Strikes in the United States in the 1930s
Strikes in the United States in the 1930s played a major role in reshaping the economy as it recovered from the Great Depression.
[1] As the economy declined workers were angry but management was losing money and could not afford to raise wages, so the strikes usually failed.
Rank-and-file workers, who initiated most stoppages by walking out or sitting down, weighed their lost wages versus the long-term benefits of union membership if they won.
However the AFL and CIO became bitter rivals in 1937, as the economy suddenly went into reverse and the conservative Republicans made major gains in the 1938 elections.
The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA), specifically Section 7(a), went further: it gave workers the right to join unions of their choice and collectively bargain with management.
By the end of July, under the leadership of left-wing firerbrand Harry Bridges, dockworkers won their main demand for a union-controlled hiring hall.
The strike was marked by violent clashes between strikers and police, with the worst violence occurring on July 20, 1934, which became known as "Bloody Friday."
At the same time there were local strikes in the North led by the United Textile Workers of America (UTW) of the American Federation of Labor.
The Southern strike was led by the newly formed National Textile Workers Union (NTWU), and focused on wages and working conditions.
The strike was settled on June 6, 1934, when the Kohler Company agreed to a 15% wage increase and improvements in working conditions.
Kohler mobilized national anti-union interests and became the scene of three more decades of bitter labor disputes that were expensive for both sides.
The workers at the largest factory, Goodyear invented a new tactic—the sitdown strike whereby the strikers seize the plant, stop production, and keep strikebreakers out.
The Flint strike of 1935-36 started as a small operation against the nation's largest corporation, General Motors (GM).
The sit-down strike quickly spread to other GM plants in Michigan and across the country, with more than 100,000 workers taking part.
He and his team believed that the steel industry's rigidly hierarchical and autocratic structure required a centralized and responsible union.
US Steel realized tha Roosevelt's reelection in 1936, plus the success of the autoworkers at General Motors, meant union recognition was inevitable.
The opposition was energetically led by Republic's Tom M. Girdler who used every level of force, money and political connections to stymie SWOC.
[18] Girdler had advantages: The time was not ripe as the economy was in a sharp recession; SWOC was under attack by the AFL as dual unionism, and by conservatives as infiltrated by Communists.
Worst of all, a peaceful rally in Chicago ended in the Memorial Day Massacre as police fired on the crowd, killing ten and ruining the confidence of the strikers.
