1928 New Bedford textile strike

After considerable controversy control of the strike passed from the Communist-led Textile Mill Committee (TMC) to sundry craft unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.

[1] The situation began to change in the years after the American Civil War, however, with the profitability of whaling falling dramatically with the discovery and widespread manufacture of kerosene for fuel and petroleum-based machine oil for use as a lubricant.

[2] This would end catastrophically in the winter of 1871, when an early return of ice on the ocean trapped and annihilated the entire Arctic fleet, including 32 ships based in New Bedford.

[3] Other lower cost mills dotted the American South, staffed by a labor force willing to accept lesser wages in the wake of a collapsed post-war economy.

[5] While the Wamsutta Mills, established in 1846, predated the turn of the local economy from whaling to textile making, between 1880 and the coming of World War I the pioneer firm had been joined by another 32 companies, valued at a massive $100 million and employing 30,000 people.

[10] This cut was met by the collective action of the New Bedford Textile Council,[10] which approved a work stoppage slated to begin on Monday, April 16, 1928 by a vote of 2,571 to 188.

[10] Most of the minority of New Bedford workers who were unionized ahead of the 1928 strike were from the highly skilled trades — loom fixers, weavers, warp twisters, and the like — who were generally native-born and English-speaking.

While other mills were involved, the locus of the 1928 New Bedford strike was the massive Wamsutta cotton mill works.
Location of Bristol County , where the port city of New Bedford is located.
Boy operatives in the mule room of the Wamsutta Mill in New Bedford, January 1912, as photographed by anti-child labor activist Lewis Hine (1874-1940).