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108-420: Volition for a formation of an industrial union uniting all branches of the railroad industry began in the early 1890s with the failure of an attempt at loose federation of several railway brotherhoods by Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen Secretary-Treasurer and Locomotive Firemen's Magazine editor Eugene V. Debs . A new union bringing together all railway workers, regardless of craft or service,

216-704: A boycott of railroad workers should be launched under which no member of the ARU would handle a train to which Pullman cars were attached. After discussion this proposal was accepted by majority vote of the convention and a strike deadline was scheduled for June 26. The June 26 deadline came and still the Pullman Company refused to arbitrate its wage reductions. Railway employees began to refuse to handle trains pulling Pullman cars. The ARU established temporary strike headquarters in Chicago to keep more closely abreast of

324-480: A ghost town by the 1960s due to the steady decline in the global price of nitrates caused by the development of chemically engineered fertilizers. Sewell was a mining town intended as both a residential and industrial hub linked to the nearby El Teniente copper mine. Founded in 1906 by the Braden Copper Company , it came to house over 16,000 inhabitants at its peak despite its remote location on

432-519: A Quaker, preached Christian values, such as respectability, thrift, and sobriety, and sought to unify the Bournville community through rituals such as gift-giving between employer and employee. The firm also established work councils, such as the Women's Works Council, and supported trade unions. Bournville represented the union of industry and nature as the company town boasted the attractiveness of

540-627: A big union bent on aggressively forging ahead and compelling shorter hours, more wages and better conditions in and out of the work shop... until the working class is able to take possession and control of the machinery, premises, and materials of production right from the capitalists' hands... Verity Burgmann asserts in Revolutionary industrial unionism that the IWW in Australia provided an alternate form of labour organising, to be contrasted with

648-495: A colony of South Africa. Indigenous workers were coerced into signing yearlong contracts in caged-in factory compounds, which they were not allowed to leave without permission, with movement strictly controlled by Pass laws. In addition they lived in the compound dorms and primarily got food from the compound's cafeteria, both under the control of their employers. As such, alongside the typically bad working conditions, it has been characterized by many as close to slavery. Widzew,

756-423: A company town. Still, if a single company employs most citizens, similar conditions may exist (especially regarding the town's economy). Similar dependencies may exist in specific neighborhoods or areas within larger cities . Company towns often become regular (public) cities and towns as they grow and attract other settlements, business enterprises, and public transportation and services infrastructure. However, if

864-729: A conscience", for example, George Cadbury 's Bournville , if viewed cynically, the company town was often an economically viable ploy to attract and retain workers. Additionally, for-profit shops within company towns were usually owned by the company, which was unavoidable to its isolated workers, thus resulting in a monopoly for the owners. Although economically successful, company towns sometimes failed politically due to lacking elected officials and municipally owned services. Accordingly, workers often had no say in local affairs, and therefore felt dictated to. Ultimately, this political climate caused resentment amongst workers and resulted in many residents losing long-term affection for their towns; such

972-403: A constitution and by-laws for the new organization, which was formally launched at a week-long convention attended by 24 delegates representing many of the numerous railway brotherhoods held at Chicago's Greene Hotel from April 11–17, 1893. This gathering formally elected officers for the new union, including Debs as president, Howard as vice president and Sylvester Keliher (Secretary-Treasurer of

1080-493: A healthy, beautiful, and well-ventilated environment. The Bolsover Company developed two exemplary mining communities in Derbyshire during the late nineteenth century: Bolsover (1891) and Creswell (1896). The Bolsover Company aimed to provide improved living conditions for the miners and their families in these model industrial villages. The houses at Creswell were built in concentric circles, and within these circles

1188-709: A historic monument. The mining settlements built around the coal pits of the Ruhr region were called Zechenkolonien ("pit colonies"). Wolfsburg was created as a planned city in 1938 to host the Volkswagen plant and its workers. A similar Nazi-era planned town is Salzgitter , built around the Reichswerke Hermann Göring that later became the Salzgitter AG . In 1950s East Germany , Eisenhüttenstadt ("ironworks city", initially Stalinstadt )

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1296-450: A history going back some 150 years; however, in almost all cases, the company that operated the colony has now shut down. The most common industry in these colonies was textiles, and the most important from the standpoint of architecture, urban design, and the complexity of their operation. More than 75 textile colonies were recorded, although there were also mining, metallurgy, cement, and agricultural colonies. These colonies (particularly

1404-434: A large production factory , such as a lumber or steel mill or an automobile plant. The citizens of the town either work in the factory, work in one of the smaller businesses, or are family members of someone who does. The company may also operate parks , host cultural events such as concerts, donate a church building to a local congregation, etc. A town that existed before establishing a primary business may not officially be

