@Moon I wasn't really taught anything about this in school, so they skipped it for my generation I guess? Everything I know has been my own research.

> because workers in the west coast had successfully fought for strong worker protections

What's the timeline you're talking about here? What labor unions? I can't find anything on the West having strong worker protections, etc. The 1877 railroad strike was in the East not the West from what I can find. The first big union for railroad workers was American Railway Union in 1893. Before then there wasn't really a railroad union.