labor union history

The Great Strike Wave of 1946

[The 1946 coal strike] is the most momentous event in the country's peacetime history."
- Evansville Courier, 1946

When most people think of labor unrest in America they think of the 1930's, or the various major strikes of the 19th Century. The fact is that no year, before or since, saw so many strikes, and such a large percentage of people on strike, or so many industries effected by strikes, as 1946.
Never before had labor unions flexed so much muscle.

But that success also sowed the seeds of labor's long-term downfall.


Picketers (and dog) in jail during Rochester General Strike

The Battle in the Citadel of Capitalism

"They lay there, clinging to one another and trying to shield the more vulnerable parts of their bodies from the blows of the nightsticks, while the police hauled them apart and dragged them bodily into waiting patrol wagons."
- NY Times, March 31, 1948

Every once in a while an underdog defeats a Titan.
This isn't one of those times.

It isn't the victory of an underdog that inspires us so much as it is the incredible courage it takes to even challenge the overwhelming champion.

Sixty-one years ago the labor movement took the fight literally to capitalism's door-step in one of the most lopsided battles in history. The name of the underdog that championed the cause was Merritt David Keefe.

When writers strike

Most people think the Red Scare began on February 9, 1950, when Joseph McCarthy produced a piece of paper before the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, and proclaimed...

"I have here in my hand a list of 205 people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party, and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department."


Joseph McCarthy

Which Side Are You On?

On August 3, 1986, Florence Reece passed away at the age of 86. She was one of the greatest poets, songwriters, and social activists to ever come out of the Kentucky hills. Her signature song was "Which Side Are You On?"

The song is probably second only to The Internationale as a favorite for striking workers everywhere. It's a simple and powerful song that is only upstaged by the story behind it, and that's the story I want to tell.

Baby Strikers

On July 3, 1835, in Paterson, New Jersey, nearly 2,000 textile workers walked off the job. The strike was notable for several reasons.

For one thing the strikers weren't demanding more money, despite the fact that they only made $2 a week (adjusted for inflation, that would be $44 a week today). Their central demand was an 11-hour day (as opposed to the 13.5-hour days they were currently working), and only 9 hours on Saturday instead of a full day.
That in itself was significant enough. The first strike in American history to limit hours had happened only 7 years earlier, and was also in Paterson, New Jersey. That strike had been crushed after a week when the militia was called in.

The Memorial Day Massacre

Memorial Day in Chicago in 1937 was hot and sunny. On the prairie outside the Republic Steel's Chicago plant the strikers and their families began to gather for picnics. Women were dressed in their holiday best. Children could be seen riding on their father's shoulders.
Sam's Place was nearby. Once a dance-hall, Sam's was now the strike headquarters. Gradually the families drifted over to where a soup kitchen had been set up and where strike leaders gave speeches from a platform. A group of girls began singing IWW union songs, and the men joined in. Plans were being made for a mass demonstration, despite the rumors that the police had something big planned themselves.
The day seemed just too nice for anything bad to happen.

The Great Waterfront Strike

Around 8 o'clock in the morning on July 5, 1934, shop owners in the mission district of San Francisco were opening for business. Bankers and stock brokers were already at work in the financial district. Construction workers were busy building the new Oakland Bay Bridge.

Meanwhile, down near the waterfront, a Belt Line locomotive began nudging two refrigerator cars towards Matson Line docks on Pier 30. 1,000 police prepared to square off against 5,000 striking longshoremen in a pitched battle that would last all day long.
It was the first of two climatic episodes that would forever change the shape of labor unions on the west coast.

Prelude

When the economic barrier of color was broken down

Nothing scares the ruling elites more than when working men and women join together and refuse to allow themselves to be divided over petty concepts like race and ethnicity.
The election of Obama to the presidency is merely a milestone in a very long and well-traveled road.

"Never in the history of the world was such an exhibition, where with all the prejudices existing against the black man, when the white wage-earners of New Orleans would sacrifice their means of livelihood to defend and protect their colored fellow workers. With one fell swoop the economic barrier of color was broken down."
- AFL leader Samuel Gompers

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