1512-690: A lengthy keynote address delivered by ARU President Gene Debs before adjourning for additional meetings in secret session. Beginning in August 1893, the Great Northern Railway enacted a series of wage cuts for its workers, reductions amounting to $ 146,500 per month. The American Railway Union organized all classes of employees of the road in a strike action lasting 18 days and forcing the company to arbitration of its unilateral wage cuts. The arbitrators, consisting of businessmen from St. Paul and Minneapolis , Minnesota , found in favor of

1620-610: A relationship, in Hoover's opinion, would be a bulwark against the spread of radicalism reflected in the rise of the "Wobblies," the Industrial Workers of the World . The Hoover initiative got no encouragement from those at the meeting. The obstacles that Hoover did not comprehend, [Cyrus] Ching recorded in his memoir, were that Gompers had no standing in the affairs of any company except to the extent that AFL unions had organized

1728-514: A school, tennis courts, and bowling greens. Port Sunlight combined the use of formal and informal planning elements, such as straight streets close to the town centre and curved streets in the residential areas. This combination of the formal and informal represented a new feature of British town planning. Bournville (1895), near Birmingham, was established by the Cadbury brothers, George and Richard. George and Richard Cadbury chose to transfer

1836-477: A significant influence on the Garden City movement . The model company town is concerned with creating a productive and prosperous company. Enlightened industrialists believed this could be achieved by providing a healthier residential environment for their employees. Planning a model company town involved the fusion of new notions of house design and layout. The paternalism of the enlightened industrialist

1944-409: A significant part of the town's population. An example is Toyota, Aichi ( 豊田市 ), where the "castle" company is the automobile manufacturer Toyota . In some cases, such towns can be named after the company. For example, Toyota City changed its name from Koromo City and named the area of the town where Toyota's headquarters is situated " Toyota-machi  [ ja ] " ( トヨタ町 , note that katakana

2052-535: A subtle form of social engineering , refers to the control of workers by their employers who seek to force middle-class ideals upon their working-class employees. Many nineteenth-century business people considered paternalism as a moral responsibility, or often a religious obligation, which would advance society while furthering their business interests. Accordingly, the company town offered a unique opportunity to achieve such ends. Although many prominent examples of company towns portray their founders as "capitalists with

2160-642: A suburb of Łódź in Poland, had been a textile company town before the Second World War . Svit in Slovakia was founded in 1934 by business industrialist Jan Antonín Baťa following his policy of establishing well-organized model communities for his workers and other employees. This town (like other Baťa's company towns) was also an example of social engineering . The mining city of Kiruna in Sweden

2268-529: Is a prime example of the decline many company towns have had to deal with when the company itself struggles. The town relied on three paper mills owned by Kymmene Corporation from the 1870s until 2005, when two mills, Voikkaa and Kuusaa, were shut down, leaving only the Kymi mill operating. The two closed mills employed an estimated 5% of the local population, and Kymmene's decision left the town in socioeconomic chaos. Kuusankoski's independent status ended in 2009 when

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2376-429: Is also organized along the lines of industrial unionism. Marion Dutton Savage associates the spirit of industrial unionism with "the aspiration of workers for the control of industry" inspired by Robert Owen in 1833-34. The Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (GCTU) recruited skilled and unskilled workers from many industries, with membership growing to half a million within a few weeks. Frantic opposition forced

2484-557: Is used here to reflect the company name) in 1959. During the Porfiriato , American-owned mining towns that settled areas mostly uninhabited areas included Cananea , El Boleo , Nacozari , Navojoa , Copala , Concordia , Santa Eulalia , Santa Rosalía de Camargo , Batopilas , and Esperanzas . Americans and Mexicans were segregated, with the 1906 Cananea strike precipitating the Mexican Revolution . Oranjemund

2592-596: The Brotherhood of Railway Carmen ) as Secretary-Treasurer of the ARU. Day-to-day governance was by these three officers as part of a nine-member Board of Directors, which also included W.S. Missemer of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, W.H. Sebring of the Order of Railroad Conductors, Frank W. Arnold of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Henry Walton of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, James A. Clark of

2700-569: The IWW 's vision was always a totalising vision of a revolutionary society: the Industrial Commonwealth. The theory and practice of industrial unionism is not confined to the western or the English-speaking world. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is committed to reorganizing their current union structure along the lines of industrial unionism. The Congress of South African Trade Unions ( COSATU )

2808-674: The Labourism of the Australian Labor Party and the Bolshevik Communism of the Communist Party of Australia . Revolutionary industrial unionism, for Burgmann, was much like revolutionary syndicalism, but focused much more strongly on the industrial nature of unionism. Burgmann saw Australian syndicalism, particularly anarcho-syndicalism , as focused on mythic small shop organisation. For Burgmann,

