In 1912, as part of efforts to improve workplace safety, the state government passed a law that lowered the maximum number of weekly working hours for women and children from 60 to 54.

Many, including Lunn, were arrested during peaceful rallies at a park near the mills, but after criticism from regional publications and state politicians, the city backed down by late October.

On December 24, the New York State Department of Labor initiated an investigation into the strike and helped to negotiate a contract that was approved by both the mills and the union.

However, over the next several months, the IWW focused a great deal of time and resources into court cases regarding several of those arrested during the strike, and ultimately, two organizers were found guilty of assault and sentenced to a year in prison.

[10] The latter had prompted the Fortnightly Club, a local charity organization,[11] to hire M. Helen Schloss to serve as a visiting nurse to treat tuberculosis and other sicknesses in the city.

[22] In 1911, New York State Assembly member Edward D. Jackson of Buffalo proposed legislation that would reduce the maximum number of weekly hours that women and minors could work in factories from 60 to 54.

[27] Ultimately, with support from New York Governor John Alden Dix, the bill was approved and signed into law, with an effective date of October 1, 1912.

[29] The Lawrence strike, led by the IWW and involving many immigrant workers,[30] such as Poles,[19] had occurred just a few months before the labor disputes in New York.

[38] This was partially due to the fact that, in the past, the mill owners had hired immigrant workers to act as strikebreakers during labor disputes, such as in one that had occurred just two years prior.

[38] On October 17, Schloss, who had been involved in organized labor and socialist causes during her career prior to Little Falls while working as a nurse in New York City's Lower East Side, resigned from her position as nurse and became a fervent supporter of the strikers, helping to organize and lead many parades and rallies and opening a soup kitchen to feed the strikers.

[41] These ordinances were often enforced inconsistently, as previous political rallies by Democratic politicians William Sulzer and Martin H. Glynn had been allowed, but were invoked to prevent socialists who attempted to speak at the park.

[43] Many activists who attempted to speak in favor of the strike were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace or blocking traffic,[42] including Mayor Lunn himself on October 15.

[15] Organizers from Schenectady continued to push for the ability to hold rallies and employed strategies such as overcrowding the local jail and clogging the court system.

[46] Mayor Lunn called for 5,000 protestors to come to Little Falls, and following this, hundreds of labor activists, Wobblies, and socialists came to the city to aid the strikers.

"Facing this pressure, on October 21, Socialist candidates in the 1912 New York state election helped organize a pro-strike rally at Clinton Park that ran without interference from law enforcement.

[49] Wobblies had been involved since the early days of the strike, with organizers Fillippo Bochino of Rochester and Fred Hirsh of Schenectady arriving in Little Falls shortly after the initial walkouts.

[51] Legere, who had spent the past few months working for the defense of Joseph James Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti in a court case related to their actions in the Lawrence strike, was the primary organizer, teaching the strikers different picketing techniques and helping to assemble the subcommittees.

[19][51][34] Cases of liquor and beer were confiscated by the police, who also destroyed musical instruments and the framed IWW charter that the union had displayed in the hall.

[58] Following the arrests, Rabinowitz helped to reorganize the strike committee with new members, while Mayor Lunn and other socialists from Schenectady operated the soup kitchen.

[61] The following day, the strikers published a handbill condemning the action as a police riot, stating, "It was the most brutal, cold blooded act ever done in these parts.

[36] On November 19, activist Helen Keller sent a letter to the strikers commending them for their determination and expressing her support for their cause and included about $87 to help with the strike fund.

[55] Almost as soon as the strike began, the New York State Department of Labor's Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration arrive in Little Falls to attempt to broker an agreement between the strikers and the mills.

[36] Meanwhile, after the strike had spread to the Gilbert Mill, representatives of that enterprise agreed to meet with strikers, but refused to have an IWW interpreter present, causing the negotiations to falter.

[36] Concerning the competition between the two unions during the strike, historian James S. Pula has said, "In the end, the IWW proved more influential, possibly because of the egregious actions of local officials that called forth a stronger response from the workers".

[19] On December 17, in a move similar to what the IWW had done in Lawrence, the strikers began to send their children to temporarily live in the homes of strike sympathizers in cities such as Amsterdam, Schenectady, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts,[69] with 18 of a planned 50 leaving that day.

[71] Strikers were harassed by law enforcement officials during an accompanying march held to the train station, garnering significant media attention and public sympathy for the strike.

[75] Concerning the strike, Pula stated in a 1995 book that the "dispute [was] characterized by physical and emotional bitterness that more than matched the inclement weather of a brutal winter".

[1] It was the largest strike led by the IWW in the state of New York and represented one of several instances during this time of cooperation on the local level between Wobblies and members of the Socialist Party, despite disputes among higher-ups in both organizations.

Its prestige in the East, which had been at a high point following the victory at Lawrence, underwent a tremendous decline, and there was no longer talk about the IWW's infallibility in strikes".

[17] The AFL and IWW would continue to compete to recruit workers for the next several years, such as in the Bayonne refinery strikes of 1915–1916, which also involved many Polish immigrants.