Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Details

  • 2 Pages
  • 547 Words

Railroad Strike of 1877

Tactics used by both the strikers and the companies in the railroad strike of 1877 tended to be excessive and to undercut any legitimate efforts to find common ground. The strike essentially demonstrated that there was a need for a more reasonable method for addressing disputes between labor and management. In one sense, this is what the strikers wanted in the first place, though they lacked the leadership that could formulate and raise the question. Indeed, the very spontaneity of the strike showed the power of the forces motivating the strikers and the depth of feeling that their grievances had caused, but it also meant that much of what happened could not be called "tactics" given that they were more the actions of an angry crowd. It may be that some of the violence was indeed perpetrated by a criminal element taking advantage of the situation, but this violence then spread to others expressing a real anger and frustration.

The owners may have used violence as a tactic by hiring thugs to make the strikers look bad, as charged, but if so, they hurt themselves as much as the workers. In the short term, making use of the power of the government to protect business and challenge the strikers may have been effective, but in the long term it was doomed to failure precisely because there are more workers than owners and in time the workers were mobilized correctly to make use of their power as voters to bring government more to their side. It took a long time to do it, but it ultimately made for a more level playing field in spite of continued charges--continuing to this day--that business has more money and can gain more influence as a result.

The recent UPS strike shows how differently labor disputes are conducted after a long period of unionization. Even if unions are losing ground in a new economic environment, as it is claimed they are, unions with a strong leadership able to articulate the wants and needs of the wor...

Page 1 of 2 Next >

More on Railroad Strike of 1877...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Railroad Strike of 1877. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:43, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1704613.html