2916-546: The Supreme Court of Illinois forced the Pullman Company to divest ownership in the town, which was annexed to Chicago. However, government observers maintained that Pullman's principles accurately provided his employees with a quality of life otherwise unattainable. Still, they recognized that his excessive paternalism was inappropriate for a large-scale corporate economy and thus caused the town's downfall. Accordingly, government observers and social reformers alike saw

3024-626: The Ter and Llobregat and their tributaries. In Berguedà , for example, within 20 km, there are 14 colonies. The total number in Catalonia is around a hundred. These were small towns created around a factory or mine, built in a rural area, and, therefore, separate from any other population. They typically housed between 100 and 500 inhabitants; in some cases, upwards of 1000 people lived in these towns. These industrial colonies were an emblematic aspect of industrialization in Catalonia, specifically,

3132-724: The Western Labor Union , soon renamed the American Labor Union , which was the precursor to the IWW. The new organisation was militant in its operations and housed revolutionary socialist and radical ideals, with Boyce proclaiming that labour must "abolish the wage system which is more destructive of human rights and liberty than any other slave system devised." The preamble of the IWW's constitution further emphasised that "There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and

3240-695: The railway brotherhoods , but we cannot handle the A.R.U.... We cannot handle Debs. We have got to wipe him out. The General Managers Association turned to the United States government , which immediately sent the United States Army and the United States Marshals to force an end to the strike. In 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was formed in Chicago at the First Annual Convention of

3348-509: The 1880s. She says they: Thus, the Pullman Strike did not kill the company town concept but rather initiated a new chapter in their existence. Over the next thirty years, the old model of paternalism was abandoned in favour of new professionally designed company towns with architects, landscape architects, and planners translating "new concepts of industrial relations and social welfare into new physical forms". This suited capitalists of

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3456-490: The 1960s due to their inflexible capital structure and social changes, such as the desire for workers to own appliances, cars, or homes, the declining influence of religion, and the opportunities offered by towns. The colonies gradually emptied of people even before the definitive industrial crisis, which worsened in 1978. In the 1980s and 1990s, almost all the factories in these industrial colonies closed. From that moment on, many colonies became towns that were now independent of

3564-702: The 2000-member UBRE joined the organizing convention of the IWW . Before Herbert Hoover became president, he befriended AFL President Gompers. Hoover, as the former United States Food Administrator, president of the Federated Engineering Societies, and then Secretary of Commerce in the Harding Cabinet in 1921, invited the heads of several "forward-looking" major corporations to meet with him. [Hoover] asked these men why their companies didn't sit down with Gompers and try to work out an amicable relationship with organized labor. Such

3672-490: The 6,000 company employees and an equal number of dependents. Employees were not required to live in Pullman, although workers tended to get better treatment if they chose to live there. The town operated successfully until the economic panic of 1893 when demand for the company's products declined, and Pullman lowered employee wages and hours to offset the decrease in demand. Despite this, the company refused to lower rents in

3780-648: The AFL for a charter, the Scranton Declaration of 1901 was the AFL's guiding principle. Gompers had promised that each trade and craft would have its own union. The Scranton Declaration acknowledged that one affiliate, the United Mine Workers was formed as an industrial union but that other skilled trades—carpenters, machinists, etc. were organized as powerful craft unions. These craft unions refused to allow any encroachment upon their "turf" by

3888-498: The AFL's craft unions after the majority of workers in an industry were organized. In the United States , the conception of industrial unionism in the 1920s certainly differed from that of the 1930s, for example. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) primarily practiced a form of industrial unionism prior to its 1955 merger with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which was mostly craft unions. Unions in

3996-518: The Amazon rainforest of Brazil. It was intended to be inhabited by 10,000 people, but it failed, and the city was abandoned in 1934. Arvida, Quebec was developed in 1927 as a company town. The town grew to have a population of about 14,000 inhabitants, four Catholic parishes, and many other denominations, parishes, and schools. It was known as "the City Built in 135 Days". Batawa was set up by

4104-460: The Australian government that laws were passed which "practically made it a criminal offense to be a member of the I.W.W." Historically, industrial unionism has frequently been associated with the concept of One Big Union . On July 12, 1919, The New England Worker published "The Principle of Industrial Union": The principle on which industrial unionism takes its stand is the recognition of

4212-599: The Bata Shoe Company as a planned community around a shoe factory. The factory opened in 1939 and closed in 2000. Two of Chile's UNESCO World Heritage Sites correspond to former company towns. Humberstone was a settlement dedicated to the extraction of saltpeter during said commodity's boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The town was founded and administered by James Thomas Humberstone 's Peru Nitrate Company, later acquired by Compañía Salitrera de Tarapacá y Antofagasta (COSATAN), before turning into

