Labor History in 2:00

March 6 - International Unemployed Day

On this day in labor history, the year was 1930.

That was the day hundreds of thousands of activists and unemployed poured into the streets worldwide for International Unemployed Day.

It was a coordinated campaign to protest conditions created by the stock market crash just four months earlier.

Workers and the poor were the first to feel the most devastating impacts of what was quickly becoming the Great Depression.

Organized primarily by Communists, the day’s actions highlighted the work of the newly formed Unemployed Councils and had a mass appeal.

The Unemployed Councils worked to distribute food, prevent evictions, secure utilities and link the needs of the unemployed to the trade unions.

The councils mobilized the unemployed in support during strikes as a way to stop scabbing. They organized hunger marches and protests at relief offices. 

Tens of thousands came out in every city for Unemployed Day demonstrations.

In North America, cities like Boston, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Seattle and San Francisco all drew massive crowds estimated at 40,000 to 50,000 each.

Protesters demanded jobs and unemployment insurance.

In Chicago, tens of thousands overwhelmed the streets for over twelve hours.

In Detroit, and New York City, competing organizers challenged crowd estimates, with as many as 100,000 turning out in each city.

Confrontations broke out between protestors and police in both cities. Across the country, many of the unemployed were arrested or hospitalized.

In New York City, outraged communist activists asserted that protesters were met with water hoses, tear gas and guns as they marched down Broadway to City Hall.

Critics argued that crowd estimates were wildly exaggerated.

But the day of action forced governments around the world to acknowledge deteriorating conditions and devastating impact of the Great Depression.

March 5 -Lordstown Syndrome

On this day in labor history, the year was 1972.

That was the day autoworkers at GM’s Chevy Vega plant in Lordstown, Ohio walked out on strike.

The strike lasted for 18 days.

The issues that fueled it were reminiscent of the sit-downs and wildcats that built the UAW in the 30s and 40s.

Workers at Lordstown wanted greater control over the production process.

The young, integrated workforce of the 1960s social protest era was fed-up with long days, forced overtime, increased automation and dangerous speedup on the assembly line.

Long-standing grievances numbered in the thousands and disciplinary firings were common. Absenteeism was rampant.

Morale was so low that cars left the assembly line incomplete or vandalized.

By the time the strike ended, many felt it was called to simply allow workers to blow off steam.

There was no real change to the production process.

But jobs eliminated in the 1970 contract were restored and some 1400 disciplinary layoffs were dropped.

The worker malaise suffered there came to be known as the “Lordstown Syndrome.”

In his book Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, Jefferson Cowie notes that the strike compelled the Senate to hold hearings on alienation at work.

Its’ committee produced the report Work in America.

This report confirmed, “many workers at all occupational levels feel locked in, their mobility blocked, the opportunity to grow lacking in their jobs, challenge missing from their tasks.”

Cowie concludes that the strike and report “initiated the quality of work life movement that sought to redesign work, introduce automation differently and invest in ‘human relations’ strategies, most of which continued to empower management, not workers—albeit with a gentler hand.”

March 4 - Mismanagement Kills an Airline

On this day in labor history the year was 1989.

That was the day Machinists struck Eastern Airlines.

After bankrupting Continental Airlines to void union contracts there, the much-hated Frank Lorenzo hoped for a repeat at Eastern Airlines.

Lorenzo bought Eastern with junk bonds and then bled the airline’s profits dry to finance the debt of his holding company, Texas Air.

12,000 jobs were lost at Eastern in just two years under Lorenzo.

Machinists had every reason to believe wages would be cut in half in the next contract.

In the weeks building up to the strike, management made its union busting clear by firing dozens of shop stewards at airports across the country.

Machinists walked out at Miami airport a month earlier over forced overtime.

Nationwide, many complained they were forced to work anywhere between 24-36 hours straight.

Five days into the strike, Lorenzo filed for bankruptcy.

Picket lines were solid and the strike was popular.

Many trade unionists joined picket lines in support.

The strike against Eastern symbolized a fight to take back everything lost during the Reagan years.

The Air Line Pilot’s Association and Flight Attendants organized by TWU voted to walk out in solidarity.

They stayed out for more than eight months with striking machinists.

But when the pilots and flight attendants went back to work, it left machinists isolated.

Many argued that with contracts expiring at many airlines soon after the walkout, an industry wide strike could only bolster chances for machinists at Eastern to win.

But by early 1991, the strike had become a devastating loss.

Eastern ceased operations altogether in January and its assets were liquidated.

March 3 - Wildcat Strikes Hit Chrysler and Briggs

On this day in labor history, the year was 1945.

National headlines feared the growing wildcat strikes at Chrysler and Briggs auto plants in Detroit.

As of March 3, the wildcats had increased to 35,000 strikers and idled workers at two Chrysler plants and seven Briggs plants.

The strike wave started a week earlier at the Dodge Main plant in Detroit.

