Labor Issues

The formation of the Knights of Labor was a substantial step in combating poor working conditions established by their employers. Their purpose was to represent and protect the rights of workers in a specific occupation or trade and in their constitution, they made many reasonable demands. These demands include, but are not limited to better and safer working environments, the establishment of a minimum wage, weekly pay, age requirements, law-making power, and equal pay for equal work for both men and women.

About twenty years after the Knights of Labor were formed, the woodworkers at the Paine Lumber Company walked of their jobs to demand better working environments. They petitioned for much of the same issues the Knights of Labor did years earlier: higher wages, no child and women labor, weekly pay, and recognition of their union. The action the workers took caused the Paine Lumber...