Settlement Worker

Examples of Settlement Worker in the following topics:

• Middle-Class Reformers

  • Equally important were the Workers' Compensation Laws, which made employers legally responsible for injuries sustained by employees at work.
  • Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace.

• The Settlement House Movement

  • It established "settlement houses" in poor urban areas, where volunteer middle-class "settlement workers" would live in hopes of sharing knowledge and culture with, and alleviating the poverty, of their low-income neighbors.
  • By 1913, there were 413 settlements in 32 states.
  • These and other settlement houses inspired the establishment of settlement schools to serve isolated rural communities in Appalachia.
  • The settlement-house concept was continued by Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker hospitality houses in the 1930s.
  • A founder of Hull House, Jane Addams (September 6, 1860–May 21, 1935), along with being a pioneer American settlement activist/reformer, was also a social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women's suffrage and world peace.

• Setbacks for Unions

  • Labor unions, or associations of workers with the purpose of consolidating bargaining power and protecting workers' rights, grew very rapidly during World War I.
  • Strike busters were brought in to fill the positions and Harding proposed a settlement giving shop workers concessions, but railroad owners objected and Harding had to deploy the National Guard and 2,200 U.S. marshals to keep the peace.
  • Unemployment rarely dipped below 5% in the 1920s, and few workers feared real wage losses.
  • Seven men, including Loray Mill workers, were acquitted of the crime.
  • Workers, including an 11-year-old boy holding his coat, outside the Loray Mill in Gastonia, N.C.

• Toward Free Labor

  • Indentured servitude was a form of unfree labor used to meet the great demand for workers in the early years of colonial settlement.
  • In colonial North America, farmers, planters, and shopkeepers found it very difficult to hire free workers, primarily because cash was short and it was so easy for those workers to set up their own farms.
  • Consequently, the more common solution was to pay the passage of a young worker from England or Germany, who would work for several years to pay off his or her travel costs.
  • Workers (usually Europeans, including Irish, Scottish, English, or German immigrants) immigrated to Colonial America in substantial numbers as indentured servants, particularly to the British Thirteen Colonies.
  • The expansion of staple crop production in the colonies led to an increased demand for skilled workers, and the price of indentured agricultural labor increased.

• Social Justice

  • The purpose of the settlement houses was to raise the standard of living of urbanites by providing adult education and cultural enrichment programs.
  • With this expansion, the dangers to the railroad worker increased.
  • Under FELA, railroad workers who are not covered by regular workers' compensation laws are able to sue companies over their injury claims.
  • Hull House was a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr.
  • With its innovative social, educational, and artistic programs, Hull House became the standard bearer for the movement that had grown, by 1920, to almost 500 settlement houses nationally.

• Hooverville

  • But the economic downturn greatly increased the numbers and concentrations in urban settlements, nearby soup kitchens and other charitable organizations.
  • Homeless people formed settlements on empty land which generally consisted of tents and small shacks.
  • Many shantytown residents were former workers who had construction skills and were able to build their houses out of stone.

• Introduction

  • Hull House was a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr.
  • In addition to making available services and cultural opportunities for the largely immigrant population of the neighborhood, Hull House afforded an opportunity for young social workers to acquire training.
  • In 1892, Addams published her thoughts on what has been described as "the three R's" of the settlement house movement: residence, research, and reform.

• Age Discrimination and Health Act

  • The ADEA permits employers to favor older workers based on age even when doing so adversely affects a younger worker who is 40 or older.
  • Benefits The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990 (OWBPA) amended the ADEA to specifically prohibit employers from denying benefits to older employees.
  • Congress recognized that the cost of providing certain benefits to older workers is greater than the cost of providing those same benefits to younger workers, and that those greater costs would create a disincentive to hire older workers.
  • Therefore, in limited circumstances, an employer may be permitted to reduce benefits based on age, as long as the cost of providing the reduced benefits to older workers is the same as the cost of providing benefits to younger workers.
  • Waivers of ADEA Rights An employer may ask an employee to waive his/her rights or claims under the ADEA either in the settlement of an ADEA administrative or court claim or in connection with an exit incentive program or other employment termination program.

• The Transcontinental Railroads

  • Known as the "Pacific Railroad" when it opened, it served as a vital link for trade, commerce, and travel and opened up vast regions of the North American heartland for settlement.
  • Most Chinese workers spoke only rudimentary or no English, and the supervisors typically only learned rudimentary Chinese.
  • Most of the men received between $1 and $3 per day, the same as unskilled white workers; but the workers imported directly from China sometimes received less.
  • Usually the workers lived in camps built near their work site.
  • Workers celebrating the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.

• The Diversity of the West

  • In the 1880s, blacks bought more than 20,000 acres of land in Kansas, and several of the settlements made during this time still exist today (such as Nicodemus, Kansas, founded in 1877).
  • As a result, many Hispanics became permanent migrant workers, seeking seasonal employment in farming, mining, ranching, and the railroads.
  • Migrant workers in the United States have come from many different sources, and have been subject to different work experiences.
  • At the turn of the twentieth century, workers from Mexico and the Philippines began to enter the United States to work as cheap agricultural laborers.
  • On the other hand, workers from Catholic countries, such as Ireland and Germany, were subject to a number of prejudices.