4320-484: The CIO movement, the AFL established Federal Labor Unions (FLUs), which were local industrial unions affiliated directly with the AFL, a concept initially envisioned in the 1886 AFL Constitution. FLUs were conceived as temporary unions, many of which were organized on an industrial basis. In keeping with the craft concept, FLUs were designed primarily for organizing purposes, with the membership destined to be distributed among

4428-543: The Cadbury factory to this new site to provide their employees with improved living conditions and a country environment that they could enjoy – a far cry from Birmingham's busy, smoky city centre. The firm provided education as a compulsory academic course, and workers were allowed to complete commercial or technical training. The Cadburys also encouraged their workers to get involved in the social life of Bournville by providing sports facilities, athletic and cultural clubs, and social events such as summer parties. George Cadbury ,

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4536-570: The GCTU to collapse after a few months, but the ideals of the movement lingered for a time. After Chartism failed, British unions began to organize only skilled workers, and began to limit their goals in tacit support of the existing organization of industry. A new union movement that was "distinctly class conscious and vaguely Socialistic" began to organize unskilled workers in 1889. Industrial unionism thence proceeded primarily by combining craft unions into industrial formations, rather than through

4644-537: The Great Northern workers, thereby pressuring the company to roll back its wage cuts. It was the ARU's first and only victory. Buoyed by the success of the Great Northern strike, railway workers on other lines sought similar redress of their grievances through strike action. Debs and other union officials were concerned that other disruptions were inopportune, with the union needing a brief respite to better organize itself and to restore its finances. However, this

4752-628: The IWW , six weeks after the formation of the Asiatic Exclusion League . It was created as a rejection of the craft unionism philosophy that the American Federation of Labor endorsed, and from its inception, the IWW would organize without regard to sex, skills, race, creed, or national origin unlike the Federation. It argued for a mass-oriented labour movement, the One Big Union , and declared that "the working class and

4860-613: The IWW from North America. In 1904, the Western Federation of Miners was under significant pressure from military and employer violence in the Colorado Labor Wars . Its labour federation the American Labor Union had not gained significant membership. The AFL was the largest organized labour federation, and the United Brotherhood of Railway Employees (UBRE) felt isolated. When they applied to

4968-491: The Railway Telegraphers and Louis W. Rogers of the magazine Age of Labor. A convention to introduce the new union to the broader public and to build organizational momentum was scheduled and held in Chicago on June 20, 1893. A mass meeting of railroad employees was held in conjunction with the gathering, meeting at Uhlich's Hall in Chicago at 8 pm, where it was addressed by Eugene Debs and others. The ARU

5076-585: The Roosevelt administration's New Deal dealt the final blow to end American company towns by raising minimum wages, encouraging industrial self-governance, and pushing for the owners of company towns to "consider the question of plans for eventual employee ownership of homes". To a lesser extent the New Deal also reduced the need for employee housing by transforming housing finance to a lower-interest, lower-deposit system, making homeownership more accessible to

5184-660: The birth of new industrial organizations. Industrial organizations prior to 1922 included the National Transport Workers' Federation , the National Union of Railwaymen , and the Miners' Federation of Great Britain . In 1910 Tom Mann went to France and became acquainted with syndicalism . He returned to Britain and helped to organize the Workers' International Industrial Union , which was similar to

5292-670: The calendar; the authorities are making unscrupulous, bitter and frantic attempts to stifle the propaganda of the I.W.W. Brissenden also recorded that: ...several laws have been enacted which have been more or less directly aimed at the Industrial Workers of the World. Australia led off with the "Unlawful Associations Act" passed by the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth in December, 1916... Within three months of

5400-601: The company owner, who could shape the lifestyle and activities of his employees to serve his interests and those of the company. Model villages for agricultural workers were founded in the early 19th century in the United Kingdom. The creation of model company towns was particularly evident in Britain during the latter half of the nineteenth century with the creation of Saltaire (1851), Bournville , Port Sunlight , Creswell and New Earswick (1901) and coincided with

5508-487: The company, others were abandoned and remain without inhabitants. Other factories were leased to smaller industries or now lie empty. Some of the more interesting colonies include: Colònia Güell , in Santa Coloma de Cervelló , which contains several modernist buildings, such as the crypt church built by Antoni Gaudí ; L'Ametlla de Merola , Puig-reig , where centenary traditional cultural activities are held, such as

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5616-515: The conditions where they were compelled to submit to them. After I heard those statements I satisfied myself that they were true and I made up my mind, as president of the American Railway Union, of which these employees were members, to do everything in my power that was within law and within justice to right the wrongs of those employees. An effort was made by the ARU to engage the Pullman Company and its workers in arbitration, but

5724-567: The country. The New-York Tribune suggested that the IWW was a German front, responsible for acts of sabotage throughout the nation. Writing in 1919, Paul Brissenden quoted an IWW publication in Sydney, Australia : All the machinery of the capitalist state has been turned against us. Our hall has been raided periodically as a matter of principle, our literature, our papers, pictures, and press have all been confiscated; our members and speakers have been arrested and charged with almost every crime on

