United States 1888

Synopsis

The Burlington Railroad strike of 1888 was one of the most significant labor conflicts of the nineteenth century. It tested the power of one of the most important unions of that era, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), and the approach to organization that it exemplified. It also illustrated the problems of confronting large corporations with vast resources and wide influence. The BLE's defeat was a disaster for the strikers that anticipated the problems that unions would face in the following years. In the longer term, it reinforced the unions' tendency to emphasize skilled workers and relatively narrow jurisdictions.

Timeline

• 1868: Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants civil rights to African Americans.
• 1873: Financial panic begins in Vienna, and soon spreads to other European financial centers, as well as to the United States.
• 1878: The first commercial telephone exchange opens...