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Labor Strikes In The 1800s And 1900s

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Labor strikes in the 1800s and 1900s began when employees went on strikes for various reasons such as, wage cuts, new machinery, and longer work hours with less pay. A strike is a group of employees who organize a work stoppage to put pressure on their boss or company until their demands are met. Countless smaller strikes were all due to the same reasons listed above or a few other reasons. The first nationwide strikes were the railroad strikes. Many workers were upset due to their wages being cut, they were already struggling with money and now they are getting even less than before. The strikes began to spread and it became known as a General Strike. In some of the labor strikes military and militia were sent in to help stop the …show more content…
These strikes were usually shut down with the use of military or militia. Federal troops were sent in to stop larger strikes such as The Railroad strikes and others in the surrounding areas. These troops shut down all the strikes until the Railroad strike was over. “Federal troops were rushed from city to city, putting down strike after strike, until finally, a few weeks after it had begun, the great railroad strike of 1877 was over” (Foner). This was one of the first times that federal troops had to be sent in because the militia had refused to fire at the attacking crowd of strikers. After the Railroad strikes, more militias had been formed to help control the cities and prevent more strikes. Although the Railroad strike was shut down, they still managed to help pave the way for future gains. It started strikes among many other industries and shut down hundreds of trains. When the government was asked to step in, the president refused because there wasn’t enough money to pay for the troops. A few industries like JP. Morgan agreed to pay the soldiers instead of paying his workers. The industries did this to prove the point that they were not going to back down and give the strikers what they wanted. If they did then the strikers would take advantage of this and go on strike anytime they wanted something. Other strikes such as the Homestead and the Pullman Strikes were unsuccessful as well. The owner of …show more content…
By with many of these strikes springing up all over workplaces it brought awareness and demands for change. Through these strikes, they were able to gain some of the things they were demanding. One strike was settled and the demands were met when the president said he was going to have the government take control of the coal mines. Workers in a mine in Pennsylvania went on strike and were told that they needed to come to an agreement with employers of the mines would be seized by the army. When threatened to have the mines seized the employers were forced to come to an agreement with their workers. “President Theodore Roosevelt asked the workers and employers to meet to come to an agreement. When the mine owners refused to meet, Roosevelt threatened that the army would seize the mines. As a result, mine owners agreed to negotiate and the mine owners got a pay raise”(Dubofsky). This was one of the few strikes that were able to get what they were demanding. Another strike that was successful was the Knights of Labor, they wanted an eight hour workday and for the workers to own the industries,and to end child labor. By the end of all these strikes, they were able to achieve their demand making the strikes

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