5832-589: The countryside and low-density development with well-built and visually appealing dwellings. Unlike Port Sunlight, Bournville catered for a mixed community, where residences were not restricted to the workforce only. Bournville illustrated how, towards the end of the nineteenth century, low-density development was being punctuated along with the provision of open air, space, and sunlight. Bournville's gardens, parks, tree-lined streets, sense of spaciousness, and country setting enhanced its aesthetic appeal and demonstrated George Cadbury's endeavour to provide workers with

5940-405: The courts for relief, gaining a sweeping injunction against the ARU which was served upon union president Debs on July 2. Terms of the injunction prohibited the union from sending out any telegram or letter or issuing any order which would have the effect of inducing or persuading railroad workers to withhold their service in pursuit of the strike action. The rationale for this legal action lay in

6048-505: The day who were keen to avoid the experiences of Pullman. The first real example occurred at Indian Hill-North Village, Massachusetts , in 1915. By the 1920s, the need for company towns had declined significantly due to increased national affluence. Despite income inequalities and a relatively low standard of living conditions amongst factory laborers, the prosperity of the 1920s saw workers' material well-being improve significantly. A strong post-war American economy meant installment buying

6156-444: The divisions that weaken the solidarity of the workers to better their conditions. Revolutionary Industrial Unionism, that is the proposition that all wage workers come together in organization according to industry; the groupings of the workers in each of the big divisions of industry as a whole into local, national, and international industrial unions; all to be interlocked, dovetailed, welded into One Big Union for all wage workers;

6264-468: The early years of these model industrial villages, the Bolsover Company organized various events intended to enhance community life, such as flower shows, lectures, sporting events, concerts, teas, and dances. Catalonia , located in north-eastern Spain, has an especially high density of company towns, known locally as industrial colonies. They are especially concentrated in river basins along

6372-406: The employees were so adjusted that every dollar the employees earned found its way back into the Pullman coffers; that they were not only not getting wages enough to live on, but that they were daily getting deeper into the debt of the Pullman company; that it was impossible for many of them to leave there at all... Wages had been reduced, but the expenses remained the same, and no matter how offensive

6480-543: The employing class have nothing in common." The critiques of the Federation included the strikebreaking that member unions participated in against each other, jurisdictional squabbling, autocratic leadership , and a strong relationship between union and business leaders in the National Civic Federation . After Debs' six month imprisonment after the ARU's dissolution, he, along with Ed Boyce , Bill Haywood and others, were instrumental in launching

6588-683: The fact that the Mail was transported by rail—transport which was interrupted when trains including Pullman cars were stopped in their tracks. Under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, which ruled it illegal for any business combination to restrain trade or commerce, an injunction was issued on July 2 enjoining the ARU leadership from "compelling or inducing by threats, intimidation, persuasion, force or violence, railway employees to refuse or fail to perform their duties". The next day, President Cleveland ordered 20,000 federal troops to crush

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6696-642: The few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on...." In the United States, IWW executive board officer Frank Little was lynched from a railway trestle. Seventeen Wobblies in Tulsa were beaten by a mob and driven out of town. In the third quarter of 1917, the New York Times ran sixty articles attacking the IWW. The Justice Department launched raids on IWW headquarters across

6804-460: The housing-reform movement, which emphasized the improvement of housing for the working class. These model towns contrasted with the overcrowded conditions in British working-class districts, which were often characterized by congested housing, unsanitary conditions, and poor provision of open space and facilities. Model company towns promoted the idea of orderly, planned town development as well as

6912-442: The idea of 'laissez-faire' individualism, which promoted entrepreneurial virtues of hard work being rewarded rather than direct charity, began to shape new-age paternalism. Modernization and the increase in material well-being had also lessened the perceived need for paternalism and moral reform. Consequently, the economic downturn of the early 1930s saw some businesses do away with employee welfare schemes to reduce costs. However,

7020-508: The industrial unionists. The concept came to be known as voluntarism. The federation turned the UBRE down in accord with the voluntarism principle. The Scranton Declaration acknowledging voluntarism was adhered to, even though the craft-based railway brotherhoods had not yet joined the AFL. The AFL was holding the door open for craft unions that might join, and slamming it in the face of the industrial unions who wanted to join. The following year,

7128-414: The land, homes and stores. Workers had to live in his homes and buy from his stores, thereby ensuring virtually all wages returned directly back into his pockets. Although initially opposed to the strike, Debs responded to notice of the strike of the Pullman workers by traveling to Chicago to investigate the situation in person. Debs later recalled in sworn testimony: I found that the wages and expenses of

