What were the challenges faced by railroad workers?

Railroad Workers Were Unhappy Employees 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.



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Labor Shortage In early 1865 the Central Pacific had work enough for 4,000 men. Yet contractor Charles Crocker barely managed to hold onto 800 laborers at any given time. Most of the early workers were Irish immigrants. Railroad work was hard, and management was chaotic, leading to a high attrition rate.

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Blasting through mountains to create tunnels was dangerous, as the main explosives included nitroglycerin. Native Americans thwarted the construction of railroads using violence. Many railroad workers had to physically defend themselves and some lost their lives.

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Conflicts broke out between major railroads, and larger lines took over small roads. Between the time of the Civil War and 1900 the Pennsylvania Railroad took over more than 600 formerly independent short lines. Rate discrimination (distorted costs for service) was a major issue.

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They had to face dangerous work conditions – accidental explosions, snow and rock avalanches, which killed hundreds of workers, not to mention frigid weather.

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In the middle of the nineteenth century, U.S. railroad companies were expanding at a breakneck pace, straining to span the continent as quickly--and cheaply--as they could. The work was brutally difficult, the pay was low, and workers were injured and killed at a very high rate.

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There was abuse of labor and destruction of the labor movement. The transcontinentals harmed Native Americans, and hastened the destruction of the buffalo. They opened lands to farming before the production was needed leading to oversupply and economic collapse. They brought in open range cattle a poorly run industry.

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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.

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By 1920 the United States possessed the most extensive railroad network in the world, with more than 250,000 miles of track. The railroads faced increasing problems, however, including the aftereffects of government operation during World War I, increased labor unrest, and growing competition from highway traffic.

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U.S. employment in rail transportation At 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.

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