Labor History in 2:00

July 22 - The Michigan Copper Miners Strike of 1913

On this day in labor history, the year was 1913.

That was the day 9,000 copper miners in the Keweenaw region of Upper Peninsula, Michigan went on strike.

Organized by the Western Federation of Miners, the strike raged on for over eight months, witnessed devastating tragedy in a Christmas Day fire and ended in bitter defeat.

The strike was waged over basic issues like the eight-hour day, higher wages, mine safety and union recognition.

But strikers were also fed up with the company’s paternalism and intrusion into their personal lives.

They also worried for their jobs with the introduction of labor saving machinery. The WFM succeeded early on in shutting down the mines. But the copper barons wouldn’t budge.

By August, many mines reopened with scab labor.

Later that month, deputies shot two strikers dead and wounded two others, as they returned home from attempting to collect strike benefits.

The incident became known as the Seeberville massacre.

Striking miners were absolutely devastated when on Christmas Day, 73 people, mostly children, were trampled to death during a Christmas party and benefit at the Italian Hall in Calumet.

Witnesses remembered seeing a man with a Citizens Alliance button just moments before someone yelled ‘Fire!’ that caused the stampede.

Soon after the Italian Hall disaster, WFM president Charles Moyer was shot by a Citizens alliance mob, then loaded, bleeding, onto a train bound for Chicago.

By April, the union was broke, the strike was broken and miners resolved to return to work. Bosses would only rehire strikers once they had turned in their union cards.

The copper mines in the region would finally be organized some 30 years later in a campaign led by Mine Mill during the years 1939 to 1943.

July 21 - The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Erupts

On this day in labor history, the year was 1877.

That was the day that some of the worst violence of the Great Railroad Strike erupted in Pittsburgh.

The strike started days earlier. It is contested as to whether it began in Martinsburg, West Virginia or Baltimore.

The strike spread rapidly along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to New York State, Pennsylvania and throughout the Midwest.

At its height, the Great Railroad Strike involved well over 100,000 workers.

The strike began on the Pennsylvania Railroad on the 19^th.

Management repeatedly tried to move trains through the yards and was confronted by angry strikers. Pennsylvania Guardsmen were called out.

The strikers presented the railroad with their demands: they wanted an end to double engine trains that required fewer workers, wages reinstated, reinstatement for their fired coworkers and an end to pay grades.

Local militia sided with the strikers and refused to show for duty.

When thousands of strikers gathered at the depot, the Pennsylvania National Guard moved unsuccessfully to disperse them.

Then they fired on strikers, killing 20 and wounding 29.

The strikers were infuriated by the deadly aggression and drove guardsmen into a nearby railroad roundhouse.

Word spread quickly throughout the city of the massacre, launching a virtual general strike. Workers began seizing arms wherever they could find them.

They set fires to dozens of railroad buildings, burned down the Union Depot, destroyed over 100 locomotives and more than 1000 freight and passenger cars.

The next day, guardsmen shot their way out of the roundhouse, killing 20 more as they were chased from the city.

A total of 3000 federal troops would be necessary to quell strikers’ fury by month’s end.

July 20 - Bloody Friday

On this day in labor history, the year was 1934.

That was the day that came to be known as Bloody Friday.

Minneapolis Teamsters had been on strike for three days in their third strike of the year.

The trucking bosses had reneged on their May settlement.

They refused to recognize union organization of inside workers.

In the period between strikes, the union had documented hundreds of cases of discrimination.

Now, 7,000 Teamsters effectively shut down trucking throughout the city. Local 574 leaders established a daily strike bulletin.

The Organizer, as it was called, would serve to guide strikers to victory.

In his book, Revolutionary Teamsters,historian Bryan Palmer notes that the first few days of the strike had been quiet.

Then on this day, police attempted to break the picket lines by running what seemed to be a lone scab truck through the lines.

It was later discovered the truck was moving no merchandise, but was used to draw strikers into a confrontation.

When flying pickets moved to stop the truck, they were ambushed. Police opened fire on unarmed pickets and then sprayed those who attempted to escape with buckshot.

At least 48 were wounded. Striker Henry Ness and Unemployed Council supporter John Belor were killed.

Palmer notes that Ness had been shot point blank in the chest. Doctors pulled 38 slugs from his body.

“His death bed injunction repeated word of mouth among the strikers: “Tell the boys not to fail me now.”

More than 40,000 turned out to pay their respects to the World War I veteran and father of four.  Palmer adds that, “Bloody Friday had lasted a matter of minutes.

But its’ meaning would leave a mark on the very fabric of Minneapolis socio-economic relations…”

July 19 - The ‘34 General Strike in San Francisco Winds Down

On this day in labor history, the year was 1934.

That was the day San Francisco’s Central Labor Council voted narrowly to end the general strike, then in its fourth day.

It had been one of three historic strikes that turned the tide towards industrial organizing in the 1930s.

It emerged as part of the ongoing longshoreman’s strike, which started in May.