7236-771: The literary works of Karl Marx and socialist texts brought to jail by Victor L. Berger . After Debs got out of jail, he merged the ARU with the Brotherhood of the Co-operative Commonwealth to form the Social Democracy of America (SDA). In 1900, Elliott ran for Congressman in Montana and Debs ran for President heading the SDA ticket. Elliott was later elected to the Montana Legislature while Debs ran unsuccessfully four more times for

7344-528: The mass communication of radio saw the isolation of company towns lessen, and the social basis of the company town became less necessary. Furthermore, the accessibility of private transport to the working class was a step toward equality, as private transport had previously only been accessible to the wealthy. As access to surrounding municipalities increased, residents of company towns gained access to an increasing amount of government-funded public resources such as schools, libraries, and parks. Accordingly, there

7452-431: The need for a balance between control and well-designed towns, concluding that a model company town would only succeed if independent professionals, acting as a buffer between employers and employees, took a role in conception, planning, and management of these towns. Historian Linda Carlson argues that the managers of corporate towns in the early 20th century believed they could avoid the mistakes made by George Pullman in

7560-519: The never ending struggle between the employers of labor and the working class. [The industrial union] must educate its members to a complete understanding of the principles and causes underlying every struggle between the two opposing classes. This self-imposed drill, discipline and training will be the methods of the O. B. U. In short the Industrial Union, is bent upon forming one grand united working class organization and doing away with all

7668-591: The notion of preparing for the needs of the community to provide healthier living conditions. Model company towns around the mid-nineteenth century, such as Copley (1849), near Halifax , and Saltaire (1853), close to Bradford , had improved dwellings for workers, which contrasted with working-class housing in other industrial villages and cities. These model company towns prompted the creation of others, such as Port Sunlight, Bournville, and Creswell, within an environment of reform. Port Sunlight (1888) in Cheshire

7776-417: The officers of the company refused to submit to the proposal, instead claiming that they had nothing to arbitrate. Railway workers had lost confidence in the existing network of craft-based railway brotherhoods—which were essentially fraternal benefit societies—to resist an industry-wide wage reduction campaign coordinated by the railway managers' association and looked to the fledgling ARU as a mechanism to stem

7884-425: The oldest, which began as a Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company mining camp and mine site nine miles (14.5 km) from the nearest outside road. Traditional settings for company towns were where extractive industries – coal , metal mines, lumber – had established a monopoly franchise. Dam sites and war-industry camps founded other company towns. Since company stores often had a monopoly in company towns, it

7992-813: The ongoing Pullman Strike , and within hours of the union lending support to the boycott, traffic from the Pullman Company traffic ceased to move from Chicago to the Western United States . The sympathy strike then spread to the Southern and later the Eastern United States. A statement was issued by the chairman of the General Managers Association, which represented railway companies that were mainly situated around Chicago, admitted: We can handle

8100-401: The organization and to elect officers. Only one official national convention of the ARU was held; this convened at Fisher's Hall in Chicago at 10 o'clock on the morning of June 12, 1894. About 400 delegates were in attendance—too many for the venue, which caused the gathering to be immediately moved after convocation to the more spacious room at Uhlich's Hall. There the assembled delegates heard

8208-679: The passage of the Australian Act, the American States of Minnesota and Idaho passed laws "defining criminal syndicalism and prohibiting the advocacy thereof." In February, 1918, the Montana legislature met in extraordinary session and enacted a similar statute. While Brissenden notes that IWW coal miners in Australia successfully used direct action to free imprisoned strike leaders and to win other demands, Wobbly opposition to conscription during World War I "became so obnoxious" to

8316-411: The presidency as a socialist. Industrial unionism Industrial unionism is a trade union organising method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations. De Leon believed that militarized Industrial unions would be

8424-399: The primary company experiences hardship or fails outright, or the industry fades in importance—such as when anthracite mining declined due to dependence on steam locomotives to spur demand—the economic effect on the company town can be devastating. Without a source of employment, the communities lose property value and population as people leave to find work elsewhere. Paternalism ,

8532-693: The representation of Els Pastorets ; the three colonies of Castellbell i el Vilar : La Bauma , El Borràs , El Burés , with buildings of architectural interest; Cal Rosal , between Berga , Avià and Olvan , which, in 1858, was the first colony in the era of building large colonies in the Llobregat; Cal Vidal , Puig-reig, which houses the Museum of the Vidal Colony, or the Museum of the Sedó Colony, ideal visits for anyone wishing to learn what life

8640-668: The resulting federation, the AFL–CIO , sometimes have a mixture of tendencies. Company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets, and recreation facilities. Some company towns were established to improve living conditions for workers, but many have been regarded as controlling and/or exploitative. Others were not planned, such as Summit Hill, Pennsylvania , United States, one of