Eight of the union’s best leaders had been discharged for refusing to go along with production line speed-up.

Briggs management followed Chrysler’s union-busting campaign by firing seven UAW officers at the Mack Avenue plant.

Three days later, Briggs fired another eight committeemen and stewards, which then provoked the walkout.

Company officials and the War Labor Board were outraged at the halt in war production of tanks, B-29 Super Fortresses, anti-aircraft guns, ambulances, rockets, and trucks.

The Michigan legislature introduced a bill to define as a felony, any strike participation that violated a labor relations contract.

As well, the War Labor Board demanded that both sides meet in Washington to end the walkout.

Strike leaders defied the wartime no-strike pledge and ignored the International’s threats of disciplinary action.

Strikers had the full backing of local UAW presidents.

The UAW executive board conceded that management provoked the wildcatting through indiscriminate firings.

Workers argued that if the War Labor Board prioritized production over union busting, they would order the reinstatements of discharged leaders.

The Flint Labor Council passed a resolution demanding that all CIO and other union representatives resign immediately from the War Labor Board.

It considered the board as stacked against Labor.

Workers at Chrysler and Briggs would soon end their walkout with guarantees of arbitration for reinstatement of fired militants.

March 2 - Greyhound Bus Strike Begins

On this day in labor history, the year was 1990.

That was the day 9,300 workers walked out at Greyhound Bus Lines.

The 1980s devastated Greyhound workers.

First, the industry had been rocked by President Carter’s deregulation of the transportation industry.

Then, a bitter 1983 strike ended in defeat for workers. Concessionary contracts, deep wage cuts and a two-tier system were firmly established by the time contract negotiations started in early 1990.

The Amalgamated Transit Union negotiated terms closer to what was lost over the past decade, but new owners at Greyhound wouldn’t have it.

They claimed $300 million in debt.

The ATU insisted the company had been turning handsome profits.

Pickets went up at depots and garages around the country, while hundreds of scab drivers were hired.

With a week’s worth of training, they were soon operating 10-ton buses unsafely.

Riders complained of replacement drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

The strike soon turned violent and deadly.

There were reports of sniper fire and bomb threats.

Many charged these were fake stories, meant to spike public support for the strike.

Early on, 59-year old Robert Waterhouse was run down by a scab driver while on the picket line in Redding, California.

Waterhouse had 30 years as a driver with the company and had planed his retirement for that summer, when he was killed.

ATU reported many more picket line injuries.

Within a month, the company was operating with 2400 replacement drivers.

The company filed for bankruptcy in June.

After three years, they would finally agree to $22 million in back pay, reinstate hundreds of drivers and raise wages.

But the number of drivers was cut in half. It would take the ATU years to rebuild its strength.

March 1 - The Hoover Dam Goes Public

On this day in labor history, the year was 1936.

That was the day Hoover Dam was formally turned over to the federal government.

It was a massive undertaking.

Approved by the Coolidge Administration in 1928, work began to divert and then dam the Colorado River in 1931, creating Lake Mead.

Thousands of unemployed flocked to the area in search of jobs.

More than 21,000 were employed over the course of 5 years, with as many as 5200 working on any given day.

Workers were paid an average of 50 cents an hour with higher pay for skilled work.

Governmental hiring terms included preference to veterans and no hiring of Asians.

The Colored Citizens Labor and Protective Association of Las Vegas protested de facto hiring discrimination against blacks.

Their eventual representation among the employed totaled and estimated 24 to 30 for the duration of the project.

A few Native Americans were hired as high scalers to remove loose rock with jackhammers and dynamite.

Estimated fatalities ranged from 96 to over 150.

Many died from falls, heat-related illnesses, falling debris, heavy equipment and carbon monoxide poisoning from tunnel work.

The project was rocked by at least two documented strikes.

The Industrial Workers of the World attempted to organize there. Workers struck over wage cuts and working conditions.

They repeatedly demanded flushing toilets and cold, clean running water, especially in temperatures as high as 120 degrees in the summertime.

At the time Hoover Dam was turned over to the government, it was the tallest dam and the largest hydroelectric station.

It currently generates about 4 billion-kilowatt hours of hydroelectric power for Nevada, Arizona and California.

February 28 - Fighting for Equal Pay

Today in Labor History, February 28, the year was

On this day in Labor History the year was 1942. 

That was the day that Sue Cowan Williams filed a lawsuit for equal pay for black school teachers in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Eighty-six black teachers worked in the city’s segregated school system.

They were all members of the Little Rock Class Room Teachers Association. 

In 1941 the teachers formed a Salary Adjustment Committee to look into pay discrimination.

They found there was a wide gap between black and white salaries. 

The average white elementary school teacher made $526 a year, while black teachers earned only $321. 

White high school teachers brought home $856, but black teachers made only $567. 

Backed with this research, the committee presented a petition to the School Board demanding an end to the pay discrimination.

The board tabled the petition, and that summer passed another round of unequal pay raises. 

