U.S. History from 1877 - Essay Example

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad did not want to listen to the laborers. It was not the time when collective bargaining was the norm. You either did what you were told or had to face the music (O’Donnell, Edward; 2008). But the more the administration clamped down on the strikers the more the unrest spread throughout the wide expanse of America. Pittsburg, Chicago, St. Louis, Buffalo, and elsewhere workers struck work in large numbers threatening to engulf a beleaguered nation that was doing its utmost to crush the movement but finding the strikers bounce wider on the axis Y.

The attempts to break the strike cost over a hundred lives and damage to properties worth millions of dollars. But again, it was the same J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Havemeyer and their ilk who spearheaded talks with the unionists and introduced changes in their work process that was partly responsible for the industrial revolution in the United States. The reason for the railroad strike was a ten percent cut in wages due to the economic depression that the nation was preparing to face.

The unionists were not prepared to listen and wanted the management to improve working conditions. The bone of contention between the owners and the workers continued to swerve and dodge both parties that saw the emergence and disappearance of the boom-and-bust companies while the sagacious survived. People had migrated to the United States in large numbers from Europe and elsewhere looking for bright prospects and they were not going to be cowed down by incapable management. The railroad strike was just the beginning of the industrial episode.

“Subsequent events like the Homestead Steel Strike in 1892, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, and the battles of the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters in the 1920s reflect the reality and history of the experiences of many average Americans” (O’Donnell, Edward; 2008). It was enough to