How Did The Industrial Revolution Encourage Strikes?

Protests and strikes are relatively new concepts. For hundreds of years every worker was a separate entity since the vast number of them lived agricultural lifestyles and served few people other than themselves. It was until the industrial revolution that the potential for large protests and strikes could occur because it concentrated workers and gave them a clear enemy whether it was the manager or the owner of the facility. This trend of having the industrial revolution as a significant requirement to strike is evident in both Europe and the United States. Although a decent number of other strikes had happened throughout American history few of them were against employers since the majority of employers had few workers yet alone enough to strike. One of the earliest and recognizable of these industrialized strikes was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 which turns out to have begun on July 14th. The other factor that resulted from the industrial revolution that encouraged strikes was the formation of unions
It was a relatively prosperous time for the United States because the war funneled millions of dollars into the private sector which boosted the economy. People had grown used to having disposable income as a result of the war effort and this would manifest itself in the Roaring Twenties. In the time period directly after the war people wanted changes to occur because they felt they had earned it. The war gave employees in many sectors a sense of privilege to accommodate their needs. People wanted more time to spend the money they had earned during the war and to sustain the new lifestyle employees needed a pay raise. In Scranton PA on July 14th, 1919, miners demanded a “6-hour day” and a “5 cent wage increase”. Mines were crucial during the war effort because they fueled the industries that were most prominent in the war effort, manufacturing