Speaking Out for Workers’ Rights

1. Set Focus
Pose this essential question: What rights should workers have? In what ways are workers’ rights a subset of human rights?

2. List Vocabulary
Share some of the challenging vocabulary words in the article (see below). Encourage students to use context to infer meanings as they read.

• tedious (p. 18)
• watershed (p. 19)
• coalition (p. 19)
• toiled (p. 19)
• falsify (p. 20)
• negotiate (p. 21)

3. Engage
Have students share the challenges they’ve faced in after-school jobs, such as babysitting, mowing lawns, or working in retail or at restaurants.

4. Read and Discuss
Ask students to read the Upfront article about the movement for workers’ rights. Review why the article is a secondary source. (It was written by someone who didn’t personally experience or witness the events.) Then pose these critical-thinking questions:

• Prior to the 1912 strike, what were some of the difficult conditions and dangers mill workers faced on the job in Lawrence, Massachusetts? (They worked long hours doing work that was incredibly hard—and faced fines if they didn’t keep up with the machinery. Wages were so low that children often had to work to help their families survive. While working, they breathed in dirty air, risked getting hair or body parts caught in machinery, and suffered from pains from standing for long hours, doing repetitive work.)  

• What caused the mill workers to go on strike in 1912? (After Massachusetts passed a law that reduced the workweek to 54 hours, from 56, a group of women became angry after discovering that their bosses had cut their pay for those two hours—despite the fact that the machines had been sped up, making the work even more difficult—to cover the lost two hours. The women walked off the floor chanting, “Short pay! Short pay!” Very quickly, 25,000 other mill workers in Lawrence joined their strike.)

• Why is the strike viewed as a watershed moment in labor and immigrant history? (The strike, which gained strength from the effective organization of workers from many cultures, received national attention, prompting Congress to hold hearings on working conditions. To avoid further scrutiny, the mills raised their wages, and the workers won what they were fighting for—a rarity at the time.)

• The author says, “Real progress finally was made in 1938.” What happened in 1938? Why do you think the author differentiates this action in this way from prior advances in workers’ rights? Do you agree with this characterization? (The Fair Labor Standards Act, which capped the legal workweek at 40 hours and limited child labor, was passed in 1938. Other responses will vary.)

5. Use the Primary Sources

Project or distribute the PDF A 14-Year-Old Mill Worker Testifies (or assign it in Google Classroom), which features excerpts from the testimony John Boldelar, 14, gave in 1912 at the House hearings on the Lawrence strike.  Discuss what makes the letter a primary source. (It provides firsthand evidence concerning the topic.) Have students read the excerpts and answer the questions below (which appear on the PDF without answers).

• How would you describe the tone of the excerpts and the purpose of John’s testimony? (The tone of John’s answers can be described as direct or straightforward. The tone of the representatives’ questions can be described as direct and, at times, appalled. The purpose of the testimony is for the House committee members to learn about the living conditions of people who work at the mills and what might have motivated them to go on strike.)

• Which details help you understand why John quit school to work in a mill? (The details John shares about how he would have not quit if his family had money, having no furniture other than beds in his three-room house, working all the time, and subsisting mostly on only bread all show why John needed to quit school and earn money to help support himself and his family.)

• What conclusions can you draw about John’s health based on the details he provides about his diet? (Based on the details about sometimes only eating bread and water; other times having beans, molasses, and coffee; and only eating meat once a week, you can conclude that John was malnourished. As a result, he likely suffered from immediate and long-term health issues.) 

• Based on what the representatives ask, what is their reaction toward what they’re learning from John? (You can infer that they are appalled by what they are hearing. They sometimes ask the same question a second time to confirm that what they heard is actually true—particularly when John is giving details about what his family eats. They also probe him about whether he would prefer to go to school instead of working.)

• Based on the Upfront article and the excerpts from John’s testimony, why do you think the mills in Lawrence and in other towns agreed to raise their workers’ pay just days after the hearings ended? (Students’ responses will vary, but students should support their ideas with evidence from both texts.)

6. Writing Prompt
Review the “1935 Unions” section of the timeline. In what ways do you think this legislation changed the course of history and labor movements? Explain in a brief essay.

7. Quiz
Use the quiz to assess comprehension.

8. Classroom Debate
Should the minimum age for most jobs increase from 14 to 16?

9. Analyze Poetry
Display the poem “Bread and Roses,” by James Oppenheim. Explain that the poem was published in 1911. Have students discuss why they think the poem’s themes of bread and roses became a slogan for labor movements.