Before the progressive era, the work force was pretty brutal. Many people got injured or lost their life in the dangerous, unprotected machines that were in the factories. About 1200 people got injured or died out of about 10000 workers. The steel industry was one of the most dangerous industries to work in. Immigrants would take almost any job as long as it payed. After awile, there were more immigrants being injured or killed in the industries than white people. Most people thought that it was because the immigrants didn't know the english language and they would misunderstand their instructors. Mines were very dangerous too because there was always a risk of the roof of the mine collapsing and killing everyone in it. Miners also didn't have hard hats, but had a felt hat with a light on it. I don't think that that kind of hat protected anything but it provided light for the workers to know where they were going in the mines. Most of the time, workers would use oil lamps or candles to light their way through the tunnel. Then there was a risk of the lamp exploding or some thing catching on fire.
In 1899, Flaurence Kelley helped make the a group called the National Consumer's League. This group was made to acheive minimum wage and the number of working hours of women and children. Kelley was the first leader of the National Consumer's League. She would go around the United States and talk about the working conditions in the country. In September 1905, Kelley joined with Upton Sinclair and Jack London to form a society. Over the next few years, she talked on many American campuses and one of those students she recruited to the cause was Frances Perkins, the woman who eventually became the country's first woman cabinet minister. Frances Perkins was also the woman that brought an end to child labor.
Progressives thought that job safety and health was too important to remain just a responsibility of the employers. Germany became the first country to provide compensation to workers injured in the industries. Other countries quickly followed Germany. In America, the addition continued that workers had to sue their employers for compensation for injuries. It was hard under common laws to prove to a jury that it was the employer's fault, and the size of awards varied greatly. Eventually, juries became more sympathetic to the injured workers. The states eventually passed laws making it easier to prove an employer was at fault in an accident, the size and frequency of jury awards to workers increased. To avoid the possibly bad injury claims, many companies took out expensive employers' liability insurance. By the early 1900s, a couple states had passed workmen's compensation laws, but they either failed to survive court tests or were very limited in scope. In 1902, Maryland became the first state to pass a law providing accident compensation. The law only lasted about two years, then it was dropped. In May 1911, Wisconsin was the first state to establish a workmen's compensation system. Later, nine other states passed compensation laws that year. By 1921, 46 states had workmen's compensation laws in force.Today, there are laws and orgonizations that help make the work place a good place to work. Like, there is a group called Ocea. Ocea will go to businesses and make sure that the place is good enough to work at. The orgonization has the right to shut down businesses if they are really bad. There is also a law that if you get injured, they will have someone work for you until you have completely healed. The good part about that was you would still get paid even if you weren't working. I think that these rules are very fair and now not as much people would get hurt or die anymore.SOURCES1.http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/mono-regsafepart05.htm2.http://www.darylburkhard.com/intothemine.html3.http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAWkelley.htm4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era5.The book.
Some of this is very, very close to be completely plagiarized. You did change a few words around here or there but you need to do more than that. This is a warning.
Comments