With industrialization, the workforce grew and workers' lives changed. Machines took over many of the traditional tasks of workers. Hours were long, wages were low, and workplaces were hazardous. Often unable to improve their lot individually, workers increasingly turned to unions.
Opposed by corporate management and, to a certain extent, the government, labor unions resorted to strikes. Even major work stoppages like the 1894 Pullman strike, however, failed to win significant gains.
An important influence on labor was the large number of immigrants who provided unskilled labor for urban industries. Primarily southern and eastern European and Chinese immigrants, they flocked to the cities and created their own ethnic communities. Their unfamiliar languages and customs often aroused anti-immigrant sentiment.
Along with the influx of immigrants, many rural Americans also moved to the rapidly growing cities, where they experienced many of the same social and environmental problems as immigrants.
