Unfortunately for organized labor and the country, 1892 was not a year to remember. The Homestead strike between Andrew Carnegie and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers began on July 1. By July 15, 20 people were dead and 300 Pinkerton strike breakers injured, but the plant was back in operation with strikebreakers under state militiamen guard. By November, having gained nothing, the workers called off their strike. In December, Jay Gould, the telegraph monopolist, died, leaving an estate valued at $72,000,000.

In June, 1893, the New York stock marked collapsed and coupled with the fall of the gold reserve below $100,000,000 mark, the country fell into four years of deep depression. In 1894, Eugene V. Debs led the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen out on strike in Chicago. The strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company spread to 20 companies in 27 states and territories. Federal troops were sent to break the strike. President Grover Cleveland issued an injunction against the union for supposedly obstructing the nation's mail and Debs was sent to jail for six months for ignoring the injunction. By August, 1894, the Pullman strike is broken. No concessions were made to the Railway Union.

It was a miracle that Local 35 survived these four years. Two other N.B.E.W. charters were issued in 1893 to Local Union 47, South Boston, and in 1894 to Local Union 56, Boston. Both went defunct during the depression, but some of the members joined Local Union 35.

In 1894, Henry Miler assumed the office of Grand Organizer with a salary and expenses and hit the road to again organize. Quinn Jansen became Grand President, with James Kelly remaining as Grand Secretary. Things were going just as badly at N.B.E.W. headquarters as in Boston, and the only means of communication between Local Unions was the newsletter, the "Electrical Worker."

In April, 1894, a Boston member wrote to President Jansen through the "Worker," "What's wrong with Bro. Miller? Four Hundred and Twenty Five dollars is a little too much to organize one union." Any member could write and state his view point through the "Worker," and on occasion two members would send in opposite viewpoints in the same issue. Most scribes used nicknames, because union men were constantly in fear of being terminated from work because of union affiliation and secret handshakes, signs and passwords were used to communicate and announce assemblies and meetings.

President Jansen recalled Bro. Miller, but Henry Miller resigned as organizer and returned to lineman work. He was electrocuted and fell from a pole, while working in Washington, DC, in 1896.

In 1895, Boston Local Union 35 held its first annual "Ball." Most workers were working at the Tremont Street subway tunnel, which began in April of 1895.