The Great Railroad Strike of 1877: Shutting Down the Nation

​When management pushes too far and expects the working class to just absorb the cost of their greed, they are going to get a wake-up call. On July 14, 1877, workers for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Martinsburg, West Virginia, had finally had enough. The company had just cut their wages for the third time in a single year, all while still paying out massive dividends to their wealthy shareholders.

​Instead of taking the hit, the workers uncoupled the locomotives, parked the trains, and declared that not a single piece of freight would move until their pay was restored. This wasn't just a local walkout—it was the spark that ignited the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. The strike quickly spread from state to state, with over 100,000 workers eventually walking out and shutting down the transportation network of the entire country. While the government eventually sent in federal troops to break the picket lines, the strike proved for the first time in American history that when working people across the country stand together, we have the power to stop the entire economy in its tracks.

​Source: https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events/1877-great-strike