8748-469: The second industrialization, which resulted in certain areas that were once purely rural becoming industrial. They were first created in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in the 1870s after the American Civil War ended and raw cotton again became readily available. The last colonies were created in the early years of the twentieth century. Thus, company towns in Catalonia have

8856-502: The situation of the Pullman workers came before the assembly, which appointed a committee of Pullman employees to study the situation. On June 21, 1894, two days prior to adjournment of the convention, the Pullman Committee reported that the company continued to refuse to arbitrate its unilateral wage cuts. The committee recommended that an ultimatum be delivered that unless the Pullman Company began arbitration within 5 days,

8964-401: The situation. Chicago became a constant mass of meetings as workers of the various railway crafts gathered to discuss the strike situation. The railway switchmen were the first to act, refusing to attach Pullman cars to trains. When one switchman would be fired for insubordination, all the others in the shop would quit, in accord with a previously agreed upon plan. The railway managers took to

9072-747: The slopes of the Andes . The problematic geography on which the town was erected led to its distinctive appearance, with steep staircases and no streets for vehicular access. Although the El Teniente mine remains active, the town itself began to be dismantled and abandoned by the late 1960s as the maintenance of a remote on-site town was no longer financially viable. Some industrial activities still occur on Sewell's grounds, but workers have primarily been relocated to nearby urban centres. Kuusankoski in Finland, formerly also known as "the paper capital of Finland",

9180-457: The strike and run the railways. By July 7, Debs and ten other ARU leaders were arrested and later tried and convicted for conspiracy to halt the free flow of mail. The strike was finally crushed while the board and president spent six months in prison in Woodstock, Illinois . Pullman reopened with all labor union leaders sacked. During Debs' time in jail, he spent much of his time reading

9288-517: The textile-related ones) were mostly constructed close to a river. This was because they used hydraulic power (waterwheels) to run the factory. One reason for this was that Catalonia was poor in coal, and importing it was expensive. In addition, the Catalan rivers (with little volume but a very steep sloping run) provided free and almost inexhaustible energy, which was lacking only in times of drought. The industrial colonies' system began to collapse in

9396-401: The tide. Sympathy for the Pullman Company workers was widespread among other workers in the railroad industry. The ARU's constitutionally-required biannual convention was forthcoming and delegates representing the 465 locals of the union—which claimed a total membership of about 150,000—assembled in the city to take up matters of concern to the organization. During the course of the proceedings,

9504-416: The time felt towards organising by craft. He recounts, that in 1888, a strike was called by train drivers and railway firemen on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railways, but other employees, particularly conductors , who were organised into a different unions did not join that strike, with strikebreakers brought on to help their employers . In June 1894, the ARU voted to join in solidarity with

9612-614: The town or the price of goods at its shops, thus resulting in the Pullman Strike of 1894. A national commission formed to investigate the causes of the strikes found that Pullman's paternalism was partly to blame and labeled it "Un-American". The report condemned Pullman for refusing to negotiate and for the economic hardships he created for workers in the town of Pullman. "The aesthetic features are admired by visitors, but have little money value to employees, especially when they lack bread." The State of Illinois filed suit, and in 1898,

9720-472: The town was consolidated into Kouvola's regional capital. The French city of Le Creusot is a company town. Leverkusen was founded in 1861 around Carl Leverkus ' dye factory that later became the headquarters of Bayer . The city of Ludwigshafen has been dominated by BASF 's plants since the chemical company moved here in 1865. The neighboring municipality Limburgerhof also emerged from housing estates for BASF workers. Neuölsburg , built since 1875 for

9828-508: The vehicle of class struggle . Industrial unionism contrasts with craft unionism , which organizes workers along lines of their specific trades. In 1893, the American Railway Union (ARU) was formed in the United States , by Eugene Debs and other railway union leaders, as an industrial union in response to the perceived limitations of craft unions . Debs himself gave an example of the inadequacies that his fellows at

9936-534: The workers of Ilseder Hütte , was a separate municipality until 1964. Many other companies, especially in the mining and steel industry, built housing estates for their workers near existing cities rather than separate company towns. A notable example is Siedlung Eisenheim in Oberhausen from the mid-19th century, once home to 1200 steel smelters of the Gutehoffnungshütte , which is now protected as

10044-535: The workers, and that the federation's focus on craft unionism precluded any effective organization of the mass-production industries by [the AFL's] affiliates. The craft-based AFL had been slow to organize industrial workers, and the federation remained steadfastly committed to craft unionism. This changed in the mid-1930s when, after passage of the National Labor Relations Act , workers began to clamor for union membership. In competition with

