Dealing with Workers on The Transcontinental Railroad, Trey Bracelin

  There were many conflicts between the Workers on the Transcontinental Railroad and the Employers.
E.B Crocker was the Executive of the Railroad and he was trying to expand at a very fast rate. At the time there were many different competing railroad company's and some were less popular than others. In the early summer of 1867 E.B Crocker was in need of more workers and he was worried that he would have difficulties finding workers, so he wrote to the Project Contractor,his brother, Charles Crocker who then raised the wages $4 up to $35 a month.

 On June 25th the workers left their grading job along two miles of Eastern Sierra Slopes and went back to their camp. Construction Chief Harvey Strobridge became very stern with the workers, yelling at them and telling them to return to work. However the workers did not move because they had gone on strike,demanding that they were to be payed $40 a month and they were to have a reduction in hours, so they would only have to work 10 hours a day instead of from dusk till dawn. The workers claimed that their working conditions were dangerous and unfair and that Charles Crocker should meet their demands before they returned to work. Charles Crocker said that he would meet their demands but still, two days later the workers went on strike again demanding that they were to be payed $45 a month. As the Chinese workers were on strike, they were non-violent and they stayed in their camps and went about the day normally just without working.

 Charles Crocker saw past the fact that his workers had legitimate grievances and were not treated properly. Charles Crocker cut off the workers food supply in hopes that the workers would continue work after a week of poor rations. After a week C.Crocker returned to the camp after he had cut off the workers rations. C.Crocker did not change wages or hours and threatened that if the workers did not return to their labor, he would refrain from paying them for the rest of the month. Eventually most of the unfed workers went off strike and returned to theirs jobs after being fined. Some workers stayed on strike and were outraged at the others. C.Crocker sent in a posse of well-armed white men to force the workers off strike. Soon after all work on the mountain resumed.

 In Sacramento, California E.B Crocker and another CP executive, Mark Hopkins were advocating the action of taking advantage of the Freedman's Bureau in order to gain African American laborers from the east. The idea was that; "A Negro labor force would tend to keep the Chinese steady, as the Chinese have kept the Irishmen quiet." Meaning that with the addition of an African American labor force to the Chinese labor force, work on the railroads would stay steady because of the large amount of workers as the Irish have used large Chinese work forces to keep steady on their work.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-strike/