The decision was controversial.

Longshoremen and seamen raged that leadership of the strike had been torn from them by more conservative elements.

As author of Workers on the Waterfront, Bruce Nelson puts it, “after two and a half months on strike, literally thousands of arrests, at least six deaths and hundreds of serious injuries, the men and their families were holding the line.

But their allies were gradually cutting the ties of solidarity that had been the strike’s lifeblood.”

The shipping bosses forced a vote for arbitration from the longshoremen, and withoutthe seamen.

As Nelson notes, this served to drive a wedge between the two unions, creating a rift that would only deepen.

The two would continue to strike until the end of July.

But the strike left longshoremen emboldened.

They pushed back on the job, driving off scabs and establishing work rules and conditions ahead of the arbitrator’s ruling, which came in October.

The hiring hall was finally established.

While it was decided that the union and the shipping bosses would rule the hall jointly, the union controlled the position of dispatcher.

This meant the union determined hiring, which put an end to the despised ‘shape-up.’

The award also mandated wage raises and a coast-wide contract.

It would serve as a catalyst for the founding of the ILWU three years later.

July 18 - Striking for Dignity

On this day in labor history, the year was 1969.

That was the day hospital workers in Charleston, South Carolina won union recognition.

The 113-day strike reflected all the broader social issues of the day.

Led primarily by black women, the strike at the Medical College, Charleston County and several other hospitals intersected civil rights and racial and gender discrimination on the job.

Jewel Charmaine Debnam notes that women like Local 1199B president Mary Moultrie, Naomi White and others were “essential to the strike not only as daily participants on the picket line but also as leaders of the local movement establishment.”

For months, strikers marched, walked picket lines, clashed with police and held vigils demanding their right to organize.

They defied injunctions and endured hundreds of arrests, nightly curfews and confrontation with the State National Guard.

Governor McNair and the hospital boards had initially refused to concede to the workers’ demands for union recognition.

They claimed workers paid with public funds could not engage in collective bargaining. But the women were steadfast.

They pointed to the wage disparities between black and white workers and between male and female workers.

They also protested the blatant disrespect and discrimination meted out daily by management.

Local longshoremen solidarized with the strikers and threatened a walkout in support if their demands were not met.

Coretta Scott King and many other Civil Rights leaders also played a supportive role.

Finally, the new union won reinstatement of fired workers, which had touched off the strike, a solid grievance procedure, a minimum wage raise and access to the credit union.

Victory would be short lived however when the State almost immediately refused to hold up its end of the agreement.

July 17 - Lumber Workers Put Down Their Axes

On this day in labor history, the year was 1917.

That was the day 50,000 lumber workers across the Pacific Northwest participated in an industry-wide strike, called by the Industrial Workers of the World.

The IWW had been organizing loggers for years around wages, hours, working conditions and camp sanitation.

The IWW began building for the strike in the aftermath of the Everett Massacre the previous fall.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn started touring camps in Idaho.

By March, the Wobblies established Local 500 of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union in Spokane to organize actions across the region.

In his book, Empire of Timber, historian Erik Loomis details the chronology of events that led to the momentous walkout.

In Idaho, loggers began walking off the job in April, when demands for improved bunkhouses and food, higher wages and the eight-hour day were refused.

The strike spread to Washington State, the rest of Idaho and into Montana and Oregon.

Loomis notes that by August, “they made employers feel their wrath.” The strike cut production by over 80% and threatened war materiel.

Infuriated timber bosses demanded federal troops be sent in to crush the strike and IWW leaders be prosecuted for treason and sabotage.

Raids and arrests were orchestrated throughout the Pacific Northwest and the strike began to stall.

After 10 weeks, the IWW called off the strike but instructed workers to quit work after eight hours.

They continued to lead sanitation-related job actions that would substantially change conditions for the better.

July 16 - Bloody Thursday

On this day in labor history, the year was 1934. That was the day fatalities on Bloody Thursday touched off a four-day general strike in San Francisco. 

It was the first time a general strike had shut down a major U.S. port city. The strike had been raging since May. Workers battled with police days earlier as the shipping bosses tried to force open the docks. Two workers were killed. More than 40,000 poured into Market Street to march silently in their funeral procession. 

Outrage fueled plans for a general strike. Twenty-one unions across the city voted to walk. In his book Strike!, Jeremy Brecher notes the momentum for a general strike was unstoppable, despite attempts by AFL leaders to prevent it. 

By 8 a.m. on this day, the San Francisco General Strike began. Over 150,000 workers including teamsters and butchers, restaurant and transit workers joined longshoremen and seafarers in shutting down the ports, the city and the highways. 

But as Brecher points out, the strike was met with a powerful counter-attack. Hundreds of special deputies were sworn in. The National Guard was called out, “complete with infantry, machine guns, tank and artillery units; state officials were poised on the edge of declaring martial law.” 

