh, it feels good, to actually give it to the man in charge. So they do it and walk out of the factory without a single word to their supervisor or whoever is in charge. Ideally, a strike includes as many workers as possible to send a message to the people in charge, and it works.

It was such big news in the Lawrence community that it inspired workers in many other places to doexactly the same and I love it. Some of the workers were so angry at this point that they ended up cutting like the machinery on its way out. That way no one else could come in and do the job either. They have to buy all new machines and everything because sometimes companies like to be shady and bring in a non-union worker or bring in someone else to do the job. So they cut and ruined the machine so no one else could do that.

Boom bitch, I love it. Some of the workers who participated in the strike simply walked away. And then there are other people who were a little angrier and were becoming a little more aggressive. Some of them ganged up and overpowered security doors, threw bricks at factory windows, ruined machinery, cut up finished products like cloth so they couldn't be sold for profit, (laughs) just doing everything they could to hurt. these factories in the same way that they had been harming workers. It was chaos but it is beautiful, it is art. Art. By the end of the next day, over 10,000 workers were out of work and on strike, and mind you, on top of this, it's the middle of winter in Massachusetts.

Yes, Massachushits, I will change the name. So in the dead of winter, I've never been there. I really want to go, but I heard it's not great in winter as it snows and is very cold. That's what I hear. So mind you, it's not the best time to be outside for hours marching, shouting for better wages, but you know what? It didn't just matter to the workers because that was how much they wanted change and deserved it. I love it. It wasn't just men who went on strike either. Women, I know women got involved, wow, I know, we left the house.

I thought that was all we did, stay home, make sandwiches but no, we can participate in these strikes too. And they did it. So the women got involved, gave rally speeches, marched and said, "Yes, I'm going to make a sign too." It was like, suck my tit, you know? And so it was a fundamental strike in American history because at that moment the workers realized that they would no longer be happy with the bare minimum. They didn't just want to survive, they wanted to live life, work, wait, live to work. No, work to live, yes. Why do I get like this?

Work to live, not live to work. Ain't that what life is, bitch? Shit. Look, people just wanted to be able to go to the store and buy milk, bread and the most necessary things. I really want to sing the song but I'm not going to do it. And on top of that, like, "Hey, wouldn't it be nice if I had some money left over" for a bouquet of flowers someday? "A little gift. I mean, they're human beings, not machines." So the worker started making signs and flashing those signs and getting creative with signs, which I love, I love a trade.

Some of the signs said We Want Bread and Roses Too, I love that. And at that time people started calling it the Bread and Roses Strike. Cute, ah, I love the theme, right? So this quickly became front page news and soon all of America was talking about bread. and roses. People collected donations for the striking workers. And even the farmers showed up in Lawrence with food donations and it was very beautiful to see because people took care of each other, but the factory workers were angry and they weren't going to do it. Just take this for longer.

They weren't going to back down. Do you know what they did? They hired new people who were willing to break this strike to work for them and keep the company running. but I think a lot of people know them as scabs. Yes, scabs, who likes a scab? Nobody. So these scabs would cross the picket lines and do whatever else the company wanted them to do. Sometimes this even meant picking fights with strikers. I wonder how much they got paid to pick a fight. But if the price is right, I don't know. The corporations hoped this would incite violence that would ultimately discredit their cause and cast a bad light on the entire strike.

And in this case it really worked. Now, mind you, this isn't something that just happened in the old days. It also happens today. When people strike, companies will bring in these scabs when they are called upon to replace or take away their jobs and sometimes they will just create violence to discredit the whole thing. Like it's fucking wild. The police end up intervening. I mean, tensions were rising and pretty soon fights were breaking out everywhere, everywhere. A young woman ends up being shot to death as if in the street. And then the next day, an 18-year-old striker was stabbed and killed.

Families feared for their children's lives and many of them tried to send their children out of the city by train. They say they put their children on the train and tell them: "I'll come get you when this is over, be good." This gave the strikers even more publicity which the Lawrence police hated. The police started trying to stop mothers from putting their children on these trains and if they resisted, ugh, bitch, they beat them with batons as if they were in front of their children! But guess that? The press saw it too. The mother was trying to put her children on the trains and they blew it up.

They were putting pictures of these mothers being beaten by the police on the front page of their newspapers. And you can bet this will catch people's attention. What happen with the kids? The story finally reaches the desk of the then American president, his name was William Howard Taft. I know, I don't know who he is either. Taft, what is he doing? Taft tells Congress that he begin investigating the strike on March 2, 1912. And what they end up discovering was horrible. A third of the factory workers had died within a decade of taking their jobs because the work was so brutal.

So if you didn't die of pneumonia or tuberculosis from inhaling all those factory fumes, it was mostly a game of pick your poison. Do you want tuberculosis, pneumonia or do you want to lose a leg or an arm in an accident with the machine? Which one do you want? And we'll pay you $4 for that. You know, it's a lot. It's like, pick your poison. A 14-year-old girl who worked in a mill told the court about an accident in which a mill machine had completely scalped her (gulps), she had scalped it. She lived but can you imagine?

