The Glassblowers' Union was saved from disruption by Dennis
Hayes, who, as president of the national union, reorganized the
entire force in the years 1896-99, unionized a dozen of the
largest glass producing plants in the United States and succeeded
in raising the wages fifteen per cent. He introduced methods of
arbitration and collective agreements and established a
successful system of insurance.
James O'Connell, the president of the International Association
of Machinists, led his organization safely through the panic of
1893, reorganized it upon a broader basis, and introduced sick
benefits. In 1901 after a long and wearisome dickering with the
National Metal Trades Association, a shorter day was agreed upon,
but, as the employers would not agree to a ten-hour wage for a
nine-hour day, O'Connell led his men out on a general strike and
won.
Thomas Kidd, secretary of the Wood-Workers' International Union,
was largely responsible for the agreement made with the
manufacturers in 1897 for the establishment of a minimum wage of
fifteen cents an hour for a ten-hour day, a considerable advance
over the average wage paid up to that time. Kidd was the object
of severe attacks in various localities, and in Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, where labor riots took place for the enforcement of
the Union demands, he was arrested for conspiracy but acquitted
by the trial jury.
When the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers lost
their strike at Homestead, Pennsylvania, in 1892, the union was
thought to be dead.
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