The Buffalo switchmen's strike was a two-week
strike in August 1892 by railroad workers employed by three railroads in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
. The strike collapsed after two weeks when 8,000 state militia entered the town and other unions refused to support the workers.
Events of the strike
In early 1892, the
New York state legislature
The New York State Legislature consists of the Bicameralism, two houses that act as the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York: the New York State Senate and the New York State Assem ...
passed a law mandating a 10-hour work-day and increases in the day- and night-time minimum wage. Switchmen in Buffalo were members of the
Switchmen's Mutual Association, a national union with about 15,000 members. On August 12, switchmen in the Buffalo railyards struck the
Lehigh Valley Railroad, the
Erie Railroad
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 ...
and the
Buffalo Creek Railroad after the companies refused to obey the new law. Violence quickly broke out. On August 13, a number of abandoned rail cars were set on fire. The Buffalo police, sympathetic to the workers' cause, refused to help the railroads break the strike. On August 14, additional rail cars outside the city limits were set ablaze. The sheriff of
Erie County swore in a number of special deputies but was unable to stop the arson.
[The union publicly asserted that none of its members had set fire to the rail cars. It remains unclear whether union members or local hooligans committed the various acts of arson.]
On August 15,
Democratic Governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
Roswell P. Flower called out the
New York State Guard to restore order and protect the railroads' property. However, State Guard
Brigadier General Peter C. Doyle, commanding the Fourth Brigade, held a full-time position as an agent of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and was determined to crush the strike. Even though more than 8,000 soldiers invested the town, violence continued. As the 65th Regiment detrained 200 soldiers at a Buffalo train station on August 15, an unmanned train loaded with explosives steamed through the station. The explosives detonated, wounding three soldiers. Guard commanders soon found that many railroad tracks in the city had been mined. When trains passed over the tracks, the pressure of the train on the tracks set off the bombs. The striking switchmen claimed that they had not engaged in arson, and that the rail cars which had burned were abandoned. But Gen. Doyle refused to accept either claim. He ordered dozens of strikers imprisoned, and encouraged his troops to deal harshly with any workers who interfered, or seemed about to interfere, with the keeping of the peace.
The strike began to collapse. The railroads brought in hundreds of
strikebreakers
A strikebreaker (sometimes pejoratively called a scab, blackleg, bootlicker, blackguard or knobstick) is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers may be current employees ( union members or not), or new hires to keep the org ...
. Striking switchmen were beaten by troops and Erie County sheriff's deputies. Troops broke up mass meetings, clubbing workers with the butts of their rifles. The violence led switchmen on the
New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (known by the pronunciation of its acronym as the 'Nickel Plate') and the
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...
to strike in sympathy. The leaders of the switchmen's union called on other railroad unions to engage in a general strike in support of their job action. The president of the Switchmen's Mutual Association called the heads of the
Order of Railway Conductors, the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the
Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen to Buffalo for a meeting. But the August 23 conference was brief: The other unions refused to take their members out on strike. Unable to fight both soldiers and scabs without help, the switchmen ended their strike on August 25, 1892. The switchmen agreed to return to work, but the railroads
blacklist
Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...
ed most of the workers.
Impact of the strike
Prior to the Buffalo switchmen's strike, most railroad unions in the United States did not engage in consultation and coordination in order to increase their collective bargaining power. Attempts in 1886 and 1889 to form a federation of rail unions quickly collapsed. But the ARU would prove to be short-lived. The union was crushed in the violent
Pullman strike
The Pullman Strike comprised two interrelated strikes in 1894 that shaped national labor policy in the United States during a period of deep economic depression. First came a strike by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company' ...
of 1894. The union's collapse pushed Debs toward
Socialism
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
.
The Pullman strike also convinced many in the American labor movement that the government was a tool of corporate interests, and that they could no longer openly oppose large corporations. The Pullman strike caused a conservative shift in the
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...
from which the labor body has not emerged.
Notes
References
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{{Portal, Organized labour
1892 labor disputes and strikes
1892 in the United States
Labor disputes in New York (state)
Rail transportation in New York (state)
Rail transportation labor disputes in the United States
1892 in rail transport
United Transportation Union
History of Buffalo, New York
1890s strikes in the United States