The teachers then approached the NAACP and asked them to handle their case. 

Thurgood Marshall agreed to take up the lawsuit.

Marshall would go on to become the first black US Supreme Court Justice. 

Sue Cowan Williams, the head of the English Department at Dunbar High School was selected as the plaintiff for the case. 

The teachers lost their lawsuit, and then won on appeal. 

But Williams paid a price for her involvement. 

The next year the school district did not renew her contract.

She was finally rehired to teach at Dunbar a decade later. 

But first the School Superintendent called Williams to ask if she had “learned her lesson.” 

It was a lesson that many workers have learned—that there is often a high personal cost for standing up for justice on the job.

February 27 - The 1937 Woolworth Sit-Down

On this day in labor history, the year was 1937.

That was the day whistles blowing and the call to strike could be heard through the aisles of Woolworth in downtown Detroit.

108 saleswomen walked away from their workstations and cash registers.

The eight-day sit-down had begun.

The young women saw from the experience in Flint that sit-down strikes could win.

They evicted management, barricaded the doors and found 200 or so customers still inside the store, wanting to join them.

The strikers issued their demands: a 10 cent an hour raise, an eight-hour day, union recognition and a union hiring hall, free uniforms and laundering and more.

Kresge department stores immediately gave their workers a raise in order to prevent similar stoppages.

The striking women at Woolworth made themselves comfortable and the sit-down soon spread to a second store.

Leaders from Local 705 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees threatened a national strike if demands were not met.

Union cooks provided meals and union musicians provided entertainment. Hotel workers from across the city picketed in front of the store to show solidarity.

After seven days, Woolworth’s management caved and agreed to most of the strikers demands.

High turnover in the workforce would undo contract gains at area Woolworth stores soon after the sit-down.

But the victory electrified retail workers across the country.

The sit-down spread to retailers in St. Louis, New York, San Francisco, Minnesota and Washington.

In Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century, Dana Frank notes that, “over 60 years later, unions today in department stores all over the country owe their existence in part to the Woolworth strike.”

February 26 - The Battle at Bethlehem

On this day in labor history, the year was 1941.

That was the day “The Battle at Bethlehem” began. 14,000 workers at Bethlehem Steel’s Lackawanna Mill in Buffalo, N.Y., walked out on strike.

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, or SWOC, had been fighting to organize Little Steel for years.

‘Little Steel’ was a general term that referred to the smaller mills like Republic, Inland, Bethlehem and Youngstown Sheet & Tube.

At Bethlehem, SWOC was still waiting on a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals about the company union Bethlehem refused to give up, in defiance of the Wagner Act.

As a defense industry, Bethlehem had $1.5 billion worth of armament orders to fill.

And yet, they wouldn’t even pay the legal minimum wage mandated for government contracts.

Retired steel worker, Mitchell Scheffer recalled in a 1991 interview, "I went to work there in the late 1930s swinging a 20-pound sledgehammer to break iron billets," says the 81-year-old. "I got 40 cents an hour, six days a week, no vacations"

The last straw was when Bethlehem fired over 1000 workers.

Bethlehem claimed these particular workers damaged coke ovens when they engaged in a work stoppage.

Workers immediately formed solid picket lines at seven gates that stretched two miles.

They successfully beat back attempts by police to scab herd.

After 38 hours, Bethlehem quickly agreed to reinstate the 1000 workers.

They soon resumed talks regarding wage increases, grievance procedures and union recognition.

But a month later, Bethlehem decided to go back on their promises.

They started organizing elections for collective bargaining representatives through their company union.

The stage was set for the next big strike at Bethlehem in March that would finally win union recognition.

February 25 - The Paterson Silk Strike Begins

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

That was the day some 24,000 workers in Paterson, New Jersey walked out of 300 silk mills and dye houses to demand the eight hour day, better working conditions and a return to the two loom system.

Mill owners attempted to introduce a reduction of the workforce by doubling the number of looms workers ran, from two to four.

Descendants of strikers recalled a 55 hour workweek and children as young as nine working in the mills.

The strike started in late January at Doherty Mills and soon spread to become a general strike.

Leaders from the Industrial Workers of the World like Big Bill Haywood, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Carlo Tresca organized rallies, strike support and food pantries for the silk workers.

The police routinely attacked picket lines and as many as 1,850 workers were arrested during the course of the strike.

Socialists like John Reed put on a play at New York City’s Madison Square Garden that reenacted the strike to raise relief funds.

35,000 turned out to hear Upton Sinclair address the strikers.

Having stockpiled surplus product, manufacturers were able to outlast workers, who by July, were practically starving.

A main cause of the strike’s failure was the introduction of labor saving technology that served to reduce the need for highly skilled workers and drive down wages.

The strike may have failed in many of its demands but silk workers were able to beat back implementation of the four-loom system for almost a decade.

They would finally win the eight-hour day in 1919.

Importantly, the strike succeeded in uniting male and female workers across national and craft lines.