Labor Day is coming up next weekend and it’s observed nationally as a tribute to the contributions of American workers.
West Virginia holds some of the deepest, most defining historical ties to the labor movement that underpins the holiday.
Labor Day first originated in 1882 in New York during the grassroots effort by trade unions to secure better working conditions, reasonable hours, and official recognition of the working class.
Workers across our state took part in Labor Day parades and union rallies in the 1880s and 1890s, but West Virginia did not formally pass its own state legislation adding the first Monday in September to the official state legal holiday code until 1899.
Of course, West Virginia was the battleground for some of the largest labor uprisings in American history.
The B&O Railroad Strike of 1877 is just one of many examples, but it’s significant because it turned into America’s first nationwide industrial strike.
When the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad cut wages for the third time in a year, workers in Martinsburg uncoupled locomotives and refused to let freight trains run until their pay was restored.
The strike spread rapidly across the country and West Virginia Governor Henry M. Mathews sent the local state militia to Martinsburg to clear the tracks. Matthews was the first Confederate elected as a Governor and was barely four months into his term when he sent in the militia to try and put down the strike.
However, most of the militiamen were friends, neighbors, or former coworkers of the strikers. So, instead of breaking it up, many members of the the Berkeley Light Infantry joined the strikers on the picket line, forcing the governor to call for federal military intervention.
B&O strikers in Martinsburg unexpectedly got the support from the boatmen from the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal. The B&O Railroad owned coal companies that were undercutting boatmen’s wages, so canal workers marched onto the tracks to help block B&O freight lines.
The strike ended 52 days later, finally put down by unofficial militias, the National Guard, and federal troops. But not before over 100,000 people were involved in the strike and of those involved, nearly a thousand were jailed, and as many as 160 were killed. The strike caused over half of the national rail freight to stop for some time.
In 2003, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops, where the strike began, were declared a National Historic Landmark.
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 that began in Martinsburg demonstrated the collective power of organized labor and galvanized the broader labor movement that eventually pushed the nation to recognize workers, and celebrate them on Labor Day.