It had been the Kohler custom to shut down the plant for a couple of days around the 4th of July holiday and sponsor a picnic for all employees, but this shutdown came without warning and was termed indefinite.
On July 27, purportedly in response to vandalism against company property, the special deputies attacked with guns and tear gas.
Two strikers named Lee Wakefield and Harry Englemann were killed, and 47 "men, women and boys were wounded, gassed, and injured".
Walter, who had been trapped in the main office building for 12 days, blamed the violence on outsiders and people with "communistic affiliations."
The Kohler victory was short-lived, however, for in 1935 the US Supreme Court declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional.
Herbert V. Kohler refused to grant union demands during contract negotiations, and a strike began on April 5, 1954.
Calls for a national boycott of Kohler products were vociferous and sometimes effective, and UAW provided $12 million to strikes over the years.
Herbert resisted all efforts to compromise, even sharply rejecting a public appeal from his nephew, Governor Walter J. Kohler Jr.
In 1960, the National Labor Relations Board decided against the Kohler Company, ruling that it had refused to bargain in good faith after the strike broke out.
[7] The third strike, which occurred in 1983 and lasted 16 days, saw car windows smashed by demonstrators and two union members injured by a motorist who drove his vehicle through a picket line.
[8][9] The strike was declared after paper-ballot voting by an estimated 1,800 union members attending a meeting at Sheboygan South High School.