In the chronicles of American labor, there are 10 tragic times when the U.S. government massacred striking workers, shaping the rights we enjoy today. Throughout U.S. history, the working class has fought for better wages and safer conditions, and many of those battles erupted into bloodshed. Remembering the men and women who fell is essential to honoring the weekend, the eight‑hour workday, the end of child labor, and modern job safety.
10 Tragic Times of Government Violence
10 The Great Railroad Strike
On July 14, 1877, railway employees in Martinsburg, Virginia, walked off the job to protest a third wage cut within a single year. Their stoppage halted rail traffic, and the unrest quickly spread to Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Missouri, marking the nation’s first truly national strike.
Within six days, the first casualties occurred when Maryland National Guard troops confronted strikers in Baltimore, opening fire and killing 11 men while wounding 40. Shortly thereafter, Pennsylvania’s Guard unleashed violence in Pittsburgh, killing 40 workers, and federal troops in St. Louis dispatched as many as 18 lethal shots against demonstrators.
The bloodshed multiplied: Pennsylvania saw as many as 44 fatalities, Chicago recorded 30 deaths, and New York reported eight. By the time the turmoil subsided, more than 100 laborers had perished at the hands of police, state guards, and federal soldiers.
In the wake of this sweeping carnage, both labor activists and state authorities interpreted the events as a prelude to a larger struggle. State governments bolstered their National Guard units, while unions intensified recruitment and organizing drives. It would be nearly a century before the violent clash between labor and government finally eased.
9 Bay View Massacre
On May 1, 1886, a sweeping movement involving over 200,000 workers ignited across the country, demanding a federally enforced eight‑hour workday. In Milwaukee, the protest swelled to 12,000 participants.
By May 3, strikers had effectively shut down every factory in the city except the North Chicago Railroad Rolling Mills Steel Foundry in Bay View. A contingent of 1,500 demonstrators marched toward the mill, urging its workers to join the strike.
Local business owners, alarmed by the disruption, pressed Governor Jeremiah Rusk to deploy the National Guard. After three days of hesitation, Rusk dispatched 250 Guardsmen to the mill on the morning of May 4.
That day, tensions rose as strikers hurled rocks and shouted insults at the troops. The Guardsmen responded by firing warning shots above the crowd’s heads. By nightfall, the governor ordered Captain Treaumer to fire on any worker attempting to enter the plant. On May 5, as the crowd approached the line of soldiers, Treaumer gave the order to open fire, killing 15 individuals—including a retired bystander and a 13‑year‑old boy who had eagerly joined the protest. The massacre shattered the strike, delaying the widespread adoption of the eight‑hour day for many years.
8 Morewood Massacre
On February 2, 1891, over 10,000 coke‑oven operators and miners in Morewood, Pennsylvania, halted production, demanding better wages and an eight‑hour day under the United Mine Workers banner.
Negotiations with industrialist Henry Clay Frick continued through February and into March. By March 26, talks seemed close to a wage agreement, but the settlement ultimately fell apart.
On March 30, more than 1,000 strikers damaged company property, torching coke ovens and sabotaging railway lines. Pennsylvania Governor Robert E. Pattison responded by sending in the National Guard.
When workers tried to resume their protest on April 2, the Guard opened fire on the unarmed crowd, killing seven men. Frick then hired 100 strikebreakers to harass the remaining strikers. By May, the strike collapsed, and the bruised workers returned to the coke fields. Three years later, a letter published in the Pittsburgh Times revealed the grim sentiment of the laborers, who felt forced to choose between starvation and dangerous work.
7 Pullman Strike
On May 11, 1894, the newly formed American Railway Union launched a strike against the Pullman Company in Chicago, demanding union recognition, fair wages, and reasonable hours. The action sparked a nationwide railroad shutdown, affecting 27 states.
At its peak, more than 250,000 workers had walked off the job, crippling rail traffic and pressuring both local and federal authorities to intervene.
President Grover Cleveland responded by deploying thousands of U.S. Marshals and 12,000 Army troops across the western and mid‑western states, including Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Oklahoma, California, and Illinois.
The federal and state forces responded variably: some regions avoided direct clashes, while in Chicago, troops opened fire on strikers, killing over a dozen. In total, more than 30 workers were shot dead, with many more wounded during the conflict.
6 Lattimer Massacre
In August 1897, the Lehigh and Wilkes‑Barre Coal Company laid off workers at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, while simultaneously imposing wage cuts, higher rents on company housing, and longer, more hazardous shifts.
The harsh conditions spurred a strike involving primarily Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian, and German immigrants. By September, roughly 10,000 miners were on strike, initially securing higher wages before the company reneged on its promises.
Frustrated owners called upon Sheriff James L. Martin to break the strike. On September 10, Martin organized a posse of 300‑400 unarmed strikers heading to support fellow miners. When the posse’s demands to disperse were ignored, a deputy shouted, “Shoot the sons of bitches,” and the group opened fire on the peaceful crowd.
Nineteen men were killed, many shot in the back. Unlike earlier labor clashes, the Lattimer victims were unarmed civilians, underscoring the brutality of the suppression. A monument at the site records the atrocity, emphasizing that the victims were not combatants but innocent workers.
5 Chicago Teamsters’ Strike
In April 1905, employees of the Montgomery Ward department store in Chicago walked out over the owner’s use of non‑union subcontractors. The dispute quickly escalated when the Teamsters Union entered the fray in solidarity.
