In 1933, the same year the National Recovery Administration was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) created a United Rubber Council (URC) to be a nationwide union for the industry.
So the AFL printed 50,000 leaflets and distributed them to the many rubber factories in Akron, Ohio, inviting workers to a recruiting meeting.
The rubber workers rejected Claherty, a boilermaker by trade, and elected instead Sherman Dalrymple, president of the B.F. Goodrich factory's local union.
[3] The URW eventually affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and solidified itself as the prominent industry-wide union for rubber workers through the remainder of the Great Depression and until World War II.
Factory management would rarely use force to drive out striking employees because of the fear of damaging expensive equipment used in the manufacturing process.
Throughout the strike, there were as many as 10,000 workers, which included people from all trades in the city of Akron, that picketed around the many gates to the Goodyear factory.
At the last possible second, the sheriff's force decided against attempting to break up the striking workers due to the number of people that they would be confronting.
The group consisted of approximately 5,200 members that were fully prepared to attack the striking workers if told to do so.
As a way of avoiding a violent confrontation, the Summit County Central Labor Council was able to convince the Law and Order League to not attack the striking workers.
During the time of the picket strike, Goodyear's management and the URW were busy negotiating terms that would allow for the workers to go back to the factories and continue production.
Goodyear's management refused to formally sign any agreements between the two sides, causing the negotiation process to potentially take longer than it should have.
These demands included layoffs by seniority, six-hour work shifts, and regular meetings between management and union representatives.