Formation of Child Labor Unions and Worker Strikes

While the New York public remained in support of child labor, the formation of organized labor had the ability to change that. The turn of the century brought forth the formation of labor unions and strikes. The coverage of these strikes demanding better working conditions in the news spread the word of the reality of child labor. Ironically, the newsboys who sold the papers to the people of New York went on multiple strikes and formed a union themselves, which greatly impacted other groups of child laborers. Perhaps the most influential, yet best documented, of the newsboys strike was the Strike of 1899. During the two week long strike over an increase in newspaper prices, the messenger boys of New York carried out a similar action. They demanded a flat rate of pay, as well as “that the sum of 50 cents a week, which is now levied on each boy for two uniforms a year, shall not be exacted, and that they be allowed to purchase their own uniforms, which they say they can get for $9 each.”⁹ Many other strikes containing child laborers followed in the decade following the year 1900, such as the trolley workers, boilermakers, and jobbers.¹⁰