Working Conditions For The Workers
Hours
The working conditions for Chinese labours on the railway are appalling to modern day standards. The Chinese labourers worked from the break of dawn until the sun went down, tiring them out. Their whole day had only three breaks in it, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This was the only time they were able to eat during the day. When they did eat there was almost nothing of nutritional value in their food, which resulted in sickness from scurvy because there was a lack of nutrition while they were working. Also, for their hard work and long hours, none of them got a proper pay. Instead of getting a decent salary, they were only paid $1.50 a day. Out of their salary they needed to pay for their lodging, food and tools. Waking up early, falling asleep late every day, and only getting $1.50 a day, was unfair and cruel to all the workers on the railroad.
Location
Some of the ties (wooden beams) needed to be carried by hand
Most of the Chinese labourers left their families in China to work on the railroad without knowing the consequences of what would happen. More than 80 present of the workers on the railroad were Chinese. Chinese immigrants left China to earn enough money to start a business in China when they retuned. Almost all of the workers that moved from China did not have enough money to return home and were forced to stay in Canada. Those who did leave Canada unfortunately most of them did not have enough money to start their own business in China. In addition, the railway was sometimes kilometers away from hospitals and there were not much supply’s being trucked along the railway. This caused more people sick and unable to work then if there were hospitals near the part of the railway being built. Being unable to see your family after you have tried to help them was extremely depressing for all of the workers
Dangers
Average sized crew, 23% would die working on the railroad
Along with bad working conditions and terrible location work on the railroad was very dangerous. Some locations of the railroad included going through mountainous terrain. When they were going through mountains they needed to bring all the logs needed to create a bridge across vast distances. Also, there were many casualties from a variety of causes. In some cases the wind on the mountains caused big boulders weighing hundreds of pounds falling and crashing on the workers. To conclude, there were many mistreatments of the Chinese labours on the railway.