What were the major points of conflict between industry and labor during the gilded age?

Answer 1

Industry wanted cheap labor and efficiency, whereas labor wanted employment and fair wages. Massive Immigration supplied the inexpensive labor that was desired by capitalists and various inventions from the Industrial Revolution aided the manufacturing process as well. However, a few labor unions (like Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor) were effective in improving the wages and working conditions of skilled workers, but most businesses bitterly fought the unions. The government and the courts refused to give much protection to the workers whether they were in a union or not. "Individual freedom" was supposed to give every man the right to improve himself, maybe even become rich, without outside control, and big businesses said they had the same right. The philosophy was that the marketplace worked best when it was just let free to run its natural course. This would later be severely challenged in the 20th century by those who said this exploited the mass of people who were common workers, being actually instead for the benefit of a few wealthy persons and corporations who only wanted to squeeze every penny of profit from the workers with as few benefits as possible to workers such as not having to work 65 hours per week, or for wages that would not feed a family.