Vigilante raids began on the 17th, with assaults on the Marine Workers Industrial Union and the offices of the Western Worker newspaper and strike bulletin. Many other gathering places and homes where strikers regularly met were also busted up.  Hundreds were rounded up, beaten and arrested. 

The city’s Central Labor Committee authorized exceptions that eroded the strike’s power. In the face of violent raids and opposition from AFL leaders, the General Strike Committee voted to end the strike.

July 15 - The 1959 Steel Strike

On this day in labor history, the year was 1959.

That was the day half a million steel workers walked off the job in a historic, 116-day strike to defend work rules.

It was the largest industry-wide strike and also the last.

The strike affected 12 steel companies and shut down more than 85% of steel production. Mill owners refused to grant wage increases unless the union agreed to changes in the contract.

Specifically, they were looking to eliminate Section 2 (b), titled “Local Working Conditions.”

The bosses wanted the ability to change the number of workers assigned to any given task.

They also wanted to introduce machinery and rules that would reduce labor hours and cut the work force.

USWA members understood this as an assault on workplace safety and a move to break the union.

Mill bosses hoped that a long strike would provoke the membership to abandon their union.

But, according to Jack Metzgar, author of Striking Steel, members had grown used to walkouts every 3 years and planned accordingly.

As well, the USW had a “well-oiled machinery including an internal welfare system for hardship cases and also reached out to merchants, banks, charitable agencies, and local and state governments” to organize relief.

By the end of August, the Defense Department stoked anxieties that national security was at risk.

Three months into the strike, union funds dwindled. Strikers felt the pinch.

President Eisenhower invoked a Taft-Hartley injunction, hoping to force strikers back to work.

As the union rose to challenge Taft-Hartley’s constitutionality, solidarity among the mill owners crumbled.

Kaiser Steel broke ranks and settled separately.

Their contract granted wage increases and preserved section 2(b).

It set the precedent for the contract that was eventually signed industry-wide.

July 14 - A Summer of Public Sector Strikes

On this day in labor history, the year was 1978.

That was the day municipal workers in Cleveland, Louisville and Philadelphia walked off the job.

That summer was rocked with public sector strikes, starting with a firefighters strike in Memphis.

In Cleveland, municipal services came to a virtual halt as city workers honored a police work stoppage.

In Louisville, firefighters walked off the job, after the Kentucky Labor Relations Board found the city guilty of unfair labor practices.

And in Philadelphia, 20,000 AFSCME members, including sanitation, highway and health department workers rejected a last minute contract offer.

They demanded wage increases.

But they were also furious when the city announced it would have to lay off city workers to pay an arbitration award to the police.

Sanitation strikes soon followed in New Orleans, San Antonio, Detroit and Tuscaloosa.

By the third week of July, transit workers in Washington DC staged a wildcat strike, as did postal workers in California and New Jersey.

Labor historian Joseph McCartin notes that public sector strikes peaked in 1975 and again in 1978.

By the late 70s, “the volatile recipe of rising public sector union militancy, inflation and anti-tax reform made public sector unions more vulnerable than at any other time.

Suddenly the union became a convenient scapegoat for public officials dealing with declining relative tax revenues, demands for improved public services and taxpayer unrest.”

McCartin adds that by 1978 public employers came out swinging in labor disputes.

Public sector unions would struggle to “hold their own in an increasingly hostile environment…as their ability
to strike was being severely eroded.”

The backlash against public sector militancy set the stage for President Reagan’s smashing of PATCO just 3 years later.

July 13 - Striking News in Detroit

On this day in labor history, the year was 1995.

That was the day 2500 pressmen, reporters, drivers and clerks went on strike against the Detroit Newsand the Free Press.

Both newspapers had created a virtual monopoly in 1988 by merging their advertising and circulation departments into the Detroit Newspaper Association.

Even as the DNA raked in record profits, they forced years of concessions, including wage freezes and lay offs.

When the Association implemented a merit raise system, the Newspaper Guild voted to strike.

Five other unions, including CWA and Teamsters soon followed.

The newspapers were ready. Just before the strike, they cut off the dues check-off.

They also contracted with the company, Alternative Work Force, to provide scabs.

And they hired private security guards from Huffmaster and Vance International to enforce the scab herding.

A solid union boycott cut revenues for both newspapers.

On August 19, hundreds of strikers stopped scabbing until police attacked the picket lines, breaking arms and arresting at least four.

Then, on Labor Day weekend, thousands of strikers and supporters successfully repulsed police forces amassed from across the state to break up picket lines.

By mid-September, both newspapers were forced to airlift the Sunday edition until strikebreaking injunctions limited pickets.

Over a hundred had been arrested over the course of several weeks.

Unable to stop production, strikers gradually returned to work until the strike was finally called off in February 1997.

In his two volume set, Workers in America, Robert Weir notes that many labor activists criticized strike tactics.

They argued direct action to stop production should have been the priority rather than boycotts and political pressure.

Once the strike ended, the DNA claimed all but a few had forfeited their jobs.