During the late 1800s, average
workers began to stand up against
the wealthy robber barons that
employed them. Below is the story of
George Hamilton, a railroad worker.
I think it is sick that while I struggle to
keep my malnourished1 children alive,
Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller,
and all those other robber barons are
living in their huge mansions with
more food, luxuries, and money than
they know what to do with. Well, the
George Hamilton
common working man isn’t going to
take it anymore. We’re standing up to those bullies, and we’re
going to take what is rightfully ours. First the workers started the
Knights of Labor, a labor union, after the Civil War. A labor union
is group of
workers,
joining
together to
fight for their
rights as
workers. This
labor union,
the Knights
of Labor
fought for
higher pay, a
shorter
working day,
the Pullman strike of 1894
1
malnourished: underfed, starving
and better working conditions. The big companies fought back
against the workers. They said that people in labor unions were
anarchists, people that want to get rid of all government. It’s true
that some people in the unions are anarchists (only because the
government refuses to help the common workers), but most of us
still believe the government can help us. But because the big
companies have spread this lie that all workers in labor unions are
anarchists, the government now wants to support the big
companies in the fight against the labor unions. In fact, the
government has used violence to keep the workers down. Just last
year, in 1894, the
government
attacked workers
from the company I
work for, the
Pullman Palace Car
Company, a
company that
makes railroad cars.
The Pullman Palace
workers being attack by federal troops at the
Car Company cut
Pullman Strike
wages by 25 percent,
but they didn’t lower the rent they charged workers to live in the
company housing. After the rent was taken out of our checks,
some of the workers, including me, didn’t take home any money
at all! I had no money to buy food for my family. Obviously, this
was a horrible situation for me and my fellow workers. We
couldn’t allow the Pullman Company to get away with treatment
like this. So we started a strike. A strike is when a group of
workers stop working until the company they work for gives into
their demands. We were demanding higher wages, and we
wouldn’t go back to work until the Pullman Company agreed to
give us higher wages. Every single railroad worker in the entire
country joined the strike to support us. Soon, we managed to stop
every train in the entire country. The railroad companies were
losing a ton of money because of the strike, and we would have
won if the government wouldn’t have stepped in. The railroad
companies convinced President Grover Cleveland to send the
army to stop the strike. The army came and fired on the striking
workers, killing dozens of them. I had to watch my friends
bleeding; dying. Well, we’re not giving up! A great man named
Samuel Gompers, a common cigar maker, has created the
American Federation of Labor (AFL). By using strikes and boycotts,
the AFL is winning workers shorter working hours and higher pay,
and still we will continue to fight for our rights as long as we live!