How did the great railroad strike of 1877 demonstrate the power of workers?

That first week of July 1877, in Baltimore-a city where sewage ran through the streets-139 babies died. That year, there were a series of dramatic strikes by railway workers in a dozen cities that shook the nation as no labor dispute had ever done in history. It began with wage cuts in the different railway companies, which created tense situations, Salaries were already low ($ 1.75 a day for brakemen who worked twelve hours). There were dirty maneuvers and an excessive mercantilism on the part of the railway companies, there were many deaths and casualties among the workers, with loss of hands, feet, fingers, crushing of men among wagons etc. At the Baltimore & Ohio station in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the workers made the determination to fight the pay cut and went on strike, disconnected the machines and put them in the warehouse. They announced that there would be no more Martinsburg trains if the 10% cut was not suspended. In a short time, there were six hundred freight trains in the station of Martinsburg. The governor of West Virginia asked the newly elected president Rutherford Hayes to send federal troops. But much of the US military was engaged in battles with the Indians in the west and Congress still did not have a ready money for the army. So J.P. Morgan, August Belmont and other bankers offered a loan of money to pay the officers (not the troop). Federal troops arrived at Martinsburg, and freight trains began to roll.

b. 155 enlisted men and no officers