Railroad workers put in long hours; a 1907 law restricted train crews to 16 hours work out of every 24. Well into the twentieth century, work was unsteady and unsafe. One railroad worker in every 357 nationally died on the job in 1889.
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Each company faced unprecedented construction problems—mountains, severe weather, and the hostility of Native Americans.
Back in the 1800s and early 1900s, railroad work was famed for being dangerous and difficult. Railroad accidents were not uncommon. For example, many trains used wooden cars; thus, the impact of a collision could completely shatter the car and kill all occupants.
Railroad deaths totaled 954 in 2022, an 11% increase from the 2021 revised total of 859 and the highest since 2007. Nonfatal injuries totaled 6,252, a 6% increase from the 2021 revised total of 5,882.
Working on the RailroadTeamsters and graders received the least, while the iron men got the healthiest sum of anybody save their foremen. Like their Irish counterparts on the Central Pacific, the Union Pacific men had a staple diet of beef, bread, and black coffee.
Railroad Workers Were UnhappyEmployees often worked 10, 12 and even 16 hours a day. Sometimes they did not receive extra pay for the extra hours they worked. Conditions on the job were often very dangerous. Workers joined together to improve their poor working conditions and increase their salaries.
The railroad workers were paid, on average, a dollar a day. They lived in twenty railroad cars, including dormitories and an arsenal car containing a thousand loaded rifles. They worked hard and were usually able to lay from one to three miles of track per day depending upon the available materials.
The work was tiresome, as the railroad was built entirely by manual laborers who used to shovel 20 pounds of rock over 400 times a day. They had to face dangerous work conditions – accidental explosions, snow and rock avalanches, which killed hundreds of workers, not to mention frigid weather.
Because trains operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, railroad workers' schedules may vary to include nights, weekends, and holidays. Most work full time, and some work more than 40 hours per week.
In 1870 it took approximately seven days and cost as little as $65 for a ticket on the transcontinental line from New York to San Francisco; $136 for first class in a Pullman sleeping car; $110 for second class; and $65 for a space on a third- or “emigrant”-class bench.
The rail workers wanted seven annual paid sick days, which would cost the railroads an estimated $321 million annually–less than 2% of their annual profit. But the railroads balked at this demand, despite posting record profits of $21.2 billion in the first three quarters of 2022 alone.
U.S. employment in rail transportationAt the same time, working conditions for the employees remaining at these railroads have deteriorated. “Even the good pay and pensions aren't worth it anymore, because they're being so overworked,” said Schuhrke.
The IBEW and BNSF Railway reached an agreement April 20 to grant members four short-notice, paid sick days, with the ability to also convert up to three personal days to sick days. The union reached similar understandings with CSX and Union Pacific on March 22, and with Norfolk Southern on March 10.
Altogether, the Central Pacific Railroad hired an estimated 12,000 Chinese workers, some as young as 12. The Chinese workers, at that time the largest industrial workforce in American history, made up 90 percent of the Central Pacific's total labor force.