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The 'robber barons' had enough power to get the police and national guard deployed to violently put down strikes and to protect employees working during strikes
by nitwit005 11y ago
The 'robber barons' had enough power to get the police and national guard deployed to violently put down strikes and to protect employees working during strikes. None of these CEOs have anywhere near that kind of influence.
They have lobbied quite a bit, but quite a few of those lobbying efforts have failed.
- gozur88 11y agoIn the late 1800s there wasn't any legal support for organized labor. Companies had the right to simply fire everyone who went on strike. After that it's just a question of moving squatters off your property, and for that you go to the police. That's not a question of CEO political influence - the laws unions needed to survive hadn't been passed yet.
- nitwit005 11y agoNo, they also got the police to deploy to remove them from public places, which was clearly protected speech. Violence by their hired security against employees, clearly illegal, was politely ignored. They rather blatantly controlled the police in some cases.
- gozur88 11y agoWell, sure, if you're going to throw in the qualifier "in some cases" you can make the case for anything. The normal state of affairs was for the workers to refuse to leave the factory, illegally, and for the local authorities to give them a lot of slack, because there were far more workers than owners. Look at the Homestead Mill strike, for example. The reason the battle itself and the eventual intervention of state militia was the local cops refused to do anything.
- nitwit005 11y agoMy point was that these tech CEOs don't have that kind of influence, and they don't. End of story.