American Labor Movement & Unions
By: Cody Alan Bell
Cornelius Vanderbilt
One of the boats Vanderbilt owned
Cornelus Vanderbilt
Political Cartoon of Vanderbilt
The Knights of Labor
Life in the company town of Pullman
A street in the town of Pullman
Street layout in the town of Pullman
The Market-Place in the town of Pullman
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
In May 1877 the Pennsylvania Railroad still feeling the financial epidemic of 1873 had to cut wages and salaries by 10% and another 10% by June and others followed suit. This lead to very mad workers because they were know earning 20% less than they were two months ago and the railroad didn't pay much they basically gave a pair of clothes and food and maybe money if you held a job good enough. On July 13 the Baltimore & Ohio railroad had cut the wages of all there workers who maid more than a dollar a day by 10%. This went on for 2-3 days, then 40 angry locomotive firemen walked off the job. By the end of the day angry workers blockaded railways from Baltimore to West Virginia only allowing passenger trains through. Then it turned to violence in Pittsburgh when angry workers were rioting the local militia was called in and 30 people lay dead.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3189