Yes, she lived, praise God. She was hospitalized for many months afterwards, but her hair got stuck, ah, how scary. On March 14, nine weeks into the strike, the strike officially ends when the mill owner accepted the workers' demands, okay? What do they get? Well, let me tell you. A 15% pay increase and they would receive overtime, which any of us who have worked hourly know is a huge win. And at the end of the month, 270,000 New England factory workers also got similar raises, and other companies began giving their workers the same benefits and raises. Now, this sets an important precedent for what companies could and couldn't get away with when it came to paying their workers.

Because of the Bread and Roses Strike, Massachushits, it's just one of those words, passed the first laws in the United States guaranteeing the minimum wage in 1912. (Bailey applauds) That's very nice, good for you, Massachushits. You're killing witches and minimum wage. I really like that for you. I heard it's cold there. Anyway, after this, guess what? Other states are starting to copy. And we love that because when they see what's happening there, they say, "I don't want that to happen to us, so let's do it now." It's not perfect, is it? Because the problem with the state over state laws was that, um, they were almost never enforced.

And in states like Massachusetts, the only punishment for not paying workers the minimum wage was bad publicity. Once again, the responsibility to raise the issue and fight for fair living conditions fell to all workers. I know it's very silly to say, but it's a lot of work to get the bare minimum, right? It's progress, but it's hard to know exactly how many workers actually benefited from these laws. So it's safe to say it wasn't all of them, but I mean, hey, things are, we're getting some movement, some traction and things are getting better. The eyes of the American people were on these factory workers and they all wanted big business to do better.

So everywhere wages start to rise, conditions start to improve. And I know it sounds too good to be true because, of course, lurking in the corner somewhere is the Great Depression. She is always there somewhere. She stays there. "You miss me, it's me, GD." And guess what? When the Great Depression hit, the United States came to a screeching halt. And not just for the workers, it affected everyone. Well, except the rich. They said, yeah, we're fine. Now I know what you're thinking, fantastic, I can't wait to hear more deaths, more sadness and less money. Well, um, the Great Depression was actually the turning point in the minimum wage movement.

I mean, everyone felt the effects of the Great Depression, not just the average worker. The Great Depression lasted a decade and during that time, nearly 13 million people were out of work. The people who were, in quotes, lucky enough to work, had their salaries cut almost in half, so they were barely making it, that is, if they were making it at all. I hate to gloss over the Great Depression, but we should do a future episode about it. Sorry, I'm not going to go into more detail about that, but we're talking about minimum wage, you get the point.

But it's a good thing to come out of the Great Depression, which is kind of, okay Bailey, there was a better understanding that without a living wage, people just can't survive. And America can't be America, can't be number one if everyone's dead, right? So rule number one is that America needs people. Then, finally, a man with power decided to do something to solve all this injustice that was happening. And no, it wasn't President Taft because he was doing Laffy Taffy or whatever. That man was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Isn't Roosevelt where they keep the aliens? Same thing, Roswell, Roosevelt, conspiracy.

Well, look, we've talked a little bit about FDR and his hypocritical ass during our Henrietta Lacks episode, so you know, this man was no angel, but we always have to give credit where credit is due. And with FDR, he really stood up for the worker. He once gave a speech in which he said: "No business that depends on paying less than a living wage to its workers has the right to continue in this country." (Snapping fingers) Right? I know, I know. This was Politicians did not take positions like this. I mean, the damn Supreme Court was known for siding with companies in a lot of big lawsuits.

He was rarely, if ever, pro-worker. To have someone in power, I mean, the president of the United States standing up for the working class was just incredible. So FDR introduced a lot of progressive laws and programs called the New Deal and a lot of those programs involved the government. Helping people was different, which was nice. FDR said: Enough was enough. He signed a law for the first time in the United States, a federal minimum wage, great, how much was it? Quarter. Mm, I mean a quarter was a lot, right? No, I don't think it was. It's a room.

So now that a national minimum wage is set, everything was great, right? No, well, this is "Dark History." It became pretty clear right away that after the minimum wage was passed, the way it worked wasn't ideal, it kind of sucked. First, employers began choosing what was considered a quote-unquote billable hour or an hour worked. So let's say someone works for eight hours. A boss might say, "Hey, I only saw you working three of those hours," and that's what you'd get paid. So that's a bit bad, right? I'm not thinking about when I worked at the thrift store, I worked at the thrift store once and as you know it was one of those jobs where I didn't really want to work so I just hid like in On the Corner back of the clothing area and I was trying to get organized, but I just sat there like I was going through all the different clothes and no one noticed, at least I don't think they did.

But I probably would have made $0 because I hid until I left. I know, I know and it's not very motivating for you but that's my truth and I said it, thank you. And the first minimum wage didn't really cover many people. Surprisingly, it only applied to women and children. This was because the country essentially recognized that women and children were the most exploited. And, honestly, they did not have the same abilities as men to negotiate their contracts. Both because male bosses bullied women most of the time and because people felt they couldn't expect women with small brains to negotiate for themselves.

So we have to help them. The states