Editing General Strike of 1835 (section)

== Victory and Aftermath ==

Employers initially resisted the strikers' demands, but the breadth of the walkout—and the difficulty of replacing so many workers simultaneously—eventually forced concessions. By mid-June, major employers in construction and other industries had agreed to implement the ten-hour day. The municipal government followed suit, establishing ten hours as the standard for public works projects. The victory was not total—some employers found ways to evade the agreement, and enforcement remained inconsistent—but the ten-hour day became the norm in Philadelphia for decades, spreading to other cities and states as workers elsewhere organized their own campaigns.<ref name="sullivan"/>

The 1835 strike's success had lasting implications for the American labor movement. It demonstrated that workers from different trades, different ethnic backgrounds, and different skill levels could unite in common cause when properly organized. It showed that general strikes could be conducted peacefully and could achieve concrete results. And it established the ten-hour day as a realistic demand around which workers could mobilize. The panic of 1837 and the depression that followed devastated labor organizations and reversed many of the gains of the mid-1830s, but the memory of 1835 persisted, inspiring later generations of workers. The eventual establishment of the eight-hour day in the 20th century built on foundations laid by Philadelphia's ten-hour pioneers.<ref name="foner"/>