10152-566: The working class. During the late nineteenth century, model company towns materialized as enlightened industrialists recognized that many poor workers were living in appalling conditions. These industrialists wished to combat the unsanitary and congested conditions common to working-class districts to create better living conditions for workers. Model company towns such as Port Sunlight (1888) and Bournville (1895) were influential in regards to their building and planning innovation. The ideas generated from these model towns are regarded as having

10260-471: The world's first purpose-built company towns. It was abandoned in 1954 after the mine was closed. It currently houses a museum of contemporary art and temporary exhibitions. Grand-Hornu is one of the four industrial sites in Wallonia that were listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2012. Fordlândia was established by American industrialist Henry Ford in 1928 as a prefabricated industrial town in

10368-497: Was a large open parkland and a bandstand. Not only did the Bolsover Company aim to provide better housing, but they also wished to improve workers' moral fibre, believing that the provision of facilities and the promotion of workers' welfare would discourage drunkenness, gambling, and bad language. The Bolsover Company provided facilities deemed beneficial for employees at both villages, including clubhouses, bowling greens, cooperative society stores, cricket pitches, and schools. During

10476-436: Was accessible to low-wage earners who could now purchase previously unattainable goods like automobiles and radios. Moreover, workers were no longer dependent on employers for healthcare and education. By the 1920s, widespread ownership of automobiles meant workers no longer needed to live near their workplaces and now had access to more employment opportunities. A combination of the freedom that came with private transport and

10584-515: Was built from scratch, housing the workers of the Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost ironworks. In Japan , an equivalent to company towns are " Kigyō Jōkamachi " ( 企業城下町 , Company castle town ). However, these differ from company towns because the companies do not own or develop them. Instead, the term refers to towns where a specific company has a major influence on the town's economy due to that company or its subcontractors employing

10692-522: Was constructed in a series of meetings held in Chicago , Illinois , beginning with a four-hour session held at the Leland Hotel on February 9 and 10, 1893. Headquarters for the new union were to be rented in Chicago. This preparatory meeting, chaired by George W. Howard of Oshkosh, Wisconsin , former Grand Chief of the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors , elected a three-person committee to write

10800-487: Was established by William Hesketh Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) of Lever Brothers – a soap and tallow manufacturer. The earlier layout of this model company town was planned to suit the site's undulating topography. Port Sunlight catered for the Lever Brothers employees with improved housing (cottages of varying designs and materials) and gardens, as well as social and community facilities, including an auditorium,

10908-406: Was exhibited in his desire to provide an environment for his employees that was aesthetically appealing and which included well-designed residences, parks, schools, libraries, and meeting halls. The industrialist also wished to contribute to his workers' well-being by providing social programs such as sporting events and functions. This, however, highlights the power and immense control possessed by

11016-523: Was frequently possible to pay in scrip through a truck system . However, not all company towns engaged in this particular practice. In the Soviet Union, there were several cities of nuclear scientists ( atomics ) known as atomgrad ; particularly in Ukraine , those were Pripyat , Varash , Pivdennoukrainsk among others. Typically, a company town is isolated from neighboring towns and centered on

11124-400: Was like in one of these industrial experiments. Having bought the mining concession of Grand-Hornu in 1810, French industrialist Henri De Gorge soon realized the need to accommodate the growing workforce of his expanding business. He commissioned architect François Obin and, after his death, Bruno Renard , to build a functional complex in a neoclassical style. Grand-Hornu became one of

11232-428: Was no longer a need for the amenities of company towns which, before welfare capitalism , had previously been unattainable to the working class. This new-found freedom saw a change in the mindset of workers, who began to look at welfare capitalism as demeaning rather than an incentive. Accordingly, many employees started to request additional pay instead of welfare programs. This was well received by some employers as

11340-496: Was not to be because on May 11, 1894, the workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company launched a wildcat strike against their employer. The Pullman Company had begun a company town on the outskirts of Chicago called Pullman, Illinois , incorporated into the city of Chicago in 1889. The company and town were namesakes of its millionaire owner, George Pullman . The town of Pullman was his "utopia". He owned

11448-456: Was privately owned by De Beers until 2017 and thus governed by the diamond mining company's administration. In 2011, the political administration was handed over to the government , which proclaimed it a town. It is now governed by a seven-seat town council. During South African Apartheid , a form of company towns existed under the contract labor system in Namibia, then South West Africa ,

11556-473: Was the case at Pullman. Although many small company towns existed in mining areas of Pennsylvania before the American Civil War , one of the most significant and most substantial early company towns in the United States was Pullman , developed in the 1880s just outside the Chicago city limits. The entirely company-owned town provided housing, markets, a library, churches, and entertainment for

11664-401: Was to be divided into 12 regional districts, each of which maintained a headquarters office in a local urban center. These districts were to in turn be subdivided, apparently on a state basis, with the organization to be governed by annual state conventions and a quadrennial national convention of the entire organization. These national conventions were to choose a governing Board of Directors for

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