There were only 23 total miles of railroad tracks when they started, but by the 1830’s there were up to 35 Thousand then up to 245,000 miles by the end of the Civil War in 1916. This shows how important and big railroads were at this time. Being one of the biggest part of the time, railroads soon became some of the biggest parts of strikes ever. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the country's first major rail strike and witnessed the first general strike in the nation's history. In 1877, northern railroads, still suffering from the Financial Panic of 1873, began cutting salaries and wages. The cutbacks prompted strikes and violence with lasting consequences. In May the Pennsylvania Railroad, the nation's largest railroad company, cut wages
The 1919 steel strike was an attempt to organize the United States steel industry after World War One. The strike lasted about five months, and was unsuccessful. It began on September 21, 1919, and collapsed on January 8, 1920. It was started by the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, or the AA. The AA had formed in 1876. It was a union of iron and steel workers which was very committed to creating unionism, but advancements in technology had decreased the amount of skilled workers in the industries.
The Railway Labor Act is “a unique bill that was jointly crafted by labor and management” (Budd 117). It was created as a law in 1926, airlines were added to this in 1936, and they are both still regulated by this today. This act was created to help stop strikes at work that could interrupt interstate commerce, such as depriving any part of the country essential transportation services. There were decades of railroad labor unrest, where widespread work stoppages pitted federal soldiers against the workers who were striking. Two years prior to the signing of this act, President Calvin Coolidge wanted Railroads and Unions to recommend legislation for better labor and management relations that would reduce the dangers of railroad shutdowns. They
“Industrial unions dominated the landscape of the late nineteen century U.S. labor movement.” They gathered all level workers together without discrimination of gender, race, or nationality. They declared the eight-hour workday for the first time when normal work time should be 12. Low wage of workers caused the “Great Strike of 1877”, which began with railroad workers in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. After the “Great Strike”, industrial union started to
The Transportation Revolution in the 1800s, sparked up industrialization and the building of railroads that stimulated every other industry causing an economic boom known as the Gilded Age. From the outside, America seemed like the place to go to make all your dreams come true. But in reality, in was an era of serious social problems mainly caused by an economy with a free market policy, low tariffs, low taxes, less spending, and a hands-off government. This type of economy would eventually lead to the development of monopolies. These monopolies would then, in turn, lead to worker uprisings ‒caused by the suppression of unions created mostly by unskilled workers‒ that would contribute to the rapid rise and downfall of America. An example of this suppression is the Homestead Strike of 1892; due to hostility created by the unions, the employer fired all the workers, and rehired them on the basis that there would not be any more unions. After the workers started working again, the conditions were still unbearable, so the workers shut down the facility. The police got involved, the workers were pushed back, and the facility was reopened union free.
The amount of track in the North completely overpowered the Souths length of track. At the beginning of the war the North had already built about 22,000 miles of track while the South had only built about 9,000 miles. Not only did the North have more track but it had been more strategically placed, so this meant that most of the Northern railroads were connected with other track systems. This meant that if the South took out part of the Norths track the North could still quickly get to their destination.
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
Despite being built during the Civil War, funding was not a problem and every single one of the 2,000 miles of track was hand laid; going through mountains as well as terrain. Both companies finally met up at their midpoint completing the construction on May 10th, 1869; about four years after the end of the Civil War and six years after construction
One of the most important achievements of the Gilded Age was the creation of a network of railroads including the transcontinental railroad, which connected the United States from New York to California, facilitating transportation across the continent. During the Gilded Age the length of all the railroads combined increased threefold ("Second Industrial Revolution"). This was significant not only because it decreased travel time from the eastern to western parts of the U.S and vice versa down from months to weeks and allowed people to settle the central United States, but also opened new areas for commercial farming and gave an economic boost to steel...
The Coal Strike of 1902 occurred as a result of many problems that were faced by miners. At the time of the coal strike there were 150,000 miners working in the mines (Grossman) Due to the depression of 1893, miners had their wages cut and were living in poverty (Grossman). Many miners were dissatisfied and looked to the United Mine Workers for support in raising their standard of living. This proved difficult since employers refused to recognize labor unions for fear of giving them significant control over the industry. In most instances of employee demands before 1902, employers would use government troops or hire immigrants to take the jobs of the strikers (David Kennedy).
The owner of the town and company George Pullman had workers’ wages get cut in addition to workers getting leadoff. Many people who worked for the company whose wages got cut had trouble affording the standard living costs in Pullman and were given “starvation wages.” The organization of the pissed off workers followed. The workers would go on a nationwide strike organized by the American Railway Union and was led by a man named Eugene debs. Eugene and his union was so powerful because they possessed the ability to paralyze the production of the railroad industry.
In the end, the transcontinental railroad changed the American landscape both physically and culturally. It formed the foundation for the industrial economy, it produced new business practices and management style of large workforces. It helped established government regulations, taxation and support of public transportation. Above all it drastically changed the American lifestyle, changed where people lived, how they shopped, how they ate, and how they worked.
...s became even more desperate at the time of the great depression that ultimately led to the great railway strike, in which many workers lost their lives at the hand of the Pennsylvania militia. This act proved to be a major turning point in the evolution of the labor movement in the United States.
The Winnipeg General Strike The year of 1919 has been one of the most influential years of strikes
Child Labor caused many problems and the breaker boys strike had a big affect on the end of child Labor. Child Labor was a horrible thing and cause kids to be very uneducated and most kids would end up being severely sick or even dying. Parents would force their children into child labor because they needed more money. This caused many problems and struggles and needed to be stopped. The breaker boys worked in coal mines with a big risk of dying, they could not live like this anymore so they put a stop to this.
Hayes was also president during the Great Railroad strike of 1877. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 consisted of workers protesting because their pay was lessened. After the president hired federal troops to stop riots, the railroad workers went back to their jobs. This was a victory for the president.