Railroad – Chinese Labor Strike, June 24th , 1867
华人铁路工人罢工——1867年6月24日

24 June 2019
Voices from the Railroad:Stories by descendants of Chinese railroad workers, published by the Chinese Historical Society of
America, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Library Collection
《铁路之声:华人铁路工人后代讲述的故事》,美国华人历史学会出版,美国华人博物馆(MOCA)图书馆藏书

While Chinese working on the First Transcontinental Railroad were often tasked with more dangerous work and longer hours than white workers, they made less than half the wages of their white counterparts and had to cover the cost of their food. On June 19th , 1867, a massive tunnel explosion killed one white worker and five Chinese workers. The last straw for the overworked, underpaid Chinese. On June 24th , three thousand Chinese workers spanning over thirty miles of tracks began a highly organized strike. The strikers demanded wages equivalent to their white counterparts and shorter hours, especially in the cramped, dangerous tunnels. The non-violent strike posed a lethal threat to Leland Stanford’s timely completion of the railroad, but Stanford ultimately undercut their show of force by cutting off all provisions to Chinese workers.

After eight days, the strike ended without any of the Chinese workers’ demands having been met, although over the next several months the company quietly raised the wage for more experienced workers. Still, the strike was no failure – through their massively coordinated effort, the Chinese workers not only demonstrated to the CPRR that it could not take the Chinese workforce for granted but challenged the prevailing racial stereotype of Chinese as passive, obedient, and without personhood. The legacy of this historic strike lives on in the continued struggle of Chinese Americans to receive adequate pay and safe working conditions, such as in the famed 1982 Chinatown Garment Strike of tens of thousands of immigrant women workers in New York.


尽管在第一条横贯大陆铁路上工作的中国人经常比白人工人承担更危险的工作和更长的工作时间,但他们的工资还不到白人工人的一半,而且必须为自己的食物付钱。1867年,6月19日,一场巨大的隧道爆炸造成一名白人工人和五名中国工人的死亡。对于那些工作过度、工资过低的中国工人来说,这是压垮他们的最后一根稻草。6月24日,三千多名华人工人跨越30多英里的轨道,开始了一场组织严密的罢工。罢工者要求与白人同样的工资和更短的工作时间,特别是在狭窄、危险的隧道里。这场非暴力罢工对利兰·斯坦福及时完成铁路建设造成了致命的威胁,但斯坦福最终还是切断了对中国工人的所有供应来削弱他们的示威力量。

8天后, 罢工结束,中国工人的任何要求都没有得到满足,尽管在接下来的几个月里,公司悄悄提高了比较有经验的工人的工资。当然,这场罢工并不是完全失败的——通过大规模协调努力, 中国工人不仅向中央太平洋铁路公司证明了他们不能把中国工人的努力视为理所当然,并且挑战了普遍存在的认为中国工人被动、顺从和没有人格的种族成见。这一历史性罢工的遗产在华裔美国人争取足够工资和安全工作条件的持续斗争中得以延续,例如1982年著名的唐人街服装工人罢工,当时纽约数万名移民女工参加了罢工。

Countdown to the TCS NYC Marathon on November 3, 2019: 216 Days.

2019年是美国第一条横贯大陆铁路建成150周年,为了纪念第一批华人来美建设这条铁路所做出的巨大贡献, MOCA将其2019 TCS NYC Marathon的活动命名为 MOCA Spike 150 – Running Forward With Our Stories! 鼓励大家通过马拉松公益跑,全国线上接力,以及一天一个故事的方式讲述150个华人的历史故事,敬请大家持续关注, 讲出华人自己的故事,回顾过去,立足现在,展望未来,共同书写美国历史,使之更加充实完整。

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