The Teamsters boasted a massive Chicago membership—about 30,000 of the union’s 45,000 total members—allowing the strike to spread across major employers throughout the city.
In retaliation, the Employers’ Association of Chicago raised millions of dollars (adjusted for inflation) to hire a large contingent of strikebreakers, granting them special legal protections that permitted aggressive, often violent, tactics.
Clashes between union workers and strikebreakers resulted in over 20 deaths among striking laborers, while none of the hired enforcers were killed. More than 400 workers sustained injuries before the strike finally ended in August.
4 Cabin Creek Strike
On April 18, 1912, West Virginia miners at Cabin Creek, under the United Mine Workers, initiated a strike demanding union recognition, higher wages, and safer conditions. Shortly after, miners at nearby Paint Creek joined the movement.
Mine owners responded by hiring the notorious Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency, a private paramilitary outfit that terrorized strikers for months, sabotaging food supplies, beating workers, and even firing weapons from a distance.
By September, thousands of miners from surrounding counties converged on the strike, but the owners, frustrated by revenue losses, pressured local law enforcement to intensify violent repression.
In February 1913, Sheriff Bonner Hill and his detectives escalated the crackdown by deploying an armored, weaponized train that bombarded the strikers’ camp with high‑powered rifles and machine‑gun fire, targeting leaders’ homes. The relentless assault demoralized the workers, yet resistance persisted until July 1913, when the strike was finally broken after more than 50 deaths and countless injuries, compounded by starvation and disease within the camp.
3 Ludlow Massacre
In September 1913, roughly 12,000 coal miners in Ludlow, Colorado, went on strike to protest low wages and hazardous working conditions. Colorado was the deadliest state for miners, with a fatality rate about twice the national average.
The United Mine Workers organized the strike, demanding union recognition, which would have reduced workplace deaths by about 40 %.
The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, owner of the mines, began evicting striking families from company towns, forcing them into a tent colony they had prepared for such an eventuality.
The mine owners enlisted the Baldwin‑Felts Detective Agency, a private gang of armed thugs, to harass the camp. Over months, the detectives illuminated tents with floodlights, randomly firing at workers, and occasionally killing or maiming them.
In October 1913, Governor Elias M. Ammons sent the National Guard to the area, hoping for peace. Instead, the Guard fraternized with the strikebreakers, blurring the line between law and violence.
After six months of stalemate, the owners pushed for a decisive blow. On April 20, 1914, machine‑gun fire ripped through the tent colony, killing 13 instantly. The union leader, lured out under the pretense of negotiations, was executed by National Guard troops. That evening, militiamen and detectives set fire to the camp, leaving the bodies of two women and eleven children burned among the ruins.
The massacre ignited national outrage, prompting hundreds of armed miners to march on the region, sparking the Colorado Coalfield Wars. Although the violent phase ended by early May, the strike lingered until December, concluding in defeat for the workers after nearly 200 deaths.
2 The Battle Of Blair Mountain
In May 1920, the Baldwin‑Felts Detective Agency entered Logan County, West Virginia, at the behest of coal‑mine owners to prevent miners from forming a union. Their mission began with the eviction of families suspected of union activity.
As the detectives swept through Matewan, local leader Police Chief Sid Hatfield and the mayor rallied armed miners, leading to a gunfight that left two miners, the mayor, and seven detectives dead. Hatfield emerged as a folk hero for the labor movement.
The conflict intensified over the next 15 months. Miners sabotaged equipment and struck, while owners continued evictions and hired replacement workers. The murder of Hatfield by relatives of slain detectives sparked a massive mobilization: up to 13,000 miners marched to Logan and Mingo counties, aiming to drive out the hired gunmen and secure unionization across southern West Virginia.
Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin, backed by mine owners, amassed a private militia and entrenched on Blair Mountain, a natural barrier blocking the march.
Skirmishes erupted on August 20, 1921. After a brief cease‑fire, Chafin ordered the murder of several union sympathizers, reigniting the siege. He even employed pilots to drop surplus World War I munitions—bombs and gas—on the striking workers.
President Warren Harding ordered federal troops to intervene, and General Billy Mitchell dispatched aircraft for reconnaissance. The troops arrived on September 2, prompting strike leaders to dissolve the march to avoid a bloodbath. Approximately 100 strikers lost their lives during the conflict.
1 Memorial Day Massacre
On May 26, 1937, steelworkers in Cleveland went on strike after smaller steel firms refused to follow US Steel’s lead in recognizing unions, instituting an eight‑hour day, and raising wages. The strike sparked a wave of action by both the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) across the nation.
On May 30, the Memorial Day holiday, about 1,500 striking steelworkers and supporters assembled at the SWOC headquarters in Chicago, preparing to march toward the non‑union Republic Steel mill.
At the mill’s gates, the unarmed crowd—comprising men, women, and children—met 250 armed Chicago police officers, hired and paid for by Republic Steel. Without any provocation, the police opened fire, discharging more than 100 rounds into the crowd, killing 10 people and wounding over 100, many of whom were hit in the back.
No officer faced indictment for the massacre. While the broader Cleveland strike eventually waned, the Chicago incident drew national attention to the steelworkers’ plight. Five years later, the workers secured union recognition and achieved many of their demands.