February 5 - The Fight for Craft Governance

On this day in labor history, the year was 1900.

That was the day the newly formed Building Contractors Council locked out 40,000 building tradesmen in Chicago.

The Contractors Council was founded in opposition to the power of the Building Trades Council.

Solidarity among the trades galvanized their ability to determine wages and working conditions throughout the city.

Hard-won gains included use of sympathy strikes, restriction of laborsaving machinery and apprentices, and work pace and production limits.

In 1899, citywide building trades contracts expired.

Backed by financiers, manufacturers and engineers, the new council demanded the unions abandon these gains and cut all ties with the Building Trades Council.

The contractors cited the more than 20 walkouts at the Montgomery Ward construction site as but one example.

The bosses’ were driven to destroy what historian Andrew Wender Cohen refers to as ‘craft governance’ in the city.

Incredulous, the crafts refused to recognize the contractors council or its demands.

The contractors locked them out.

They brought in 6000 scabs to continue construction work throughout the city.

Pitched battles continued daily in the streets between locked out tradesmen and scabs.

Many contractors brought in cots and food to non-union workers, keeping them on job sites until completion.

Labor-friendly Mayor Carter Harrison II offered to mediate, but refused police protection of scabs.

The contractors built up their own private force.

Then they injected an added racial dimension to the conflict.

Among the non-union workers, some were black tradesmen, briefly hired as construction workers and job site guards.

The lockout ended in a 1901 defeat for the Building Trades, whose ranks were decimated by 90%.

The building trades bounced back and were soon a formidable force in Chicago.