![]() By 1890, the membership had fallen to 100,000. Perhaps Mackay fails to tell the story of the 1877 railroad strike because there is no way to put a good face on. When a bomb explosion at a workers' rally in Haymarket Square May 4 triggered a national wave of arrests and repression, labor activism of every kind suffered a setback, and the Knights were particularly-though unfairly-singled out for blame. They asserted that labor produced value in person, and laborers should never be as ashamed about their type of employment. Their goal was to create a cooperative society between in which labors owned the industries in which they worked. On July 16, railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, walked off the job to protest a 10 percent wage cut leveled by their employer, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. They also took measures to protect children in the workplace. In late July of 1877, Chicagoans played their part in the first nationwide uprising of workers. The Knights were an unusual labor union at the time, as they allowed an open-membership policy extending to unskilled, semiskilled, women, African-Americans, immigrant. ![]() With the local militia sympathetic to the strikers, 600 federal troops from Philadelphia were sent to break up protests. Over the next two weeks, state and federal troops stepped in to break the. The Knights organized unskilled and skilled workers, campaigned for an eight hour workday, and aspired to form a cooperative society in which laborers owned the industries in which they worked. Violence Spread Within days, on July 19, 1877, workers on another line, the Pennsylvania Railroad, struck in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Within days, most of the railways between Baltimore and Chicago had ground to a halt. Other improvements were implemented later.The Knights of Labor, founded in 1869, was the first major labor organization in the United States. In 1884, it established a worker pension plan. Writing with purple pen a few months after the strike ended, the St. With public attention on workers' wages and conditions, the B&O in 1880 founded an Employee Relief Association to provide death benefits and some health care. Fearing the social disruption, many cities built armories to support the local National Guard units these defensive buildings still stand as symbols of the effort to suppress the labor unrest of this period. ![]() Labor continued to work to organize into unions to work for better wages and conditions. With the intervention of federal troops in several locations, most of the strikes were suppressed by early August. Disruption was widespread and at its height, the strikes were supported by about 100,000 workers. The city and state governments were aided by unofficial militias, the National Guard, federal troops and private militias organized by the railroads, who all fought against the workers. Teachers ( AZ, CO, Los Angeles, NC, OK, WV) 2018–2019Īt the time, the workers were not represented by trade unions.Harlan County War 1931–1939 ( Battle of Evarts).Colorado Coal Strike 1927–28 ( Columbine Mine massacre).UMW General Coal Strike 1922 ( Herrin massacre).West Virginia coal wars 1912–21 ( Battle of Matewan, Battle of Blair Mountain).Colorado Coalfield War 1913–14 ( Ludlow Massacre, The 10-Day War).Illinois coal wars 1898–1900 ( Battle of Virden, Pana riot, Carterville Mine Riot).Some locals feared that workers were rising in revolution such as the Paris Commune of 1871, while others joined their efforts against the railroads. In Martinsburg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and other cities, workers burned down and destroyed both physical facilities and the rolling stock of the railroads-engines and railroad cars. An estimated 100 people were killed in the unrest across the country. Because of economic problems and pressure on wages by the railroads, workers in numerous other cities, in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, into Illinois and Missouri, also went out on strike. This strike finally ended 52 days later, after it was put down by unofficial militias, the National Guard, and federal troops. ![]() The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the first strike that spread across multiple different states in the U.S. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval, began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year.
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