Dealing With Workers

The working conditions where very bad on the West coast. Even in the early summer there where snow drifts up to 12 feet high, and the only way to build the railroad was to shovel a path. All the workers stayed at camps that where set up around the railroad, but the camps did not move with the progression so every day they had to walk an amount of miles to get back to camp. The workers on the railroad mostly consisted of Chinese and Irish immigrants.

The workers where working in very dangerous conditions for pay as low as 35 dollars a month. On one area of the Pacific railroad the Chinese tried to get their employers to raise their pay from 35 dollars to 45 and shorten their work hours to 10; however, they did not want to do that so they cut off all supplies to their camp in the mountains and did not pay them as a punishment. The workers finally went back to work so they would get food and pay but it did not settle the danger of working on the railroad. The workers will try to make the railroad a safe place to work but the employers will not.

The employers will only change the working conditions if the workers demand it and stop working to prove their point. As for dealing with the workers it is hard because the employers have to constantly make new payment plans for the workers and try to get a plan that both the workers and the employers agree with.
By Cordel Bever
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-strike